What do you want to do with your life? (that's funnier if you have seen the You-Tube video shoes)
So after months of being busy with school, I'm back to the world of blog. I haven't done this for a while, but bear with me. I will try to make my return an enjoyable one.
The Prologue: So much has happened in this first semester of my sophomore year. But one specific conversation comes to mind. I sat in the office with my Paul and The Early Church professor Dr. Thompson, and we were trying to figure out what I could do to fulfill my honors contract in this course. Fresh off my reading from the summer, I tried to sound smart as I threw out words like postmodernism and the emerging church. I came in to him thinking I could write a research paper about the writings of Paul and how it relates to the "emerging church" and the thoughts of authors like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Brian McLaren. However, my professor could see right through me. He asked me to journal throughout the semester about how I would start a minstry or church right now. Where would I start it? What would I do with it? How would I contribute to the community around me? How would I involve some of my own interests in the ministry? I smiled, because I have thought about this before. While the journaling has not worked out as well as it should have, I have been thinking about it all semester. So here are a few of my ideas.
The Idea: When I grow up, (I'm nineteen years old, so hopefully that won't be happening for a while) I want to be a doctor. I have known this for years. I like science and math, and I want to help people. I want to be financially stable and be in a professional position where I can have influence within the community that I live. I have known this for a while. I have had quarter-life crises where I have thought maybe I'll go into the music business, or maybe I'll be a lawyer, or maybe I'll be a missionary, or maybe I'll be a teacher, yet I always arrive back at Nah, I want to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor.
I have had the opportunity to grow up around sports. I love the competition and the wonderful life lessons they teach. During my high school career it seemed as if the place that I was able to invest in people most was on my sports teams. We practiced together, traveled together, and trusted each other. I was able to help people through their struggles and see them mature along the way. Paul uses athletic imagery often when he writes letters to his churches telling them to train and run the race marked out for them. It helped me to have a better understanding of the Christian walk. Discipline is important, but so is creativity. Sport is the perfect melding of rules and art. You have to learn the proper technique to shoot a basketball, but the way you use this skill in a game is a creative spontaneous experssion of that skill. Most good coaches also teach that character is built through discipline and competion. I want to be around athletes, so I have decided to pursue a carreer in orthopedic surgery specializing in sports medicine. Hopefully, I will be able to help young athletes pursue their potential despite injury and adversity.
Now, I also have a third passion that makes all of this worthwhile to me. The summer before I came to school, I worked at my church's recreational facility The CUBE. I worked a concession stand, hung out with people, and got to watch people play basketball a lot. Council Road Baptist Church is interesting in that it is a large church that attracts people from many different socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the richest people in Oklahoma City attend CRBC while some of the poorest attend there as well. A lot of the people who came into The CUBE's doors while I worked, were from a completely different background. They were mostly inner-city urban teenagers or men. Being the most suburban upper middle class girl around, I thought I would have trouble relating. It turns out, I loved every minute of it. I was able to relate to people from a totally different background. A 16-year-old yound man cried on my last day. Part of my job during the summer was to pick this boy up from the gym where he worked out: Athletes in Progress. I would pick him up around lunch time. We would listen to music on the way back to The CUBE. We would talk about basketball, college, and his dreams, and then he would play for the rest of the afternoon. It was my favorite part of the job. He was an onery guy. If a grown man told him what to do, he might have an attitude, but if I ever said anything, he would stop breaking the particular rule he was breaking that day.
Needless to say I have developed a passion for inner city kids because of experiences like these. So how can I combine my passion for medicine, athletics, and the inner city and make it into something that will help the communtiy I am in and have some sort of ministry potential?
After I set up practice in Oklahoma City, I would like to start up a sports-specific training facility in the inner city. I would like to offer low-cost quality athletic training with a purpose. I would also have rehab facilities, and would offer to help any member with surgeries they might need. Using this facility I would be able to reach kids who have a passion for athletics but don't often get to see their talent capitalized because of lack of discipline or lack of equipment and funds. At this facility I would teach character values every week, and along with physical workouts, the athletes would have character workouts as well. They would have to complete certain tasks to remain a member of the facility. Once the staff got to know the kids better, we would start giving the specific responsibilities within the facility itself. They would have to realize that in order for their community to keep going each individual would have to contribute or the community would fall apart. This would mirror how Paul hoped the church would work: as a community pursuing the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying him forever.
I would also have Bible Studies to target specific ages and genders throughout the week. These Bible Studies would really function as small groups where these athletes could start living life together, and hopefully where they would really start caring for each other. Athletes from rival schools would be in the same small group and forced to care about each other. Hopefully, these small groups would be places where the gospel could be shared in a way that is relatable and relevant to these inner-city athletes. I would encourage them to live a life worthy of the calling of God. I would encourage them to get involved in a local body of believers.
Now obviously, I realize that all of this sounds kind of optimistic, but it's my dream, so I can be as optimistic as I want. But really it is the best I can do. While I realize that nothing runs as smoothly as we dream it will, I hope to be able to work through the problems that will eventually arise, and pursue the goal of loving these athletes and helping them in their training for following Christ and for their athletic pursuits. Let me know what you think. Any problems or suggestions you might have, etc.
