Go Get It

This is a picture of the famous American author and philosopher Henry D. Thoreau. Ok, so he's not a good looking dude ... but none the less he had some really challenging and thought provoking things to say throughout his life. I have a magnet on my refrigerator with a quote of his:

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."

What an inspiring word for all of us. I was given that magnet by my mom during my rehab after my baseball career was ended by a sixth concussion that resulted in serious brain damage (I'll eventually expand on this in another post). My left frontal lobe didn't work. There were no synapses firing, I had no short term memory, no word retrieval skills, no speech fluency and the right side of my body was disabled. The neurologists said that I was legally mentally retarded with the brain capacity of a 9 year-old at 20. The doctors told my family that I would stay that way because the likely-hood of a full recovery was very slim.

Miracles happen. God is the I am. And I hoped for hope that one day I would again see the Lord's will completed in my life because all of my dreams were shattered in one moment during a practice on my home university's baseball field May 1, 2001. I hung onto Romans 5: 3-5 throughout the seven months of intensive brain rehab and physical therapy, working so hard to reclaim a normal way of life that I no longer knew - and didn't know if I could ever regain:

Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

And besides that passage, I frequently looked at Thoreau's words because I knew the Lord longed for me to live the life I've imagined, because my dreams were only His dreams for me. I thought those dreams were baseball, as I was one small step away from playing in the pros. And among everything that happened after my accident, I daily, and faithfully busted my hump and went confidently in the direction I felt the Lord was leading me. The Bible is the ultimate story of redemption - something the Lord longs for all of us.

We all have the ability and the power through our Father to live the life we've imagined in God. Go confidently, go faithfully, dream big and go get it!

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org