YOUnique
June 3, 2018
Psalm 139:1-6; 13-18
A couple of months ago, we began discussing the idea of Youth Sunday and everyone seemed to be excited about it. Daniel started talking about the various parts of our worship service and people quickly chose what part they would do. I guess me doing the preaching was just a logical thing, and I was first excited to do it. Then as today started getting closer and closer I found myself getting more and more nervous. And even though I’ve been on stages before, and even though I’ve stood in front of more people before, I’ve never done anything like this. The more I thought about doing this, the more I started to think about my Papaw and my Dad, the two biggest role models in my life, being ministers. When I started thinking about that my nerves started going out of control. Then my Dad helped me remember our topic for today – God Made Us Wonderfully Unique, and I realized I don’t have to be my Papaw and I don’t have to be my Dad – I just have to be me.
So, when I sat down to write this, the first things that came to mind considering what traits make me unique included trustworthiness and integrity. While those are good traits, I can assure you that they do not make me unique. My family and I have been at First Baptist Church Jamestown for just over a year and a half and while I feel like I have gotten to know many of you and you have gotten to know me, there is probably a lot that you don’t know about me. Sure, most of you know that I play tennis and that I sing in the Madrigals at Grimsley, but I thought I would share some experiences that might help you get to know me a little better. Experiences that are unique to me. Because after thinking about it, I’ve determined our uniqueness is less about what traits we have, but more about what experiences we have.
I have had the privilege of being raised in a church my whole life. I went to pre-school at a church and started singing in the children’s choir at age 4 and it has always been a place I call home. The experiences I have had through church have made me unique. About 20 minutes from here is First Baptist Church of Greensboro which is the church I was raised in. It is the church I was baptized in at age 13. Some of my closest friends are still there. During my time in youth group and youth choir at FBC Greensboro, I had so many experiences that are unique to me including one I would like to share with you.
In the summer before my freshman year of high school, our youth choir went on a trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and later, Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Now my one regret from that trip is that we traveled all the way to Philadelphia and I didn’t get the opportunity to try a real philly cheesesteak. However, the experiences I had that week were unforgettable. We started out our week in Harrisburg where, from Monday to Thursday, we went to what I would call a day care center, and taught kids from the ages of five to seven about God. We gave them a week of what felt like Vacation Bible School to me, but to them it seemed to look like the most fun they had had in years. My role that week was to be a group leader for six kids; one of which I became very close with. This kid’s name was Jabril, and at first, he was a very shy guy who participated, but only when asked. After a couple days of encouragement from my fellow youth leaders and me, Jabril became a new person. By the end of the week he was laughing and playing with all the other kids and as his leader, it was inspiring to watch. The best part of that week though, came at the end of our third day. As our youth group members were saying our good-byes to the kids and walking out I saw Jabril sitting in the corner crying. I went over to ask him what was wrong, and his response brought me to tears. He said to me “I don’t want you to leave.” The reason I was brought to tears was simply that after three days of being with this kid, I would have never pictured myself becoming so close with a six-year-old, but I loved it and I loved him.
Our experiences that week inspired me and Jabril taught me lessons that I will never forget for the rest of my life. We spent the rest of our week in Philadelphia and sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game and believe me, as a HUGE sports fan, it is hard to top an experience like that. But my experience with Jabril was the highlight of that week.
Another big part of my life that has given me many unforgettable experiences is at FBC Greensboro as well and that is through the Upward basketball ministry. I first got involved in this ministry in third grade when I was a player, but one year of playing was enough for me. I then returned to the Upward ministry my eighth-grade year when I was asked by Ken Free, my dad’s law partner, to be the assistant coach of his Upward basketball team. I will admit that I was hesitant at first, but after ultimately taking the position, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I returned the following year to assist in coaching another team with a different head coach, but my greatest experiences came the next two years, when I decided to become a head coach and take seven kids, between the ages of eight and nine, and try to teach them about the game of basketball and God along with my good friend William Pettit. I have so many great stories to share from these past two years of coaching including having one kid not being a starter one year and the next year leading our team in scoring or having three first graders on a team in a second and third grade league, but one experience tops them all. As I said before, I was presented with the challenge to coach three first graders this past season because they had chosen to play with the older guys and one of those kids was named Elijah Harris. Elijah was the smallest guy on the court every game and sometimes, he didn’t know what he was doing, and he admitted it, but what surprised me was that every week he came to practice and games ready to learn and filled with excitement to play. Now as a coach, I would rather have all my players be like Elijah and not be super competitive, like myself, because Upward is all for fun, and Elijah knew that. I only saw the kid without a smile on his face one time the whole season and that came in our 5th game. You see Elijah was the only kid up to this point who had not scored. In that 5th game however, Elijah shot the ball and it went in the basket. Now you may be wondering why he wouldn’t have a smile on his face after scoring a basket, but he did. He had the biggest smile I had seen all year until he realized, from the help of his teammates, that he had scored on the wrong basket. Tears swelled in his eyes and he felt that everything was his fault and that he let the team down, but I tried and tried to convince him that it was ok. For anyone who doesn’t know, after every upward game there is a star ceremony where the coach awards a star to every player. Each star is a different color and represents something that the player excelled in in that particular game. On that day, I chose to give Elijah the gray star representing offense and my reasoning for it was that the ball went in the basket. I told him I didn’t care if it went into the opponent’s basket, although I preferred next time it would go into ours, because what mattered was he put two points on the scoreboard. It may have been for the opponents but to me on that day and to everyone else who was watching, it was two points. Elijah did score a basket on our goal two weeks later and sure enough, the big smile was brought back to his face again.
