Olympian Jesse Williams: 'I Knew God Had a Plan'

 

 

High jumper Jesse Williams has  maintained his optimistic attitude, despite a foot injury that almost cost him a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

 

"When you're not able to mentally allow yourself to be physically 100 percent, then you're not going to jump anywhere close to your ability,"

he told The Oreganian.

 

 

 

"I probably was physically ready to actually put pressure on my foot,"

 Williams said.

 

"But mentally, I just wasn't allowing myself to do it."

 

The two-time Olympian has made no secret of his faith in God and how it has sustained him through triumphs and failures.

Williams talked more about his life and faith in a recent interview with Athletes In Action.

 

 

Athletes In Action:

What is the difference between you as two-time Olympian and the people who come for the first time?

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

Just the experience part. I have done one Olympics and I didn't do very well. And now I kind of realize the opportunity that I did miss. And this is being a second time. A lot of people train their entire life to make the Olympic trials, and then try to make the Olympics. And to do it twice is an unbelievable experience. And I know this is my opportunity to get things done. I may never have this opportunity again, so I gotta to make it count.

 

Athletes In Action:

Is there more pressure at the Olympic trials or here in the Olympics?

 

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

I would say there is more pressure in the Olympic trials for sure because just being here and experiencing everything that goes in the Olympics is an unbelievable thing. But if you don't have your ticket punched, then you don't get to do anything. More specifically the qualifying round is a bit of a pressure situation. But just being here, it tells itself  and it's just a great opportunity. Really, the Olympic trials is the hardest thing to get through, especially for a guy like me. I was in Eugene, I was the big favorite, and I'm here one of the favourites. But you can get lost in the mix. For me in Eugene, I had a lot of pressure I think just from the surrounding community. And here I just want to have fun and enjoy it.

 

Athletes In Action:

Talking about pressure, what do you do personally that helps you cope and deal with that pressure, there may be a couple of different things?

 

  

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

 

The way that I deal with pressure…a lot of times I read the Word.

It really helps me just know that there is more in this world than just competing and trying to achieve my personal goals.

 

It takes my mind off everything I have been going through, which is a good thing.

 

You need distractions that are a positive influence on my life, including reading the Word and digging in to God's Word. So that is the biggest thing for sure. I'm really, this time compared to the last time I'm trying to enjoy the whole experience. Just trying to have fun. The last time I put a little too much pressure on myself to have to do certain things and perform. And when it comes down to it I know that I'm ready, but I need to enjoy that time. This is maybe the last time I get to go to the Olympic Games, so I'll try to enjoy every opportunity.

 

 

Athletes In Action:

Do you have a favorite story from the Bible that inspires, motivates, and encourages you?

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

Let us see, it's really hard as an athlete not to go to like David and Goliath.

 

I mean the way the little guy comes out on top. He was so faithful to God and that's the reason he comes out on top and defeats the giant that no one can defeat. How can you not love this story? I think you can relate it to just about anything, even if you are the giant, there's always people trying to get you down, and you just have to keep your faith and stay strong.

 

 

 

Athletes In Action:

 You … you sprained your ankle the week before. What was going in your head during that time?

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

 Well, I just knew when I sprained my ankle before the trials it was in God's hands.

 

 I made a mistake personally, and I'm not going to make this mistake again here. It is hard to find basketball courts around here unfortunately. Maybe fortunately. But I just put it in God's hands. And I jumped to the best of my ability, and I was sitting in a place that was just shaking ground. There were a couple of jumpers that had a chance to knock me off the Olympic team. And (I) just put it in God's hands. I knew that He had a plan for me. It would be tough on me not to make the Olympic team, but here I'm in London now speaking about my goals and how I'm going to do. So, it was in His plan for me to be here. That's all you can really do.

 

 

Athletes In Action:

When you are out of the track… how is your faith in trusting God to get you here or potentially not?

How do you reconcile that when you were waiting and watching another guy jumping?

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

 

Really in life in general not only in competition, I mean things are going to be thrown at you that are not a part of what you think is suppose to be happening to you.

 

As far as an Olympic athlete, the Olympics come every four years, and there are people's dreams in that village right over there that are going to be crushed. And you cannot let it bring you down as a person.

