Handling adversity

I'm sure you've been there. Had someone make you believe "I can't" Had someone try to define you by actions, and not the truth. I'm a firm believer in "You can do anything you put your mind to"

I have always had a problem with people telling me things like "You're too small" or "There's NO CHANCE you can do this". Ever since my school life started, this has been something to get me absolutely fired up. It pissed me off. It made me want to do the only thing I thought, sorry, I KNEW I could: prove them wrong.

As a kid starting off in sports. I played baseball as a little kid. Kids told me I was even too small for such a simple game. I got mad, and every single game I played, I would remember that, and that soon fueled my way into becoming the best. I wanted to be the A-Rod, I wanted to be the Derek Jeter. Nothing was going to stop me. Soon after that, it just became the love of baseball. Something I still wish I never lost. Anyway, the point is, when you make it your mission to be what YOU want to be, you will accomplish great things.

I can think of a good friend of mine who may or may not have had this problem, but she has definitely made it her mission to be the best she can be. She is currently a junior at Cave Spring, and she has taught me a lot. She wants nothing more than to be the best goalkeeper, and whatever she does in Volleyball, player she can be. Her determination has been such a great thing to see, and truthfully, I don't think it really affected me til now.

She strives to be at her best, at all times. She has put long, hard hours of complete work towards both volleyball and soccer. She's on a U17 league for Volleyball, and I know it's because she has worked her ass off to get there. She's playing up because she is THAT good. She worked to become that good, and she's, as the Frosted Flakes tiger says, "Earned her stripes". She also went and made it her mission to be on Varsity soccer last season. Well, unless I was trippin' on something REALLY heavy, she did that too. She gave it her all, and she has persevered through the strenuous things, and she earned that Varsity time. Yeah, she didn't get what she expected but that just shows us sometimes things seem to be better than they actually are, I guess.

Another friend that you would have had to be CRAZY to say he couldn't, but still can be used here because it shows what hard work can do, is a man who is now a senior at Cave Spring. He has been working as hard as he can for the longest time now to be the best running back he can be. Well, he put so much time in going to weightliftings, and working in his own time to get there, and he wanted to prove that dreams come true when you have a goal, and you work for it.

He's been the starting Tailback at Cave for 3 years now, and  he has been running well the whole time. Credit goes to the offensive lines too, since without them he goes nowhere, but the thing is, this year, he's running at about 200 yards a game, and this past Friday night, he broke a few records. One of these records just happens to have formally been held by Tiki Barber. The rushing yards record at Cave Spring High now belongs to this man. He also now holds the touchdown record. He has worked his tail off in order to erase whatever crazy thought of doubt someone might have had in him. Some can say he's not that good, but let's face it, Tiki Barber was good, and this man broke his record, soo I think he's a little good (I think this is a major understatement). If someone told him he couldn't, he took away the thought of it.

Come to think of it, people did say we would not be good. The past 3 years, Cave Spring was never thought to have a good season. My freshman year was the first year of this, which is also his year has starting tailback. Team went 10-3 overall. Regional Championship. He, along with many others, grew tired of people bashing on them, and wanted to make a statement. They showed up, and shut people up. The next year, everyone thought they were done again, 8-4. Region Runner-Up. Again, they showed up, and said "We are not taking your negative shit, and we're going to be the team we KNOW we are!" This year, they're oging on a 5-2 record, and they are working their tails off. This man, along with the many people who have made it possible to achieve this status have made Cave Spring football a name in the state of Virginia.

The moral of this post is when people get in your face, when someone looks down on you saying you can't, or something related to that. You have but three choices.

1) Let is consume you, and believe what people say.
2) Let it piss you off, and bitch, cry and moan about people saying it, but do nothing.
3) Let it piss you off, let it put a chip on your shoulder, and make it your mission to prove the bastards who said you can't wrong.

I don't know, but I'm thinking most of you would pick choice 3.

Basically, don't let the world tell you who you are, the world is wrong 99.999999999% of the time anyway.

Love you guys,

TJ


"I may stumble & I may fall BUT I won't give up til I get it right because I'm NOT a quitter! I get up, dust myself off and TRY again!" - I don't know I got it off of Status shuffle

Young Life thoughts/100th post

One thing we constantly talk about in Young Life breaking down the walls of guys and girls so they can see Jesus. The only problem I've seen is that it seems to be kind of separated. In a sense that girls seem to only chase girls, and guys seem to only chase guys. I don't know, while yes it probably is a little easier, why it only happens that way.

I remember when we were planning club this year, Goody talked about the first Young Life clubs. They had the group of people who started to reach out to the kids i n the school. Eventually, they got to the point to where they wanted the Varsity Quarterback to go to club, because they knew that if he went, more people would go to hear about Jesus. There was a girl who made it HER mission to get HIM to go to club. They had club, and the QB for sure walked into the club with the girl at the end, after the partying, after the songs, and the games, and the skits, and they just heard the talk. Well, the QB ended up bring the ENTIRE football team to the next club. Mission success, right?

Thing is, I've always been told that as a guy involved with Young Life, we chase after the guys. Be them in middle or high school. My only question: Why does it seem like it's an unwritten rule nowadays that guys chase guys and girls chase girls? It could just be me, but I do believe that if we make it our mission as brothers and sisters in Christ to chase after the lost kids in school, work, or whatever we do, regardless of gender, then more people would really feel welcome.

Think of it this way: Does Jesus really care if, for example: a guy goes and loves on a girl trying to show her the love of Christ? Or if a girl goes to love on a guy to show him Christ? When I look through it, Jesus said "Go and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" He doesn't say make sure they're men if you're a man, and vice versa for women. He wants all people. If one girl doesn't generally hang out with girls, or a guy typically doesn't hang out with guys, who is going to show them Jesus? Maybe that's a case where intergender outreach is needed.


