In the time that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Johnny Shelton, no one has had a more profound impact on my life. With his wisdom and insight, he quickly became the most influential person I’ve ever met. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that if God had not put him in my life, I would not be where I am today. He taught me over the course of a couple years what it truly means to be alive.
I had always acknowledged God and considered myself a Christian because I went to church and prayed everyday, but I still didn’t know what it meant to have God at the center of your life. The Bible says to “acknowledge Him in all your ways and he will guide you on the right paths”, but I only wanted to acknowledge Him in some of my ways, while doing my own thing in the others. This included football. I was grateful to God for the success that I had and where I was, but at the same time, I was playing for myself.
Football was what I used to justify my own self-worth, so my goals were pride-based. I wanted to be the best and get all the awards and accolades I could because I mistakenly thought that I would somehow be accepted or validated as a person. So during the 2008 season, when I struggled heavily for the first time in my career, I sank into a depression. Having no answers for what was going on, I turned to Johnny for some help and advice. We met weekly, and the whole time he encouraged me and reminded me that this was not in vain, but there was some ultimate purpose to it all; that sometimes we get too short-sighted and don’t think long-term with what is happening.
The first thing he told me when I asked him for help was “Sometimes the Potter has to destroy the clay in order to build it back up again and make it even better”. What has followed in the time since is exactly what that quote says. Long story short, the rest of the school year was a struggle, not just in football but in all areas; but I found out what exactly it meant to have God at the center of your life. My whole perspective on life and how I approach it completely changed because of that time. Since then, I’ve rededicated my life to God and oh man, did He deliver or what? I went on to have the best season of my life, got those awards I always wanted, and completed my dream of making the NFL just recently (and that’s only mentioning the football-related; there was just as much blessing in the rest of my life). This time however, I know that these are all tremendous blessings, but in the grand scheme they are meaningless. All that matters is what I do with them in order to bring the glory back to God and not myself. I no longer feel the need to succeed for my own validation because my validation has always lied with God in no matter what I do with my life.
Without Johnny Shelton, I would have never come to this life-altering realization. I thank God every day for using him to bring me to where I am and changing my life; and it’s not just in football, either. God’s making some amazing things happen in the rest of my life as well, and His mercy and grace never cease to humble me every day. With God planted firmly at the center of my life, I can now pursue every dream without fear because I know He will lead me exactly where I’m supposed to go, even when the circumstances seem unclear or impossible. I am forever grateful not only to God, but to Johnny for giving me this perspective that has allowed me to be at peace. I hope that everyone gets a chance to meet someone as great as Johnny; someone that will have as big an impact on their lives as much as he has had on mine.
“Commit your activities to the Lord and your plans will be achieved.” Proverbs 16:3