 

Winning an Olympian gold medal, there is only one person in each event. In my event I may have 50 people. And that's everybody's ultimate goal. So when you look at it by the numbers, there are always a lot more people going to be upset than they are thrilled about how they competed. So it is really a hard thing to deal with. But that's the of nature of our sport. You have to find a happy median, especially with God.

 

You just have to let Him take control of whatever goes on.

 

It is hard to do because we spend so much time and so much work in to getting here and to achieving all of our goals. It is a human nature to be competitive and try to win. And when it is not going this way it is hard. But you have to find a way to deal with it with God. And I think if you don't have Him, it will be really hard for someone.

 

But He is on my side and I know that. So whatever happens I'm going to be happy because I know it is in His plan.

 

 

Athletes In Action:

So how do you demonstrate your faith when you are there competing?

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

When I'm out competing, the way I demonstrate my faith I guess is just to be a good looser and a good winner about everything.

 

There is a little bit of talking going on every once in a while not to get lost in that, (but) just worry about myself and just represent Him in all my actions, not doing anything out of the box. And afterwards just giving Him the glory to whatever the outcome is, it is important whether it's a good one or bad one. At the trials I was very fortunate and definitely I give all of the glory to God because it was in His plan.

 

 

 

JESSE WILLIAMS:

 I was very fortunate growing up in a Christian home.

 

My father was a pastor, and I grew up going to church. My mother read me Bible stories just about every night before I 'd go to bed, and we'd pray. And there was one day specifically when I was about 4 years old and I was asking my mom about heaven and hell.

 

You know I don't want to go to hell, and what I needed to do to go to heaven, and she explained it to me.

 Since then, I made the connection with God and asked Him to my heart and I have been follower ever since.

 

Obviously I have grown up a lot since then, recommitted my life a few different times. But just having Him in my life at that young age has just made me me.

 

 

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Mahatma Gandhi - Why I didn’t become a Follower of Christ?

 

 

If not Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian Independence struggle would have taken longer with more bloodshed, division and war.

 

 When senior leaders of the Hindu political groups urged Gandhi to respond 'violence with violence' and 'sword with sword', he opposed insisting and exhorting the path of non–violence and peace, which was Gandhi's biggest sword to combat the trained and fully equipped forces.

 

For sure this great man is one of the most respected leaders of modern history, for not only his life, but also his ideals and his message to the people.

 

 

Although Hindu, Gandhi had a very close connection with Christianity and admired Jesus very much, often quoting from his favourite 'Sermon on the Mount' chapter in Mathew 5–7.

 

When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him,

"Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"

 

Gandhi replied,

"Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ."

 

 

"If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today," he added.

 

Gandhi's closeness with Christianity began when he was a young man practicing law in South Africa. Apart from being attached with the Christian faith, he intently studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was also seriously exploring becoming a Christian, which led him to his discovery of a small church gathering in his locality.

 

These strongly entrenched Biblical teachings have always acted a panacea to many of India's problems during its freedom struggle.

 

After deciding to attend the church service in South Africa, he came across a racial barrier, the church barred his way at the door.

"Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" an English man asked Gandhi in a belligerent tone.

 

Gandhi replied,

"I'd like to attend worship here."

 

The church elder snarled at him,

"There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."

 

This infamous incident forced Gandhi to never again consider being a Christian, but rather adopt what he found in Christianity and its founder Jesus Christ.

 

 

In a speech to Women Missionaries in 28 July 1925, he said,

 

 "…although I am myself not a Christian, as an humble student of the Bible, who approaches it with faith and reverence, I wish respectfully to place before you the essence of the Sermon on the Mount...There are thousands of men and women today who, though they may not have heard about the Bible or Jesus have more faith and are more god fearing than Christians who know the Bible and who talk of its Ten Commandments..."

 

To a Christian missionary Gandhi once said,

 

 "To live the gospel is the most effective way most effective in the beginning, in the middle and in the end. …Not just preach but live the life according to the light.... If, therefore, you go on serving people and ask them also to serve, they would understand.

 

But you quote instead John 3:16 and ask them to believe it and that has no appeal to me, and I am sure people will not understand it...the Gospel will be more powerful when practiced and preached."