Seeing young kids like Jabril and Elijah grow are some of the best experiences of my life. I’ve also witnessed the evolution of some bigger kids - my siblings. Now from my perspective my brother, Jacob, is starting to find what makes him unique and as an older brother, it is amazing to watch. Jacob has a special talent that I haven’t seen in other fifteen-year-old kids that allows him to have the best ear when it comes to music. It seems God has blessed him with a talent to listen to music and then play it on the piano, and play it well, without having to look at any sheet music with notes. It all comes from his ability to hear the notes on the radio and replicate it once he gets home. I have to say for those who haven’t seen it in action, it is quite fascinating.
At this point in my life it seems that people start to discover themselves and what makes them unique once they enter high school. Now this makes it particularly hard for me to figure out what makes my baby sister, Emma Grace, unique. However, she is my baby sister and I have known her for her whole life and this, I believe, qualifies me to share my opinion. When I first think of her, I think about how big her heart is. I have never met someone, especially at age thirteen, that has as big of a heart as her. For example, she likes to write short letters and place them on the pillow of one family member. Listen to one of those letters she put on my pillow one night, (I read a letter I have from her). You see, for Emma Grace, family means a lot more than it may to others and while she is starting to enter that stage where she would rather be with friends, I can’t help but believe she would take a movie with her family over a movie with her friends.
Here’s the thing, God made all of us unique. No one else in the world can do anything the way YOU do it, and that is a wonderful thing to embrace. It says in the passage for today that God was the one who knit us together in our mother’s womb. Each and every one of us knit together in our own unique way, and while there are similarities, none of us are exactly like anyone else, and it all started with that knitting. Even during my short seventeen years I’ve learned that life itself will be filled with ups and downs and good and bad experiences. Those ups and down and those good and bad experiences are actually your life’s story. A story that is unique to you. A story that is worthy of being shared and I’m very thankful that I could share some of mine with you today.
Amen!
Psalm 139:1-6; 13-18
A couple of months ago, we began discussing the idea of Youth Sunday and everyone seemed to be excited about it. Daniel started talking about the various parts of our worship service and people quickly chose what part they would do. I guess me doing the preaching was just a logical thing, and I was first excited to do it. Then as today started getting closer and closer I found myself getting more and more nervous. And even though I’ve been on stages before, and even though I’ve stood in front of more people before, I’ve never done anything like this. The more I thought about doing this, the more I started to think about my Papaw and my Dad, the two biggest role models in my life, being ministers. When I started thinking about that my nerves started going out of control. Then my Dad helped me remember our topic for today – God Made Us Wonderfully Unique, and I realized I don’t have to be my Papaw and I don’t have to be my Dad – I just have to be me.
So, when I sat down to write this, the first things that came to mind considering what traits make me unique included trustworthiness and integrity. While those are good traits, I can assure you that they do not make me unique. My family and I have been at First Baptist Church Jamestown for just over a year and a half and while I feel like I have gotten to know many of you and you have gotten to know me, there is probably a lot that you don’t know about me. Sure, most of you know that I play tennis and that I sing in the Madrigals at Grimsley, but I thought I would share some experiences that might help you get to know me a little better. Experiences that are unique to me. Because after thinking about it, I’ve determined our uniqueness is less about what traits we have, but more about what experiences we have.
I have had the privilege of being raised in a church my whole life. I went to pre-school at a church and started singing in the children’s choir at age 4 and it has always been a place I call home. The experiences I have had through church have made me unique. About 20 minutes from here is First Baptist Church of Greensboro which is the church I was raised in. It is the church I was baptized in at age 13. Some of my closest friends are still there. During my time in youth group and youth choir at FBC Greensboro, I had so many experiences that are unique to me including one I would like to share with you.
In the summer before my freshman year of high school, our youth choir went on a trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and later, Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Now my one regret from that trip is that we traveled all the way to Philadelphia and I didn’t get the opportunity to try a real philly cheesesteak. However, the experiences I had that week were unforgettable. We started out our week in Harrisburg where, from Monday to Thursday, we went to what I would call a day care center, and taught kids from the ages of five to seven about God. We gave them a week of what felt like Vacation Bible School to me, but to them it seemed to look like the most fun they had had in years. My role that week was to be a group leader for six kids; one of which I became very close with. This kid’s name was Jabril, and at first, he was a very shy guy who participated, but only when asked. After a couple days of encouragement from my fellow youth leaders and me, Jabril became a new person. By the end of the week he was laughing and playing with all the other kids and as his leader, it was inspiring to watch. The best part of that week though, came at the end of our third day. As our youth group members were saying our good-byes to the kids and walking out I saw Jabril sitting in the corner crying. I went over to ask him what was wrong, and his response brought me to tears. He said to me “I don’t want you to leave.” The reason I was brought to tears was simply that after three days of being with this kid, I would have never pictured myself becoming so close with a six-year-old, but I loved it and I loved him.
