A Big Praise
// October 15th, 2009 // I Love Baseball
I’ve been marinating for the last couple days on something I heard Friday and I just need to go ahead and give God all the glory for it.
Julin is one of my favorite players. He is a charismatic kid with big dreams but at 16 years old he is only in the 6th grade. A couple of weeks ago we got a report from Julin’s teacher that he wasn’t going to school. When I talked to Julin, I found he didn’t like going to school because all the younger kids make fun of him and tell him he is too old and no good. He doesn’t like going to school because all the people in his neighborhood tell him he is dumb and should just play baseball. Julin didn’t have anyone speaking life to him. He didn’t have anyone encouraging or telling him he was capable, in fact, everyone was saying the opposite.
When I sat down with Julin I tried to explain to him as best I could why he needed to go to school.
- If he doesn’t, he is proving all those people right.
- I told him all those people in his neighborhood that are criticizing him spend most of their days sitting on their porch doing nothing. They were sitting on that same porch 10 years ago and they’ll be on that same porch in 10 more, but that he has the opportunity for a life better than that.
- Only he loses if he doesn’t go to school.
- He needs to be an example to his younger brothers.
- He wants to make something of his life and he needs an education to achieve his goals.
- He needs to be able to provide for a family one day and give them with a better life and more opportunities than he has had.
- That he couldn’t change the past but can decide what he wants to make of the future.
It has been a couple weeks so I don’t even remember exactly what I said but those are some examples. I don’t know what stuck. Maybe nothing, I was saying all of this in broken Spanish after all. Probably nothing, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t really matter what I said as much as that I was saying it. I think what made the difference was that I cared enough to say something, that I cared enough to encourage him, that I told him he was capable. I think he was desperate to hear that. But as Julin left that day, I didn’t know if he would go back.
On Monday I visited Julin in Los Robles. I chatted him up a bit before asking how school was. He lit up. He told me school was great and that the school is going to let him go to 7th grade in the spring. He thanked me and told me if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t have gone back. I told him that he deserved all the credit, that I could do all the talking I wanted, but only he could make the decision to go back and that I was proud of him. I took it all with a grain of salt until I talked to Julin’s teacher later that day and got the same report. Wow, God is good.
In the end, God just put me in the right place at the right time and he used me as the tool to touch one of his children and that feels awesome. I feel so honored but yet humbled. I know it wasn’t my wisdom that made a difference but God’s love pouring into this young man. Please keep Julin in your prayers. He is back in school and over one large mountain but has a lot of school and a lot of life to go.
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This is a great blog to start the morning off with!! Very hopeful and encouraging! Thank you
)
No problem. It is cool when God lets you play a part in the story he is writing in someone's life.
What an delightful story! It really doesn't matter what you said to him, Chris. He saw your heart. "What you do speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you say." This time, that's a very good God thing. Bless you.
Candy you are way too kind to me. Thank you.
Chris – what a difference you made for Julin! My wife teaches first grade, and I've always thought it amazing that you never know what words will stick with a child and change his or her life – hopefully for the better. God is indeed Good. What an opportunity to have gotten to play the role you did in His plans that day!
Chris, the head of COTN was here the other day and was telling a story about a kid that came up to him in a store and asked if he knew him. He didn't. The boy proceeded to tell Chris how he looked at him with love one day and his life was never the same from there. Not sure what country that was in but so many of these kids are craving love and the smallest can make the biggest difference. Amazing how God can use the littlest thing to transform someone and so cool to be a part of that.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chris Sullivan and Chris Sullivan, Candy Steele. Candy Steele said: RT @chrissulli: New blog post: A Big Praise http://www.chrissulli.com/a-big-praise/ // Encouraging way to start your day, people. Read!! [...]
That's wonderful news! I hope that Julin will continue down this road!
That is awesome! I agree completely with what Candy said…
'God things' are the best!
Me too. Say a prayer for him
Amen. I think that those are the things that keep us going and that we hold on to to remember his faithfulness when things aren't going well.
What a totally cool God thing Chris! Thanks for sharing that incredibly uplifting story!
No problem. It was my privilege to be able to share and be a part of it.
"I told him that he deserved all the credit, that I could do all the talking I wanted, but only he could make the decision to go back and that I was proud of him."
This is true brotherhood – speaking life to another & pointing him to have confidence that it come from him…. eventhough you planted the seeds. Praise God He is showing you the fruit of your words! Keep sowing, brother! May God bless you with a green thumb!
Yeah for Julin!
.. btw, love your new look! Very open and inviting. Awesome, Chris!
I have a new look?
I was listening to a podcast about being the links is a chain in people's lives that lead them down their path in life. It seems like you were the lone link telling Julin that he could do something more than baseball, that he wasn't too old or not smart enough and all it took was him trying. I'm very proud of you and excited to see how his story continues.
Thanks Netty