What to do if People are Crushing You

Used by Permission of www.GoodJobNotes.com

There are mornings when I wake up, and the weight of my life is crushing me.  I am not sure if the definitions I have of myself are valid, my own, or within the will of God.  I fear that the troubles that I have are a direct result of my sinful actions, which I repent and work mightily at correcting, but find myself time and time again in debt to the same feelings.

For example, I am petty.  There are several people who attack the very core of what we do in our mission field, which is teach people to improve their lives via the conduit of Martial Arts.  When I hear of the attack, which is almost always through a third party, it is viscous and petty.  My first response is almost always, "To Heck with them."  Some time later, sometimes seconds sometimes days later, I find myself asking God's forgiveness, and ask that he heal and protect them.  But my first response is to respond with anger, and hate, and fix it with my own power.  Later I realize that I am but a creature, and one in rebellion at that, when I act out my own salvation.  

Today is one of those days.  Fear grips my heart.  I am sure that the circumstances of my life are beyond my ability to cope with.  There is no solution.  Then something happens to open my eyes to the marvelous creation that God has made us part of.  This morning we are listening to a sports talk show in the car, hoping to hear some good news about the Red Sox, which just is not going to happen this year, and are frustrated with hearing only Patriots news.  The won.  When don't they win, except for when playing the Giants that is.  Then an interview happens with a former NFL quarterback who is a Jets fan now.  He thinks that Tim Tebow, the 2nd or 3rd string quarter back for the New York Jets, needs to be fired.  Why?  Because he thinks he is not a good NFL quarterback.  That is, however, not what Tim Tebow is known for.  He is known for his Love of Christ Jesus, and that is just where this interview went.  The local radio host asked this former quarterback, who is not an announcer, if he had interviewed Tim since he said Tim should be fired.  This announcer stopped dead in his speech, and then said, "I will say this about Tim, he is genuine," meaning he actually believes in Jesus, and lives his life accordingly.  He went on to say, without being asked, the Tim had asked for God's Blessing on that same announcer for each every time he had said something bad about him.  Not curse, not anger, just asking God to bless him.

Wow.  I needed to hear that this morning. A real life leader to show me the way. Thank You God.  You are awesome indeed.

Jr Seau, TBI and God

Photo From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Seau

Today, Jr. Seau died.  I know his name, because it is all over sport radio in Boston .. he was one of the best for the NE Patriots it would seem.  I really don't follow football.  I really don't follow much in professional sports, except for MLB, and even that only since 2003.  I played sports my whole life.  Watching them never really was enough.  Plus, I broke my back playing football in High School, so it does not recommend itself to me very well.

All that aside, his death nearly took me with him.  From the moment I heard of it, until I started helping people on the karate floor, all I could think of was:

1) He found a way out,
2) NO ONE understands TBI
3) Even people of Faith are clueless

Let me explain.  I have TBI, and I am still married.  That in itself is odd, as I was told that I most likely would not be after the first year.  Everyone I know tells me I will not be in the next year.  Yet I am.  That is God and my wife working on the same team.  I found out that his family were all sad.  That he had just told them that he loved them.  That they will miss him.  I heard this on the radio.  Errr..   If that were the case, why were you no longer married?  I know, he was messed up.  All people with brain injuries are messed up.  Yet, God and Love over come.  I know the hell I put my wife through.  So does she.  Yet we are married.  All glory to the God of creation. He gives my wife strength!

Then, the announcers on the radio were in shock. Why?  People with TBI think about the hopelessness of the situation all the time.  If it were not for God in my life, explaining to me the requirements of action that Love entail, I too would have taken this door to peace long ago. I have tried.  I almost did again when I heard this story. It is way past hard.

All the things you used to do, you can not even remember. Everyone else does.  But You don't.  Since you constantly doubt yourself, you constantly help others overcome that very thing.  That is what TBI people do.  Help others.  If they don't, the strike out at the world, and end up in jail.  Look at all the past professional sports players who have brain injury.  The path is littered with failure after sport.  TBI destroys lives.  God restores them.

Then there was as famous player who called the station.  His idea was that all the brain injury data in the last 10 years was the result of bad nutrition.  How else, he asked, can you explain the increase.  He discounted the commonly held idea that we know what TBI is, and 10 years ago we did not.

What?  He was a main of faith, and instead of bringing the only hope a brain injured person can have, and I mean ONLY hope, God, he brought up some nut case idea.  My dad had TBI from WWII.  They called it shell shock, and told him to get over it.  He never did.  Sound familiar?  It has always been there. It will always be there.

So, I was once again reminded of the absolute ignorance of what a brain injury does to a person; how it wrecks lives and saps the future, and destroys the families. The people out there are clueless.  They just see a rich sports guy whose life went bad. They may or may not be sad. depending on the persons performance in the sport and perhaps his behavior afterwards.  Yet, he is still dead, or in jail. I see a tortured man who did not have support from his family or God, and took the ONLY other way out.  It made me cry.  It made we wonder if he was right to take that way out, and if I should too.  It made me wonder if I could reach out to others before it was too late, and bring them the coolest hope there is.  It made me remember how much my wife and daughter mean to me.  It reminded me of how much of a failure I am in every way I used to measure.  It made me cry.

Jr.  I don't know who you are, and I don't even like football, but you have given me tears, fear, and hope.  May God's kingdom grow because of your pain, and may you find peace with your maker.

John 3:16 (ESV) - “For God so loved the world,^[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

If you would like to know more about the Peace of God, the Gift of Eternal Life and the only way out of the pain in TBI, leave a message, and I will get back to you.