Grow & Go

For, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall- 1 Peter 1:24

There's a time for intense growth.

We all need it. Here's a bit of my story of the past 2 years.


I was a senior in high school, approaching graduation. I knew I wanted to go to college and get as far away from Wichita Falls as I could possibly go. So I applied to ten schools. Yes, ten. Here they are, in order: LSU, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU, Midwestern State, Morehouse, Ole Miss, Wabash (look it up, I don't know what I was thinking), Oklahoma Baptist, Dallas Baptist, and Lubbock Christian.

I know, Texas Tech, the school I am currently attending, is not on that list. It's because I didn't apply to Texas Tech until March, 2 months before graduation. That's because I kicked off every school on that list, one by one, and when I added Texas Tech, it seemed to be the only school I didn't have any major problem with going to. And it was also 3 hours away from home; short enough to go back when I want to and far enough so I don't have to worry about my parents all over me.

I had no expectations when I set my eyes on Tech. Rumors were that it was a party school. That and all other schools on the planet earth. So going into my freshman year, even though I was a good, moral, proclaiming Christian in High School, I just concluded that I would be at those college parties. I believed that everyone would. Boy was I wrong...

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I signed up for a camp before I went to Texas Tech. It is called Foundation Retreat, a four day retreat put on by students at Texas Tech. It was a warm welcome into the college life, and it literally set a foundation for my life. As you know, nothing can be built without a base, and the base has to be strong enough to hold every inch of what you are going to build. Foundation introduced a key principle into my life; living as a Christian.

I met friends that i am still close to this day, at that camp. After the camp, I met one of my best friends. We were both in a season of trying to figure out what it meant to live as a Christian, so God had us on the same floor in the dorms. How crazy of a plan is that? We ate together, played ball together, and even pledged on the same line in the same fraternity. Before I ever thought of pledging anything, I had a better idea. An idea that I had wanted to pull off for a very long time. I wanted to grow dreadlocks!! So my friend and I and a few others helped me out. My hair was super short, so I walked around with small, bean-like structures from my head. This is the image that most of my close friends remember about me from the first time they met me, especially my line brothers.

So we crossed into Men of God Christian Fraternity, and it was the most intense, life changing, six and a half weeks of my life. I learned how to listen, lead, serve, and love- even when it hurt. I learned how to be timely. I learned accountability. Through all this, my hair continued to grow and grow. I broke off a relationship that I held onto but knew would never work. I learned how to embrace help financially. I learned how to suffer. I learned how to lose. I learned that I am victorious. My hair still continued to grow. I learned how to pursue. I learned how to be patient. I learned how to teach. I learned how to submit. I learned how to be a man.

Before you knew it, I grew into a man that loves Jesus. 

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If I were to type every single thing that I have experienced the past two years of my life, you would get sick of my blowing up the internet. I am proof that there is a God who loves and forgives, because apart from Him, I am a complete mess.

Growing is great, but if you water a plant too much and don't give it space where it can grow, it will die. That's true with us as well. I am guilty of hoarding. These past two years I have hoarded most of everything God has taught me. I've sent the information to my head, but not my heart. It's in my brain, but not my hands. It's in my mind but not working through my feet. Being in Boston for ten days living missionally changed my perspective on a lot. What good is it to learn how to change the world, but never get around to doing it?

It's like having a formula to cure cancer and never getting around to making it, it will do no one good, and many will die in the process.

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This past Sunday, the same best friend that watched me grow all of my hair cut it all off for me. Many people do not know this, but those dreads symbolized a lot for me. The start of college, being on my own. The start of being grown. Most importantly, the start of me taking my walk with Christ. A year and 8 months of hair, completely gone. Nothing to show for it. Me cutting it all off meant something even greater. What will I do with everything God has shown me the past two years of my life? I have to put wheels on it and go.

This blog post may seem super religious to you who do not know Jesus Christ. That's okay. It's about taking my walk with Christ more seriously than I have the day before. And this:

 it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.

-Batman

But seriously, I can boast on how much I know for years, but if I never do anything because of my faith, I am only beating a dead horse. James, the brother of Jesus is saying the same thing I am saying:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:14-26

So now I have a decision to make. I can keep getting "filled" and flirt with Christian obesity, or I can put some hands and feet on God's love and be the only bible some will ever see. Because in the long run, its not about what pastors I listen to, how many bible studies I lead, and how many sermons I can write in a day. It's not about what I have leaned the past couple of years. It's not about me. It is about being there for the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the lost. 

So now my nearly bald head is another symbol. Growing is meaningless without going.