The Prologue: So much has happened in this first semester of my sophomore year. But one specific conversation comes to mind. I sat in the office with my Paul and The Early Church professor Dr. Thompson, and we were trying to figure out what I could do to fulfill my honors contract in this course. Fresh off my reading from the summer, I tried to sound smart as I threw out words like postmodernism and the emerging church. I came in to him thinking I could write a research paper about the writings of Paul and how it relates to the "emerging church" and the thoughts of authors like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Brian McLaren. However, my professor could see right through me. He asked me to journal throughout the semester about how I would start a minstry or church right now. Where would I start it? What would I do with it? How would I contribute to the community around me? How would I involve some of my own interests in the ministry? I smiled, because I have thought about this before. While the journaling has not worked out as well as it should have, I have been thinking about it all semester. So here are a few of my ideas.
The Idea: When I grow up, (I'm nineteen years old, so hopefully that won't be happening for a while) I want to be a doctor. I have known this for years. I like science and math, and I want to help people. I want to be financially stable and be in a professional position where I can have influence within the community that I live. I have known this for a while. I have had quarter-life crises where I have thought maybe I'll go into the music business, or maybe I'll be a lawyer, or maybe I'll be a missionary, or maybe I'll be a teacher, yet I always arrive back at Nah, I want to be a doctor. I'm going to be a doctor.
I have had the opportunity to grow up around sports. I love the competition and the wonderful life lessons they teach. During my high school career it seemed as if the place that I was able to invest in people most was on my sports teams. We practiced together, traveled together, and trusted each other. I was able to help people through their struggles and see them mature along the way. Paul uses athletic imagery often when he writes letters to his churches telling them to train and run the race marked out for them. It helped me to have a better understanding of the Christian walk. Discipline is important, but so is creativity. Sport is the perfect melding of rules and art. You have to learn the proper technique to shoot a basketball, but the way you use this skill in a game is a creative spontaneous experssion of that skill. Most good coaches also teach that character is built through discipline and competion. I want to be around athletes, so I have decided to pursue a carreer in orthopedic surgery specializing in sports medicine. Hopefully, I will be able to help young athletes pursue their potential despite injury and adversity.
Now, I also have a third passion that makes all of this worthwhile to me. The summer before I came to school, I worked at my church's recreational facility The CUBE. I worked a concession stand, hung out with people, and got to watch people play basketball a lot. Council Road Baptist Church is interesting in that it is a large church that attracts people from many different socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the richest people in Oklahoma City attend CRBC while some of the poorest attend there as well. A lot of the people who came into The CUBE's doors while I worked, were from a completely different background. They were mostly inner-city urban teenagers or men. Being the most suburban upper middle class girl around, I thought I would have trouble relating. It turns out, I loved every minute of it. I was able to relate to people from a totally different background. A 16-year-old yound man cried on my last day. Part of my job during the summer was to pick this boy up from the gym where he worked out: Athletes in Progress. I would pick him up around lunch time. We would listen to music on the way back to The CUBE. We would talk about basketball, college, and his dreams, and then he would play for the rest of the afternoon. It was my favorite part of the job. He was an onery guy. If a grown man told him what to do, he might have an attitude, but if I ever said anything, he would stop breaking the particular rule he was breaking that day.
Needless to say I have developed a passion for inner city kids because of experiences like these. So how can I combine my passion for medicine, athletics, and the inner city and make it into something that will help the communtiy I am in and have some sort of ministry potential?
After I set up practice in Oklahoma City, I would like to start up a sports-specific training facility in the inner city. I would like to offer low-cost quality athletic training with a purpose. I would also have rehab facilities, and would offer to help any member with surgeries they might need. Using this facility I would be able to reach kids who have a passion for athletics but don't often get to see their talent capitalized because of lack of discipline or lack of equipment and funds. At this facility I would teach character values every week, and along with physical workouts, the athletes would have character workouts as well. They would have to complete certain tasks to remain a member of the facility. Once the staff got to know the kids better, we would start giving the specific responsibilities within the facility itself. They would have to realize that in order for their community to keep going each individual would have to contribute or the community would fall apart. This would mirror how Paul hoped the church would work: as a community pursuing the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying him forever.
I would also have Bible Studies to target specific ages and genders throughout the week. These Bible Studies would really function as small groups where these athletes could start living life together, and hopefully where they would really start caring for each other. Athletes from rival schools would be in the same small group and forced to care about each other. Hopefully, these small groups would be places where the gospel could be shared in a way that is relatable and relevant to these inner-city athletes. I would encourage them to live a life worthy of the calling of God. I would encourage them to get involved in a local body of believers.
Now obviously, I realize that all of this sounds kind of optimistic, but it's my dream, so I can be as optimistic as I want. But really it is the best I can do. While I realize that nothing runs as smoothly as we dream it will, I hope to be able to work through the problems that will eventually arise, and pursue the goal of loving these athletes and helping them in their training for following Christ and for their athletic pursuits. Let me know what you think. Any problems or suggestions you might have, etc.
posted by Jolie Britt at 11:08 PM
1 Comments:
Okay I really thought you'd taken a tragic and fatal fall from the blog-wagon; glad to see you're back on. Thing #1: I've been trying to write a Masters thesis on "The Sunday Morning Worship Service" (the shoulds and shouldn'ts) for (no kidding) two years. I feel you on the not being able to encapsulate, integrate, and articulate your theological opinions - ink is so permanent! Thing #2: Love your heart, love your dream. I think you'll do it or something a lot like it. The world needs you to be you. Keep going.
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