LifeWorks:My story

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak at Lifeworks church. I was asked to share some of my story and that is what I am going to share in this post. I want to share it on here too because I want to share how God works with as many people as I can. I encourage you that if you ever get asked to speak somewhere that you say yes and do it, because you never know how God might want to use you. Think about your life right now, think about all the things that have fallen into place to make your life the way it is...only God can construct your life to the way it is right now. I typed out everything I said thanks to learning how to write a manuscript speech last Spring semester in speech class. It's lengthy, but its some of my story! I hope that you enjoy.

(The highlighted questions are what I was asked to answer) 

When did you first take interest in basketball.?

I first took interest in basketball when I was in either 2^nd or 3^rd grade. It was through our local parks and recreation program. I had played soccer the year before and I was all about it. I’m a humble guy, but from what I remember I was a pretty good little soccer player. I was home schooled until 5^th grade so nobody really knew who I was. I had a couple of friends that I had made from Sunday school class that I got to play sports with. The night of my first basketball game is a night that I will never forget. I remember showing up and it was just me and my dad. I was so nervous because I had never played before. I knew that my dad was super excited for me as well. I remember walking into the small gym of the elementary school and I thought there were so many people. I remember crying and begging my dad to take me home. My dad told me that if he was going to take me home, that he wasn’t going to bring me back, so I figured it was probably a good idea to stay. I was freaking out because there were so many people there. There had probably been just as many people at the soccer games I played but it didn’t seem like it because the soccer field was so much bigger than the basketball court. I don’t remember what happened during the game, I don’t know if we won or lost…or even if I scored or not. I remember that we were the yellow team and I had fun. When my dad and I left the gym that night, I remember telling my dad that I had a new favorite sport.

When did you start to think about playing in college?

One of the days my work ethic forever changed was in 6^th grade at a basketball practice on a Sunday night. 6^th grade was probably the year when I realized that I was good at basketball. Our team was pretty dang good. There were 3 dads that coached us, and my dad was one of them. One of the dads usually made us run some laps around the court at the end of practice and on this particular night everything changed. I had a friend named Levi and he was the stereotypical 12-13-year-old who had seemed to already hit puberty. He was the fastest kid that I knew, and he knew that. He was so cocky about it and I remember running laps and he said something to me as we were running, and it triggered something inside of me that made me run faster than I had ever ran before. That night I learned how to truly push myself and everything changed. I know understood what it meant to outwork someone, and I was going to outwork everyone every single day. I had grown up watching basketball, our high school team was very good and while I was growing up the made it to the state tournament 3 out of 4 years. Basketball meant a lot to my town and it was beginning to mean a lot to me. I remember being in 7^th grade when I decided to make playing college basketball a goal of mine. I had dreamed about it couple of years before that. I remember when I started playing AAU basketball, and my 8^th grade AAU coach told me that I was going to be a college basketball player if I kept working hard. When I was a freshman in high school I began playing for All Ohio. Which was one of the best teams in the state. Everyone on that team ended up playing in college. I started receiving some letters from colleges when I was a freshman, so I knew that if I kept working hard that my dreams could become a reality. Going into my Junior year I picked up my first full-ride scholarship offer, and I knew that I would be able to achieve one of my biggest dreams. I was offered by Bethel during my junior year of high school, and I committed on August 9^th, 2014, which was my birthday. I was pretty excited.

When did you take ownership of your trust in Christ?

