I was hanging out one day in middle school with my best friend and he told me, “I think I’m going to start running cross country for the high school.” That sounded cool to me. So we started running together. Everyone morning he would come down to my house around 6 AM and we would run a couple miles. After doing this for a while, I would send my mom out to tell him that I was too tired to run that day. Well, B. J. kept running and turned into a phenomenal athlete.
In high school, he was a major part of several team state championships, he was a region, county, and upper state cross country champ, and won a track state championship as well. All of this led to some local notoriety and a college scholarship to run cross country at Clemson.
I have to admit, I was always a little jealous of B. J. because I thought it came so easy to him. He was like Forrest Gump…he just ran and ran and ran. And was awesome at it.
I also went to Clemson and B. J. and I (along with several other guys from Mauldin, hung out a lot. We all finally moved in together my junior year (B. J.’s senior year). B. J. had been called to be a youth minister and he was very passionate about that calling. He spent a lot of time at our church back home and he took his “free” internship very seriously.
After a few months, he was spending more and more time at home and with the young people at church and less time at Clemson doing stuff we (me and the rest of the guys) felt like he should be doing. As an aside, I would point out that we weren’t doing any partying or anything bad, but felt like B. J. was missing out on some important times in his life. We gave him a hard time about it, but he still kept on and eventually, he quit running on the cross country team at school to focus on what he wanted, and felt called to do.
I thought he was crazy! To me, someone who is not athletically gifted, he was wasting a gift from God. I thought there would be plenty of time for him to be a youth minister after he finished running and graduated.
After graduating from Clemson, B. J. went on to get his Masters of Divinity and became a youth minister for a large church in North Carolina.
Looking back on those times now, I really respect what B. J. went through (from us) to pursue his calling and to work towards his vision. I find myself a little jealous of him again. He clearly sees the vision and the “road map” God has given him. He never looked back and just went for it. Sometimes, I feel like a totally average guy who just can’t make up his mind what he is supposed to be doing.
The world needs more people like B. J. who listen to what God has told them to do, and they do it without hesitating. B. J. dropped some things he had worked extremely hard to attain, and focused on his God-given passion. My prayer is that I will be able to cut out the crap in my life and focus on what God has given me a passion for.