It's very ironic that I spoke about my coach in my blog and I run into one of them while I was at work yesterday. We looked at each other and laughed and talked about the good ol days when all he made us do was run. I told him that I still have my same work ethics that I had in high school because of the discipline he instilled in me. After we finished talking I just started reminiscing about how hard I worked in high school to get on the basketball team. It was amazing. Then I started thinking about how much I changed when all of this happened. I went from a teenager that tried to defy everything that most adults told me to a determined young man who's ambitions were through the roof. But none of this happened over night.
When I was in middle school, I became very defiant. I wanted to do everything my way. I didn't want to listen to my great grandmother nor did I want to listen to my uncle. Well, me and my great grandmother got into an argument just about everyday. She wanted me to do things and I didn't want to do them. She didn't want me to play basketball and this was the ultimate. I went crazy. I didn't do my work. I made all F's on my report card. And I did all this to get back at her and all of the people who were trying to keep me in line. This would really make her angry. She would sit down in her favorite chair and just cry sometimes. As much as I wanted to make her angry, I couldn't stand to see her cry. One day she sat me down and told me that she was through with me. She said that she had washed her hands and now it was in the hands on the man. She was a very spiritual lady. She made sure that me and my uncle went to church EVERY sunday. She would tell us that the only way that she would let us stay home was if we were crying blood. One morning I tried to cry blood by using ketchup as tears. It didn't work. When she told me she washed her hands, I didn't pay any attention to it, but it was something different about her demeanor. It was almost as if a weight had been lifted from her and she was now free. She never fussed at me again nor did she argue with me about anything I wanted to do.
Little did I know that my life was about to change. When she had done all that she could, she told God, "it's now your turn." I was entering high school and I wanted to play ball bad. SHe had denied me in middle school, but this time she was ok with it. I didn't know what I was about to get myself into but I know that I wanted to play. My defiance had become a stepping stone instead of an obstacle. It made me push harder in practice and I was not about to quit because i was too stubborn for that. I never wanted anyone to get the best of me. Well, it paid off. I made the team and ended up being a damn good player. But basketball wasn't what made me a better person it was the training for it that did.
When my great grandmother had done all that she could, she then let God do the rest. This is how we have to be in our lives. Once we give all that we can give and a change has not happened; it's then time to put it in God's hands. I think that we don't realize that we have to put in sometimes in order for God to put up and put out. He wants to see how much we will put in and also if we will come to him for help. I am not a preacher nor do I declare myself a scholar in the spiritual area but I do believe this is how it is. I can only speak from experience. I turned out to be a pretty good guy, but only because my great grandmother did her part and then she let God do his part. They call him the father, so I guess my great grandmother told him to do his fatherly duties and I must admit, he did his part...now will you do yours?
"A whole is nothing without pieces"-K.J Swint
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