From the day I accepted Christ when I was super young till last summer, my life as a Christian was a roller coaster. You might hear me say that a lot because that is what I believe life is like. My story doesn’t really have any crazy parts or crazy things that happened to me. I’ve told people that I’ve thought my story was boring because it was missing something, but whenever I tell somebody that, they tell me that they would change stories with me in a heart-beat. I always went to Sunday school, always went to church, and always went to youth group on Wednesday nights. My relationship with Christ was all over the place. It seemed like over and over again there would be periods of my life where I would read my bible a lot, or pray a lot and then I would get away from it. Over and over again, that was my life and that was my relationship with Jesus Christ. There were times where I was proud of it and times when I was not. A highlight for me and my trust in Christ was when I got baptized going into my freshman year of high school on my mom’s birthday. Another important event that sticks out to me was when I was a junior in high school and the leader of the FCA asked if I wanted to be on the leadership team. When he asked me, it felt like there was something that I was doing right. I was also excited because this was going to be an opportunity for me to grow and I really needed that in my life. My high school years were so chill, I remember hanging out with the right crowd (most of the time), making the right decisions (most of the time) and living what I thought to be a pretty righteous lifestyle (most of the time). I was what some might call…innocent. It might have looked like I had it all together but my relationship with Christ was still a roller coaster. There were things that I was proud of and some things that I weren’t. Once I got to college, I was still kind of innocent and then started swearing and sometimes not doing things that I should. The first two years of college were a lot of the same…a roller coaster. As I was becoming more mature and I think my relationship with Christ at a low point. I don’t know if I read my bible more than 20 times my freshmen year. My relationship with Christ just wasn’t the number one thing in my life. Last year, I remember there was probably a 2-month time span where I didn’t make it to church on Sunday’s. I wasn’t living my life for Christ, I was just living my life. My life changed last Spring and this past summer. I got into a 5-month relationship that was entirely long distance. I fully believe that God put me into that relationship so that I could my relationship to Him could become greater than it has ever been. Because of that relationship I began reading my bible every day and found how Christ wanted to use me. I began journaling along with my Bible reading. I would choose two books of the bible to read and I would read two chapters a day. I would write a section in my journal for my thoughts, application, favorite verses, a question that I had, and a prayer. This is when my relationship with Christ took off. I was learning so much about reading and getting into the word and I was on fire for the Lord! I remember that I had a longing to share what I would learn with other people. I began to pray about ways that I could do that God answered them. As I was journaling one day, the Spirit reminded me of a church service I was at probably 6 years ago. I remember a man sharing how he would get up every morning, read his Bible than scroll through his contacts in his phone and whatever names stuck out to me, he took that as God telling him that those people needed some encouragement. So, that is what I did. I began sending out encouragement texts every day. I made it a goal that I would only send out 5, but so many names would stick out to me and I was sending texts out like crazy. The feedback was awesome too. I didn’t do this for myself. I wanted to encourage people with what I had learned and what I thought that the Spirit was teaching me. I honestly didn’t care if anyone replied, I was going to be happy if just one person was encouraged. After a month or two of sending out texts, I had a longing to do even more. I had a friend who I talked to about this a lot, and my friend recommended that I start a blog. At first, I was like, there is no way I am doing a blog. Then the idea started to really settle it, and I felt like it was the best next step. I started it, and it was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I have blogged 151 out of the past 159 days. I have learned so much that I really cannot put it into words. One of the ways I have grown the most is feeling God’s presence. I believe that when you become disciplined is your relationship with Christ and become ridiculously faithful that you feel his presence all the time. I have also found and experienced true fulfillment. Regardless of what I do every day, nothing fills me more than when I spend time with the Father. Nothing even comes close. The discipline that God has instilled in me has allowed me to trust in him with all my heart throughout whatever situation I am in. I think I have become disciplined because of injuries that I have been through in my life. I am always learning and there are always things to be learned. Getting in the word has changed my life and almost leaves me speechless. I also took ownership of my trust in Christ this summer. I had the opportunity to go to China for 2 weeks, after spending one week in LA. Going on the trip in the first place required a lot of trust in God. I was flying across the country and then to the other side of the world with a group of people that I had never met in my life. I knew one person who was on the team and that was only because I have played against him a couple times while at Bethel. I remember when my parents dropped me off at the Detroit airport. When we said good-bye to each other, I started crying and don’t remember a time in recent memory where I cried that hard in front of my parents. It was so hard to say good bye to them. That trip changed my life. I will save the stories for that trip for another time. I say it changed my life because my eyes were opened to how life was like on the other side of the world. My life also changed because we got to love on each other and love on the people of China like no other. We couldn’t say words like Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Lord, etc. So, we witnessed by being a light to the people.

