Changed for Good...

Brandon Heath - I'm not who I was
Lyrics

Ok, in honor of Theo, I titled this one Changed for Good, referring to the Wicked track. Just wanted to let everyone know that everyone that I have come in contact with the past 2 years has affected my life in significant ways. The song by Brandon Heath is titled "I'm not who I was." It was really encouraging for me to have multiple relatives tell me that I am a good kid and I had changed a lot in the past year. Knowing that I had grown up and matured, encourages me to keep on that path. Also, I think this is even cooler...

Josh Hamilton's testimony is just simply amazing. This man had all the talent in the world to play professional baseball coming straight out of high school. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays chose him first overall in 1999, gave him a $4 million dollar signing bonus, and sent him to the minor leagues to get better. In 2001, he began using drugs, including heroin and alcohol. His struggles never led him to the major leagues, and caused him to disappear from the entire baseball world from 2003-2006. He had been confronted by his grandmother by that time, and had finally decided to make a change in his life and become clean. He was picked up by the Cincinnati Reds in the Rule 5 draft, which forced them to keep him on their 25-man roster for the entire season, quite a big deal since he hadn't done anything baseball related for about 3 years. Now, he is doing even better than ever. Not only is he one of baseball's best players, competing in the All-Star game tomorrow, but he also speaks to youth and others struggling with addictions of their own. Watching him today on national television was just amazing. He hit 28 home runs in the first round, most ever by anyone. To see how far he had come, was simply stunning. Even though he didn't win, the best part of the broadcast for me happened at the end. He was being interviewed, and he just happened to stop and thank "Jesus Christ my Lord, and my Savior." To see how far this man has come...is truly inspirational. As much as I am into sports and being competitive and hating on teams that are rivals to the teams I cheer for, I cannot find any part of myself that wants to say anything bad about him. We talk a lot about the body of Christ about people that we know and that we have met, but in the moment that he spoke on national television, I felt instantly a sense of connection and warmth and love for him. In this way, he and I have both been changed for good.

(on a side note) Something crazy that Josh Hamilton revealed was that while he was still out of baseball, he had a dream of himself hitting home runs at Yankee stadium, in a HR derby. This happened before any announcement was made by Major League Baseball saying that the All-Star festivities would take place in New York. With God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!