 

"A rose does not need to preach. It simply spreads its fragrance. The fragrance is its own sermon…the fragrance of religious and spiritual life is much finer and subtler than that of the rose."

 

 

In many ways Gandhi was right, the intense proselytization by Christian missionaries in India through force and allurement forced him to make many scathing statements against Christian missionaries, which several times inspired them to retrospect and change the way of approach in 'Evangelism'.

 

"If Jesus came to earth again. He would disown many things that are being done in the name of Christianity,"

Gandhi said during his meeting with an English missioner.

 

Here I am remembered of Sadhu Sundar Singh who is said to have done more to "indigenize" the churches of India than any figures in the twentieth century.

 

 

"You have offered us Christianity in a Western cup... Give it to us in an Eastern bowl and we will drink of it,"

is a famous statement by Singh, who converted from Sikh to Christianity after his personal experience with Jesus, who appeared in his room on one morning in the year 1905, when he was just fifteen years old.

 

 

Stanley Jones once asked Gandhi:

"How can we make Christianity naturalized in India, not a foreign thing, identified with a foreign government and a foreign people, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India's uplift?"

 

Gandhi responded with great clarity,

 "First, I would suggest that all Christians, missionaries begin to live more like Jesus Christ.

 

Second, practice it without adulterating it or toning it down.

 

Third, emphasize love and make it your working force, for love is central in Christianity.

 

 Fourth, study the non - Christian religions more sympathetically to find the good that is within them, in order to have a more sympathetic approach to the people."

 

 

"Therefore it is very important for Christians to practise Christianity among the non-believers so that they can know the real love of lord jesus"

 

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Signs of a Spiritually Dead Church

 (Adapted from "A Second Resurrection" by Bill Easum from Abingdon Press)

For much of the past three decades, denominational officials have been promoting seminars and programs aimed at revitalizing the church.

 

 I know because I have been the speaker or consultant to many of these groups. For many of these leaders, their goal was to breathe new life into churches experiencing declining memberships and lack of commitment.

 

Yet after years of trying to revitalize these churches, the vast majority of them are still declining. What gives?

 

Reformation, renewal, and revitalization assume some pre-existing foundation of faith from which to raise up a new church. But what if that assumption isn't correct? What if the assumption is part of our problem?

 

 

What if being a member of a church for 40 years doesn't automatically guarantee any spiritual depth?

 

What if holding every office in the church doesn't automatically mean someone is a disciple of Jesus Christ?

 

Do we dare look deep enough into our souls to find answers to these questions?

 

Based on the conversations and actions of the thousands of Protestant leaders with whom I worked over the years, I have concluded that most of them are spiritually dead and their institutions have ceased being the church.

 

 They have the form but not the substance of what it means to be the church.

 

Let me define what I mean by spiritually dead churches.

If your church spends most of its energy on itself and its members, it's spiritually dead.

 

 

Such churches are living corpses.

 

They are physically alive; some may even be growing; but they are spiritually dead to the mission of the New Testament church-to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

 They've turned inward and exist solely for themselves.

 

 

They're like baby birds sitting in the nest with their mouths open waiting for momma bird (pastor) to feed them with no concept that Jesus intends them to feed others. Oh, they might collect money to send away to some distant mission field, but they're all thumbs when it comes to sharing the good news with their neighbour or community.

 

What growth they might experience is not of their doing-it just happens because of the population growth around them.

 

 

Here are eight death clues.

Spiritually dead churches:

 

1. Have lost their sense of mission to those who have not heard about Jesus Christ and do not pant after the Great Commission;

 

2. Exist primarily to provide fellowship for the "members of the club;"

 

3. Expect their pastors to focus primarily on ministering to the members' personal spiritual needs;

 

4. Design ministry to meet the needs of their members;

 

5. Have no idea about the needs of the "stranger outside the gates;"

 

6. Are focused more on the past than the future;

 

7. Often experience major forms of conflict;

 

8. And watch the bottom line of the financial statement more than the number of confessions of faith.

 

 

Bringing life back

 

The starting point for unfreezing a stuck organizational system is the development of a solid community of faith that includes spiritual leaders, the absence of major conflict, trust, and a desire to connect with the unchurched world.

