Greetings,
As a fan of sneakers, you have decisions to make - which pair do you buy. Some collectors make this decision weekly, while others are much less frequently facing this decision. Not every sneakerhead drops hundreds of dollars on sneakers every week. We have to ball on a budget. One of the more difficult decisions to make is when you have two pairs you want dropping back to back weekends. What do you do? Do you want a pair that you won't wait for? Do you like one more than the other? Are either worth it? What if a restock happens? Will you be mad if you get a pair this week but can't get a better pair in the future? Just a few questions to ask.
This is a great analogy to how Christians live. I'm going to be real in this, is that okay? The last year and a half have been tough. My biggest goal and my dream since I was six years old was to play college basketball. That's what I worked towards all year. I spent summers going to camps, playing in tournaments with my high school, spending thousands of hours at the Y, and even traveling to LA and Vegas and Seattle to try to get better. My summers were almost always filled with basketball. That's all I worked for. My sophomore year I started to have some knee pain, but it was never a big deal. It progressively got worse, but I kept playing. I was diagnosed with tendonitis, nothing to worry about. For over two years, I took four Advil before every time I played (which was a lot) and didn't think about it. I played football my senior year and was stoked for basketball season by the time it rolled around. Try-outs start, we're going through lay-up lines and I feel something like a tear in my knee. After practice, I couldn't even drive home. I had to call my parents. Immediately I freaked. How could this happen during my senior year? I end up sitting out for the first month of the season, changed pain killers and started playing in December. As the season progressed, I only played in games, and could no longer handle practicing. I decided before our State tournament that I could no longer handle playing further than high school because of the pain, so I knew that these could be the last games I play. We went into the season as the defending State champions, and got bounced out in the first two rounds. I ended up having knee surgery a year ago, finally after a doctor figured out what was wrong.
One of the hardest things for me is not playing. I played basketball since I was five years old. It was always a part of my life. So having that removed from my life has been one of the hardest things I've gone through. But this is the craziest thing. I know that what is around the corner is better than I can imagine. You see, God has a plan greater than what I could think of. God has a plan for you greater than you can think of. And while I could force it and find a way to get on a court, what God has in the future is better than me prying open a door and sticking my foot in it. There are so many verses that talk about this - Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 13:7 could even be added into that.
Let this be encouragement to you. What you are going through will get better. What you are stressing about, trying to force to work, or what you are bummed about because it's no longer in your life will get better. There is light at the end of the tunnel. What I can tell you is this: being away from basketball is tough. I would kill to be on a team again, running lines, and playing games. But I wouldn't trade the route I'm on for the world. I've met some unbelievable people. Opportunities have come up that I never would have imagined. And God is working in Boise. Let God's plan be your plan. Proverbs 19:21 talks about this. Many are our plans, but it is His plan that prevails. Let His plan prevail in your life. It's better than you could ever imagine. I know that's true for my life.
Thanks for sticking through a post that might ramble and not mean anything to you. And thanks for letting me be real, be raw. It's not easy to trust that God's plan is better than mine. But man, it's worth it. If you need someone to talk to about what you're struggling with, or want to talk about anything else, let me know. I'm here for you, for real. Appreciate you reading this. Future releases will always be better than the immediate satisfaction of an okay release.
Mahal,
Nathan
Twitter: @Nathan_A_Jones
Instagram: Nathan_A_Jones
sneakersandasavior@gmail.com
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