What scriptures are important to you and why?

When it comes to picking out specific scriptures in my life, it’s honestly a little hard, I say that because there has been so much scripture that I have been over the past couple of months that there are new passages and verses that always stick out to me. The story of Abraham sticks out to me. It was one of the first stories that I really got into and encouraged people with. I love that story because of Abraham’s obedience. He was going to kill his only son because that is what God wanted him to do. As he was about to kill him and was told that he didn’t have to, and that God was testing him. Abraham was considered a friend of God because of his obedience and I don’t know about you, but I want to be a friend of God because of my obedience. Another one of my favorite verses is Colossians 2:9-10. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. I love that because when we are in Christ, all of the fullness of the Spirit lives within us. I came across a quote that said, “A Few so people dedicated in time will shake the world for Christ.” Recently my favorite book of the bible has been Ecclesiastes. I just started reading it through for the third time. In 2 weeks. I love it because I have learned so much about how things under the sun are meaningless. I have enjoyed learning how the lifestyle we need to live is vertical and too many of us live a horizontal life style. A vertical lifestyle is a when you have a living relationship with Christ and it’s about the sun, and a horizontal lifestyle is when you worry about things of this earth. I have loved this book because it has been so cool learning about the life of King Solomon. Literally, he had everything you could ever want, the dude basically constructed his own perfect world…he planted vineyards, built building, and had herds of animals. He had everything but still felt that he was missing something. One of my favorite verses is Ecclesiastes 3:11which says, “He has made everything beautiful in his time. He has also set eternity in our hearts; yet, no one can fathom what he has done from beginning to end.” I love that verse because it’s the perfect explanation for what we all feel. I guarantee that anything that you have ever done on this earth that hasn’t been related to your relationship with Christ, that you may have been proud of still didn’t seem like it was enough. That is because what is eternal will last forever. We’ll always know/feel that there is more out there for you.

What is God teaching you?

I think there are many things that God is teaching me right now. I think one of the main things is to love everyone and to pray for those who I might not be a fan of, or those who are just mean to me. One of the things I have stressed a lot in my blogs is how important it is to love everyone. I say that because loving one another is the greatest commandment, and like I mentioned above, I want to be a friend of God, so I am going to try to be as obedient as I can be. I also want to please God and I know that if I am loving on other people just like He loved us that He is going to be pleased. There are been many times this year where I have felt isolated and like I was all alone on an island. It’s weird to think that in a time where my relationship with Christ has been stronger than it’s ever been. I won’t get into much detail but when I feel isolated, it’s tough for me because I feel like I am in such a different place spiritually then all of my friends and teammates. I don’t feel like I am better than them, I just try to not participate in things they do or conversations that they have because I know those conversations and actions aren’t glorifying to God. I feel isolated at times to because I get made fun of a lot. That’s just always been how it’s been for me and it’s tough because I am a super sensitive guy. What I am being taught right now is that no matter how isolated I feel, how much I get made fun of, how much I struggle with certain people in my life, that I need to pray for them as much as I can. I’ve been reminded of that by special people in my life and when I started praying for them, I immediately felt so much better about things.

In what ways do you think he wants to use you?

So how does God want to use me right now? What comes to mind is encouragement. I believe that God wants me to continue to encourage people in whatever ways I feel led to, whether it’s going out of my way to have conversations with people are doing random acts of kindness. I believe that God has placed a love for people in my heart that is one of my gifts, so I am going to use that gift to glorify Him to the best of my abilities. I think God is in the process of something big. I feel like there is something out there and some way that He is going to use me for that I am interested to find out.

I hope you took something away from what I had to say and were encouraged. If you can take one thing away from what I had to say, I want you to know that once you become disciplined in your relationship with Christ that you will feel God’s presence more than you ever have.