I'm not sure it could just be a feeling I'm getting, but I know that girl reaching out to the QB changed his life. He accepted Jesus because SHE made it her mission to get him there. He died in a car wreck 2 weeks later. If someone hadn't said they'd reach out, he'd of died without Christ. That's what made it so impactful.

If you agree or not, well that's your business. This is just something I felt needed to be said.

Yeah, there's nothing real special I can do, but it's my 100th post, soo......yeah? Idk, Jesus doesn't keep track of how many posts I have

Hanging by a moment

I'm falling even more in love with You
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
Just hanging by a moment here with You

I'm living for the only thing I know
Running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with You

There are a few reasons that this song has been resting so heavily on my heart. The first reason is, my brother showed me this song for the first time. My non-believing brother, showed me a Christian based song. It's the best thing and Praise God for it

The second reason is that most of my recent life has been described in just these two Stanzas of the song..

Letting go of all I've held onto:
There are a lot of things that I have been holding onto in my recent past that I can say I no longer have to deal with. The first thing involves someone else. The second, something I used to love.

The first thing I've let go of is someone who I still hold near and dear to my heart. I used to like this person, like a lot. She helped me start to realize that I don't need club, or a Bible study in order to get into the Word. She helped me come to my senses when it came to having a personal relationship with Christ. The things she was learning sometimes went along with the things I was learning, and I was sure glad that she and I were going through Sophomore year together. The biggest thing about this was something I should have known or at least thought about before I started letting myself get sucked too far in, and I can honestly say, I failed at that. She had her head on straight, and she was thinking about the things that mattered in life, and kept concentrating on that while people like me were just distractions coming her way. That's one thing she's really got going for her, she has some intense focus. She actually helped me in letting me know that she's not thinking about that stuff, because I've been learning recently about having a real "tunnel vision" towards Jesus. Weird how He uses things like that. Long story short, God definitely used her to grow me a little bit. I'm happy for that, but I'm also happy my heart's finally letting itself be set free from that one thing. It wasn't helping me to try and be that connected to her. Yeah, I still think she's probably one of the most awesome girls I've ever met, but she's got a very bright future ahead of her and she's focusing for it.

The second thing that I have let go of is something that I used to have the most passion for, and I must say it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but what had to be done, had to be done. I must say though, it's only been like 2 days, and I can tell that I have made the right decision. The second thing I've let go of is football. Whether this is just because of PH, or because I know that I too have to focus on my future, and what's going to get me places. I chose to give this up because I wasn't having fun, I wasn't getting any better, and truthfully, I just wanted time to get ready for college. I have to raise my grades. I have to do many things that will boost my GPA, and I have to get ready for my SAT's and all that junk. I can't have football getting in the way of the things I have to do, because I just don't have the time to do all the things I'm assigned usually. I also have bad memory because my pent up anger that comes from football covers everything I had to do. I'm very easily lost in thoughts. When I made this decision, Goody just happened to show up. This definitely wasn't an accident. I sure as heck didn't see the man walk in. He came out and I told him about my decision, and he prayed with me. This is the best thing that could have happened in this situation, because right then, I realized that a great burden had been lifted from me. I was also much happier in school today.

Standing here until you make me move:
With that decision to give up football, I wanted to make sure it was something that would help me grow closer to Jesus, and from what I can see so far, it has been. I stood and went through it, until Jesus told me that it was the right thing to do. I've also been waiting for Jesus to put kids in the school on my heart before I just start blindly reaching out to people. So far, more people have grown to be my friend through that, rather than what I did last year, with trying to get any and everyone into the groove of whatever I was talking about. It works, just let Jesus take the wheel.

Living for the only thing I know:
I think this is just a simple explanation of High School since April of my freshman year. April 5th of my freshman year. The day that changed my whole life. Ever since then, I've been living for the only thing that is unchanging. Everyone has changed since then, and only one person has managed to completely stay the same. Jesus Christ.

Running and not quite sure where to go:
What this is saying about my life is that I've basically started just running somewhere. Where that place is has not yet been determined, but this goes with me, because God's trying to teach me something with being at PH, and I'm not sure exactly what it is yet. I've just gotta keep trusting that whatever He's teaching me will be useful next year be me at Cave Spring, Hidden Valley, PH, or wherever I'm taken. It's about freaking time I've had this kind of  "adventure" in my walk with Jesus.I feel as if there hasn't been much of this, but God's answering a prayer by giving me this challenge. Trusting that His plan is good, while He slowly reveals the things He's trying to teach me by taking me away from the things I was comfortable with and taking me into a place where comfort is a foreign concept.

I don't know what I've diving into:
Like the last line says, I have no clue where Jesus is taking me right now, but I can definitely see that it is part of His master plan for my life. I have no idea what I've diving into, but I know why, and for what reason I am, so I just need to go to work on it, and take that proverbial "Leap of Faith" It's been a good long while before I've had to take one of those. Oh, how I love those :)

Hanging by a moment here with You:
When you think about it. In the eternity that is God, we are but a moment on His timeline. He's timeless, so the 50-60-70 or more years we live on this earth may seem like forever to us, but to God, close to no time has gone by when we finally get to see His face. We've gotta hang onto Him for this small moment we have on this earth to find where He is. Once we've found Him, we need to cling to Him as if.... No, because our lives depend on it. That's all there is to it

We are but a moment to God, so why not just praise Him every single day for the things He's doing in our lives, and the lives of the boys and girls we reach out to every day.

Like it says in The Show Goes On by Lupe Fiasco,


"Never, ever put 'em down,
You just lift your arms higher.
 Raise 'em til your arms tire,
 Let 'em know your there
 That you strugglin, survivin'
That you gon' persevere,"

I love you guys.
TJ