“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 15:18-19
I sat in the gym for majority of the day Saturday cheering on my boys- not just the ones I gave birth to, but to a group of young men that I’ve had the privilege to see grow over the years into fine young men. Some of them would be labeled as misfits, juveniles while others would be described as gentlemen, future leaders, or sweet boys. Whether you look at them as a bunch of misfits, bandits, children of God, brights stars or just call them by their name METRO SUNS, they truly stand out in a crowd individually and collectively.
The atmosphere was tense and stakes were high as Metro Suns had been invited by one of the coaches to compete. Coach Spry was ready to E.A.T. but his players looked concerned because it was a lot of younger kids and they didn’t see their competition right off hand. After sitting for a while they finally saw their “ops” after some friendly banter was spoken amongst a few of the players.
You know that saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” When in a place where we all should have been looked at as children of God, our group was judged and labeled as if they were under the influence of alcohol or marijuana or too old to be in the league. Ignorance is bliss! And so as we sat in the gym being ostracized by some I thank God for allowing His grace to reign supreme because where it could have went physical, the Metro Suns allowed their love of basketball and God-given talent to speak for them and the scoreboard definitely showed it.
This group of young men saw first hand what it meant to fight the battle on their knees in Christ and how to allow silence to speak louder than words. I was so proud of these young men because as folks thought there were thugs and folks tried to get a rise out them, they maintained their composure and stood their ground.
It’s like they were hated because they wore a smile that was brighter than the rest of the crowd- their confidence shined brightly because they knew it was about to be “bodies” dropping on the court. I don’t mean physical bodies for those of you who looking sideways. And so Game #1 went by, Metro Suns won! A lot of speculative talk and straight disrespect took place from the Coach down to the players and the crowd but like Coach Spry said, “it was all love!”
As Christians we are taught be in the world but not of the world. Going back to the Scripture of the day, we see that Jesus and His followers were not the most liked or accepted. The world’s hatred and rejection of the Lord was loud then and it still echoes throughout society now. But we shouldn’t conform to the ways of the world to be accepted by society, no the Bible tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind,
Hours had gone by and the boys waited and waited for the championship round. Some of them had been fragrantly fouled but little did their ops know; it was added fuel for the fire.
To my Metro Suns team I want y’all to know that God created you to stand out, never to fit in. He created you to allow His light to shine through you. I stand here proudly saying, you all did just that! You didn’t allow the negative comments and ignorance of the crowd to stop you, you didn’t allow the judgement of the other Coach and some of the organizers of the event to dim your light, and you sure did not fall for the bait trap by causing a disturbance or engaging in a fist fight NO you all stood ten toes down and crushed the competition! You did not boast, you didn’t brag but you stood up for yourselves and for each other.
Young men in this world as long as you follow Christ, you are going to be hated. As long as you use your God given talents on and off the court you will be talked about. Folks are jealous of you because despite the grace or jail cell some folks wish you were in, God has a perfect plan for your lives. I have seen some inner changes that will help each of you with your outward walk in Christ. Keep defying the odds, silencing the enemy by showing up for God and yourselves, and by excelling in school and on and off the court.
To each parent, guardian, family member that has had a hand in raising these bright, young men on behalf of Coach Spry we thank you for the work you are doing and the time you have invested in seeing they have a bright future. Again, it has been my honor to serve as Team Mom, to feed these young men, encourage them from the side line, and watch them grow.
#ProudMommaMoment
This was a very nice tribute to the team and to the parents of the young men that played. All I can say is that they were raised correct to stand against resistance, name calling, ignorance, and hatred. They are a lot better than me because as a mother myself and even as a follower of Christ, some things slip my tongue. I am a work in progress still. But I am pressing on. I want to challenge all the parents and that’s to teach their children young to seek God first. So what does that look like, I have got the perfect example. Watch, The Forge, a Tyler Perry Movie, with your child or children. The kid did what was necessary to put God first. Was it easy, of course not, but guess what, I am 99.9 percent sure that he made his path much easier than resisting God. Ok. That’s my first challenge and then the second Challenge is teaching our children the weapons God gave us to use for this spiritual warfare that’s among us and our children. I did a prayer walk about it and a little child took something from all the teaching I did. Feel free to watch it or talk to your Pastor about it or YouTube about it. It is a must in our society today since we are seeing prophecies unfold right before our eyes. Thank you Whitnee for such a moving and loving post. Our children have to get it for the next generation and so on or The Good Lord can come and meet his Bride in the Sky. Amen.
Amen. Thank you for the challenges and advice to parents. It truly takes a village.
When you get the chance, send me the link to your prayer walk and I can feature that inspiring message here for folks to be blessed by it.
My son & I watched the Forge & I highly recommend it too! God bless you Whitnee’ & Rico for being the example of what God wants us all to do for our young people.
And may God richly bless you and your family! It’s Beautiful folks like you who do a phenomenal job at home that makes our job easier because we just have to continue to build on the strong foundation YOU created!
*The Forge
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