Incredible.
Simply incredible.
In recent days, especially for a few weeks now; I’ve just marveled at where this life has wound up, and where it is going, and fascinatingly enough; who’s in control.
I’ve had some people, not many, but some ask the simple question of why I’m so invested into the Kansas City Shock. Why make it work? Why lose sleep? What’s so unique about it?
Simply put; it’s more then a job or a business; it’s a ministry.
I think this weeks earlier example proves a very valid point, but to really understand the clarity of the message, we must draw back to the year 2007.
During the winter of this year I had been dumped [via cellphone ironically] for the first time ever, and I was spending time with my parents; trying to figure out life [tragic, I know]. In the process we had some family emergencies, injuries, sickness, and even death; it was a busy month of December.
Leading up to this moment I had chosen to go to college in the Ozarks to pursue a degree in Intercultural Studies; why? Because God told me to a be in the ministry. Looking back, I don’t doubt that, but the process of going about it; well, I had tunnel vision. Eventually, a family member, more through just bitterness then anything else ended up screaming at me in the end of 2007 some words that stitched some severe scars into my heart:
God called you to be a missionary? Wow, you sure did let Him down, along with this family!
I’m so far past the point of anger with the individual, this many years down the road that it doesn’t even register with me. However, those words did. I dropped out of the degree department, left the theology section of the university I was at, and refused to go ‘that route’; not to mention I had lacked several friends. All of the friends I had developed in those short two years of college revolved around the same theme: athletics.
Needless to say, this is where the adventure truly began with athletics, my life, coaching, soccer, etc…I just poured myself into it because in some ways, it’s all I knew.
God called you to be a missionary? Wow, you sure did Him down, along with this family!
Through a nasty divorce, being homeless, broke, and broken these words I think I could picture coming out of the mouths of many. Here was the good church boy, with a great future ahead, “full of potential” and to some, I threw it all away. Others just saw me as a mere statistic of a said and sound truth of American marriages, and many just forgot I even existed.
It was about time…
The cool thing about being a Christian is often when you are forgotten by the world, that is where God is known and is evident the most.
I share that painful, drawn out story from 2007, along with the potent single line that just doomed me that winter night; to share this remarkable story.
Earlier this week I was running over some search engine inquiries for the Kansas City Shock, along with that I was moving through some e-mails that I needed to get caught up on. Maybe to no ones surprise we have started to get international inquiries about the Kansas City Shock and the potential for international players to call Kansas City home for a few months out of the year.
Completely caught me off guard, but naturally; I’d be a fool to ignore it. So, we took some time and planned out how to deal with international applications and international inquiries as well. Don’t forget, my soccer blog started on a server based in the United Kingdom, not the United States. To be part of soccer, one has to be able to be one person not of their own country, but one person of their world.
That’s when I I saw a e-mail that I had failed to reply to, a man talking about getting together via LinkedIn, and his new coaching application for phones. I didn’t think much of it, sent a quick ‘thank you’ message, and told him I was nervous and excited for 2013. Not even an hour later I received another message from him with this inside the message:
Your personal story speaks for itself…your faith and unyielding spirit stands as an example for all young men and women. The Shock will succeed. I will not wish you best of luck…we mistake the gifts wrought by heeding his work for luck…I humbly ascribe that he will help those that help others see his glory.
This man was based out of the United Kingdom, or at least the primary amount of his business was.
It’s also about the same time a mother of a professional player in Australia contacted our office, inquiring on getting a film of their daughter to us.
It was the lady from Delaware.
It was the club from England.
The player from Macedonia.
It was the assistant coach growing up in the same community deep into Mexico that I also witnessed as a growing adult; digging water wells and loving on some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.
Finally, it was put into full picture on a few days ago when I placed “Kansas City Shock” into the search box of Google. As noted, Weber Creative Arts just went over and above for the tryout flyer dubbed “#whiteout12“; what really allowed us to see the reach was when I found the flyer on a website that Google was having to translate.
We’re reaching people that would have never been imagined as ‘reachable’.
Sound familiar?
All of this boils up to this point: Kansas City Shock isn’t just a movement, a passion, or a business idea; it’s so much more, it’s my responsibility, my calling, and His dream.
Don’t believe me?
Ask the kid sitting in the parking lot of a college campus in 2003 looking for answers on why his heart was set to explore the world [the same college I would graduate from six years later]. He’ll tell you, still in his stubborn innocents of teenage years…
I cannot deny His calling.
Even through rejection, heartache, and painful words all ran together; understand that when God wants something, He’ll make it happen, no matter what the masses say.
-D-
