Saturday, November 19, 2011

Every little kid aspires to be a big kid... The trick is to never grow up...

     Today one of my best friends Charles Jones (CJ) and I had the honor of going to First Babtist Church, Folkston and do a skills demonstration for the kids who were playing in their Upward soccer league. It was their last day and the church staff thought it would be a good idea if we came and showed off a bit hopefully to keep the kids interested and show that they could also go far in soccer if they worked at it. This was a truly big honor for me because I was always one of those kids growing up that looked up to high schoolers and college people so much!
      I remember being little and getting so crunk on Fridays because that was the day that the Ware County Gators played and I looked up to them so much! And it's funny how when you grow up those memories of how awesome everyone was that was older than you, stay with you. You can still think back and be like, "Man, I remember watching Fred Gibson play for Ware County and the stadium used to be packed out every game!" (Even if the stadium was only half full it still felt like it was packed out.) I do remember one time while I was attending Williams Heights Elementary they brought Fred, and two other Gator Football players to our lunch room all decked out in their pads and jerseys... Pretty much every kid in the lunchroom tackled them and brought all three of them to the ground. It was quite intense, and to be honest I don't think they were ready for the whole 3rd and 4th grade, pads or no pads.
   Even to this day, Fridays hold something special to me. And I doubt that will ever change. Today, we got to  be a part of that whole "kids looking up to older people" scenario. It was great, I don't ever remember doing something like that before. As we did tricks on the field and played some 1v1 I could hear the kids on the sidelines shouting and saying, "Wow! They are so good!" and do you know what? Hearing those words from the kids meant more to me than anything a coach has ever told me. It was great, and it made me feel like maybe we really did help these kids to want to play the sport even more. I hope that they saw that these older guys are Christians and they are still playing soccer and loving it. I have always prayed that if I am not going to use soccer to honor the Lord then I do not want to play it anymore.
     After we finished up our skills demonstration a bunch of like 9ish year old girls came and asked us to take pictures with them which was pretty funny. And then this one younger girl and her mother came over to get our autographs which was really humbling because I don't know that I have ever given a serious autograph before and it was cool to think that to this little girl I am really something special.
     So for me, I am going to continue to remember this day. When I am down on myself for having a bad practice or game I won't give up. If someone that truly matters to me tells me that I can't make it anywhere, I am not going to listen. I am going to remember these kids and know that to someone, I matter and those someones are the ones I am going to play for. I am going to play for the little kid inside of me and love life and live it to the fullest and try and honor God in all that I do.


Never grow up.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

What is it with me using the bathroom and random animals being involved??

     Hey everyone, I haven't posted in a couple of days because of being busy with school. I hope to come up with some moving post over the weekend but we will see, whatever the Lord lays on my heart I will do my best to share... Tonight I figured I would just tell another story from when I was in Nigeria and coincidentally it has something to do with me trying to use the bathroom on shrubbery again.
     In my sophomore year of high school I and quite a number of my friends went to Yankari National Game Reserve. For those of you who have not been to this place, if you ever get the chance I would take it. Anyway, some of my friends and I were out walking around way too late at night for being around wild animals. We had seen a bunch of water bucks standing together and eating, or doing whatever they do at night, and we decided to be brave and walk over to them. They were not afraid of us at all, in fact one of them walked within arms reach of me which was pretty exciting and scary at the same time because these water bucks are not small and they have two very big horns. After hanging out with all the "8-points" we decided to move on and keep looking for animals... I had to pee. So I started over to the nearest tree away from everybody. When I had gotten about twenty yards away from the tree I was greeted by a large black animal. This animal jumped down out of the tree, faced me for a second, and then ran off into the darkness. My first thought was that it was a bear, but that idea was shot down quick when I remembered that we don't have bears in Africa. Then I realized that it was in fact a leopard. Needless to say I did not continue on my quest for a bathroom but I went back and convinced my friends that we should probably do the smart thing and call it a night. It was a very cool experience and thank God nothing bad happened. ... So what's another lesson we can learn from this? Well I have two... 1) If you let James Bowman drink a lot of water and follow him out into the bush there is no telling what animals you might see when he begins to take a leak. 2) Always, always, always check the shrubbery that you are about to pee on.

   
And yes, that is a water buck. Sorry I don't have a leopard picture... But google works well if you want.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

What are you afraid of?