 

 

True spiritual maturity is approached when people turn their attention to those outside the church and seek ways to spread the good news rather than exercise their entitlements as members.

 

Unfortunately, too many pastors assume their church has spiritual leaders and skip right over this starting point. It has become apparent to me that most church leaders do not understand that the decline of their church is due to the lack of spiritual depth on the part of their leadership.

 

So, now, I want to go deeper on the spiritual issue.

It's not just that our churches are stuck; they are spiritually bankrupt!

 

I know.

These churches are filled mostly with good Christian people, but there's no discernable spiritual power, just good Christian people-and we all know what Jesus said about being good. (Mark 10:18)

 

So it's obvious. Isn't it?

 

 

The only solution for spiritually dead congregations is resurrection.

You can't revitalize something that is dead. They must be brought to life again! And that is resurrection.

 

Revitalization is a waste of time. You can't breathe life into a corpse. Only God can do that, and that is resurrection.

 

Resurrecting a church

 

 

My experience has taught me the resurrection of a church happens in three stages.

 

 It begins with a new pastor. Either the pastor experiences a personal resurrection or the church actually gets a new pastor. Next is the resurrection of the leaders of the church either by transformation or replacement. Finally, the church itself is resurrected and turned around through some tactical change.

 

Then, if resurrection happens, our behaviour changes:

 

1. The church turns outward in its focus.

 

2. Jesus, not the institution, will become the object of our affection.

 

3. The Great Commission will become our mandate, and we will measure everything we do by how many new converts we make rather than whether we have a black bottom line.

 

4. Membership in the Kingdom will replace membership in the church.

 

5. Pastors will cease being chaplains of pastoral care and will become modern-day apostles of Jesus Christ.

 

6. And those who try to control the church with an iron fist or intimidate the church at every turn of the road will be shown the door.

 

 

The primary reason society is shunning the institutional church is because for the most part it is spiritually dead.

 

Spiritually alive churches, no matter what their form or where they are planted, always grow. That is the nature of the beast. That is the kind of church God honours. That is what the church was put on earth to do-spread the good news.

 

When a church faithfully does that, it grows. Period."

 

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Who's Your Daddy? - Great Story !

 

A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

 

One morning, they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to Enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests.

 

 

The professor leaned over and whispered to His wife,

'I hope he doesn't come over here.'

 

But sure enough, the man did Come over to their table.

 

'Where are you folks from?' he asked in a friendly voice.

'Oklahoma,' they answered.

 

'Great to have you here in Tennessee,' the stranger said... 'What do you do For a living?'

'I teach at a seminary,' he replied.

 

'Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I've got a really Great story for you.' And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat Down at the table with the couple.

 

The professor groaned and thought to himself,

 'Great.. Just what I Need.... Another preacher story!'

 

 

The man started, 'See that mountain over there? (Pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother.

 

He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question,

'Hey boy, who's your daddy?'

 

Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, 'Who's your daddy?'

 

He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students..

He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad.

 

 'When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late And slip out early to avoid hearing the question,

'Who's your daddy?'

 

But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast that he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd.

 

Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him,

'Son, who's your daddy?'

 

The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question,

'Who's your daddy?'

 

 

This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy..

 'Wait a minute! I know who you are! I see the family resemblance now, You are a child of God.'

 

With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said,

'Boy, you've got a Great inheritance.. Go and claim it.'

 

'With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, 'Who's your Daddy?' He'd just tell them, 'I'm a Child of God..''

 

The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, 'Isn't that a great story?'

 

The professor responded that it really was a great story!

 

As the man turned to leave, he said,

'You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was one of God's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!'

 

And he walked away..

 

 

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked her,

'Do you know who that man was -- the one who just left that was sitting at our table?'

 

The waitress grinned and said,

 

'Of course. Everybody here knows him. That's Ben Hooper. He's governor of Tennessee !'

 

 

Someone in your life today needs a reminder that they're one of God's Children!

 

'The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.'

 

YOU'RE ONE OF GOD'S CHILDREN!!!

 

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St Thomas Day (July 3rd)

Happy St Thomas day everyone :)
Do read http://kiranmj.blogspot.com/2011/03/history-of-st-thomas-mount-madras-india.html
Read more about St Thomas here: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1433