Our experiences that week inspired me and Jabril taught me lessons that I will never forget for the rest of my life. We spent the rest of our week in Philadelphia and sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game and believe me, as a HUGE sports fan, it is hard to top an experience like that. But my experience with Jabril was the highlight of that week.
Another big part of my life that has given me many unforgettable experiences is at FBC Greensboro as well and that is through the Upward basketball ministry. I first got involved in this ministry in third grade when I was a player, but one year of playing was enough for me. I then returned to the Upward ministry my eighth-grade year when I was asked by Ken Free, my dad’s law partner, to be the assistant coach of his Upward basketball team. I will admit that I was hesitant at first, but after ultimately taking the position, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I returned the following year to assist in coaching another team with a different head coach, but my greatest experiences came the next two years, when I decided to become a head coach and take seven kids, between the ages of eight and nine, and try to teach them about the game of basketball and God along with my good friend William Pettit. I have so many great stories to share from these past two years of coaching including having one kid not being a starter one year and the next year leading our team in scoring or having three first graders on a team in a second and third grade league, but one experience tops them all. As I said before, I was presented with the challenge to coach three first graders this past season because they had chosen to play with the older guys and one of those kids was named Elijah Harris. Elijah was the smallest guy on the court every game and sometimes, he didn’t know what he was doing, and he admitted it, but what surprised me was that every week he came to practice and games ready to learn and filled with excitement to play. Now as a coach, I would rather have all my players be like Elijah and not be super competitive, like myself, because Upward is all for fun, and Elijah knew that. I only saw the kid without a smile on his face one time the whole season and that came in our 5th game. You see Elijah was the only kid up to this point who had not scored. In that 5th game however, Elijah shot the ball and it went in the basket. Now you may be wondering why he wouldn’t have a smile on his face after scoring a basket, but he did. He had the biggest smile I had seen all year until he realized, from the help of his teammates, that he had scored on the wrong basket. Tears swelled in his eyes and he felt that everything was his fault and that he let the team down, but I tried and tried to convince him that it was ok. For anyone who doesn’t know, after every upward game there is a star ceremony where the coach awards a star to every player. Each star is a different color and represents something that the player excelled in in that particular game. On that day, I chose to give Elijah the gray star representing offense and my reasoning for it was that the ball went in the basket. I told him I didn’t care if it went into the opponent’s basket, although I preferred next time it would go into ours, because what mattered was he put two points on the scoreboard. It may have been for the opponents but to me on that day and to everyone else who was watching, it was two points. Elijah did score a basket on our goal two weeks later and sure enough, the big smile was brought back to his face again.
Seeing young kids like Jabril and Elijah grow are some of the best experiences of my life. I’ve also witnessed the evolution of some bigger kids - my siblings. Now from my perspective my brother, Jacob, is starting to find what makes him unique and as an older brother, it is amazing to watch. Jacob has a special talent that I haven’t seen in other fifteen-year-old kids that allows him to have the best ear when it comes to music. It seems God has blessed him with a talent to listen to music and then play it on the piano, and play it well, without having to look at any sheet music with notes. It all comes from his ability to hear the notes on the radio and replicate it once he gets home. I have to say for those who haven’t seen it in action, it is quite fascinating.
At this point in my life it seems that people start to discover themselves and what makes them unique once they enter high school. Now this makes it particularly hard for me to figure out what makes my baby sister, Emma Grace, unique. However, she is my baby sister and I have known her for her whole life and this, I believe, qualifies me to share my opinion. When I first think of her, I think about how big her heart is. I have never met someone, especially at age thirteen, that has as big of a heart as her. For example, she likes to write short letters and place them on the pillow of one family member. Listen to one of those letters she put on my pillow one night, (I read a letter I have from her). You see, for Emma Grace, family means a lot more than it may to others and while she is starting to enter that stage where she would rather be with friends, I can’t help but believe she would take a movie with her family over a movie with her friends.
Here’s the thing, God made all of us unique. No one else in the world can do anything the way YOU do it, and that is a wonderful thing to embrace. It says in the passage for today that God was the one who knit us together in our mother’s womb. Each and every one of us knit together in our own unique way, and while there are similarities, none of us are exactly like anyone else, and it all started with that knitting. Even during my short seventeen years I’ve learned that life itself will be filled with ups and downs and good and bad experiences. Those ups and down and those good and bad experiences are actually your life’s story. A story that is unique to you. A story that is worthy of being shared and I’m very thankful that I could share some of mine with you today.
Amen!