     From the beginning of this week until 3:40 this afternoon I was so nervous I couldn't think straight. Our individual meetings with our coach were all this week. Mine was at 3:30 today. I was scared that he was going to tell me to not come back and I would have to start looking for a new place to go and play. I was scared that he was going to try and put me down or tell me that I am not good enough. I was afraid that this meeting was going to be nothing but negative and I was going to come out of there depressed wishing that I had done more during the summer to get ready for the season, or worked harder during pre-season every chance I got.
     I realize now that every day we athletes get a chance to continue to play our sport is a God given blessing. I may have made this verse reference in a previous post but it is too good to be left alone... 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat, drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." In every area of our lives we need to do our absolute best and have no fear of standing out by doing so because people will see how hard you work and what attitude you have and they will know that something is different about you. That something, is that you are doing your best for the Lord. And sure enough if you are trying to honor God doors will open for you to talk to people about your faith. It's not hard to share your faith with someone. It's a lot easier to do that than to create a human being from scratch and breathe into him the gift of life and the ability to do amazing things. If you think it's hard to share your faith with people then tomorrow morning at dawn try and do the second option and see what you come up with. We who live in America have been truly blessed because we face almost no persecution about our faith, so why not use that opportunity while it still last?
     Today I had an epiphany. After the meeting I was very confident. I realized that I am standing at a doorway to a new level of player that I have not been yet but I am so close to reaching now. And while I was sitting there thinking about all the good things that are about to happen I asked myself, "What have you been afraid of all this time? Why weren't you this player before?" and I came to the conclusion... I was afraid of myself. I was afraid of standing out and working hard and achieving things because once you've done that there is more of a chance for failure. I had stabilized at 60% when I really could have gone to 100%. I was afraid of failing...


     Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
                              -Marianne Williamson

     I stumbled across this tonight and it hit me right in the heart. And I really don't have words to describe what I mean by all of this and what I am feeling but I hope that I've done a good enough job that whoever reads this completely understands.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

I peed on a monkey once.

     Maybe this will brighten someone's day haha. It is a true story from when I was in about the 5th or 6th grade. One Sunday morning my parents and I had gone to church in the bush as we did most Sunday’s. We were at this place that was deep in a valley between mountains. We climbed up one side of the valley and were looking out over it onto the small spread out village below and enjoying what God had created. On the way back down I had to pee really bad so I went over to a bush and as soon as I began to go the bush exploded….. a monkey had been hiding in that bush and he really did not feel like maintaining his stealthy hiding place was worth the pee that I was going to let loose on him. He screamed, jumped out of the bush, and tore out further up the mountain… I screamed, jumped, and tore out the opposite way! … Needless to say, I did not have to pee anymore.
Lesson learned: Always check the bush you are about to pee into.


Saturday, November 5, 2011

Courageous...

     Tonight three of my closest friends and I went to watch the movie Courageous. It was absolutely amazing. A huge two thumbs up from my point of view. I pray that I can be courageous for my family one day. Not only for my family but in every aspect of my life. One definition of courage is the ability to do something that frightens one. Jesus did something that would frighten anyone. It frightened Him. But He still went through with it. Dying on that cross and taking all of our sins upon Himself is the ultimate act of courage that I can think of. Most of us get too scared to just say that we believe in Jesus let alone die for Him. I don't have that much to say on this topic except that as Christians we need to be courageous where ever we are, in whatever sport we are doing. Maybe your courage will come when a fellow student asks you what you believe or before you step onto the field you "Tebow." My goal is to be more courageous and for people to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is my savior and Lord.



   

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Some times God throws you a tattoo...

     God threw me a curve ball today. He threw me a tattoo. Now before people start thinking I got a tattoo let me take a step back. I have been seriously trying to find out what God has in store for my life and what I need to be doing. ... Well today I was standing outside my advisers office and a man came up the stairs next to me. I said hey to him and he went off to another room somewhere. In a couple minutes he came back and was waiting to see the same lady. I noticed that he had a tattoo that was shiny on his arm so I figured he got it recently because when you first get them you are supposed to put some type of lotion type stuff on them for like the first week or so. Anyway I asked him about it and we started talking about tattoos. I told him that I had considered getting one of a cross on my back. And he asked me if I was religious. I of course said I yes. He then said that he isn't very religious as far as going to church every Sunday but he does remember the part of scripture about treating your body as the temple of God. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) He said that when he was 18 he made decisions that he wishes he could take back. He said that he suggest that I really think about it and take into consideration that part in the Bible that he mentioned and also to not base my decision on emotions because it is something that last will last with me forever. ... While he was saying this it made me think of college right now and soccer. It made me think about how what he just said can apply to every part of my life. Especially not basing things off of emotion because I am young and I have a lot to learn and a long time to learn it in Lord willing. So I then spoke with him about college and my coach and soccer. He reminded me that I have time left in this school year and we have more practices and games to come. So what if I didn't get as much playing time as I would have liked? That is now in the past and I have time to work on becoming the player I know that I can be. If after I have worked my butt for the rest of this year and I am still not seeing my place in the team becoming bigger then I can start thinking of a new route for me to take. ... Anyway, I don't even know if my recreation of what happened made sense but my point is, I think that God wants me to fight through at least until the summer. And deep down I feel that He wants me here for another year. So we will see how things work out... Please keep me in your prayers! Thank you!


Btw, this was not a slam on people having tattoos. I think that is personal between you and God and if you feel God is okay with you having one then go for it.