Champion

It's 5:30 in the morning and I can't sleep because my mind is wondering about all the things that have happened throughout this season. Through the great times and the bad times, this season has overall been a good year for me personally as well as in a team aspect. Coming into this season I had no idea what to expect because every year you have the same routine of waiting and finding out what the best deal for you will be. Whether that is overseas or whether in my case this year the D-League, it is all about patience and trusting in your agents to work for you. The season started off great for me personally. I had a big role on a team full of really talented guys and we got off to a good start for the first part of the season. Just when I thought that everything was going really well, I got traded to the Erie Bayhawks. I had no idea what was going on and it all happened so fast that I almost felt betrayed by Rio Grande Valley even though it's all just business. It makes you think that your not good enough or that what you were doing wasn't enough for them to keep you around. But, I had no idea that God was working in a mysterious way for me throughout the season. It's usually during those times of uncertainty and questioning that God is usually working that much more for you. It took me some time to really realize that and when I did, it made me that much better. I kept telling myself that I would use this trade as motivation to basically stick it to the Vipers for trading me and I would make them really think hard about why they made such a decision. Things in Erie didn't go as I had planned and thought they would. My role kind of diminished from what it was like earlier. During one of the times when I was at my lowest, I got hurt. Once I got hurt I got frustrated and stopped seeing the good things throughout the situation I was in and that really hampered my game. With that frustration came the loss in confidence of my game and any basketball player can tell you that once you lose confidence in your self, it's hard to get it back. I tried to play throughout the injury and I just kept hurting my ankle.Took a while, but  I finally got healed up and started to gain my confidence back. We were making a playoff push and I had told myself that I was going to do everything in my power to help this team win the championship. As we were coming back from a road trip, I had a gut feeling that something was wrong. My mind began to wonder about many different scenarios and finally I just had to ask Coach what was going on. He told me that I had been traded and all I could think of was, "Wow, again. What is wrong with me? Is basketball really something I should continue to pursue?". I took it all in and asked him where I had been traded. He told me that I was traded back to the Vipers and at that moment I had so many feelings going on in my head. I didn't know what God was doing and when we don't usually know what's going on, we begin to question God. We begin to think, "Why are you putting my family and I through all this change and uncertainty." But, we fail to realize that he is testing our faith and patience to accept his will for our lives. When I got back to the Vipers, the team was completely different then when I left, but I was really grateful to be back. There were only a few guys that were left from the team when I was here earlier and I had no idea what my role would be like coming back. It started back where I had left off and I had a big role on the team, but soon that changed. My role diminished again and I began to get frustrated again about not playing as much as I felt like I should be playing. I had to take a look at myself and figure out that I could only control what I could and when I was given my time, I had to do the most with it. When I changed my thinking, God really rewarded my team and I by allowing us the opportunity to win a championship. It was an unbelievable ride as we won our last 16 games and broke many records along the way. I was really blessed to get to play with this group of guys, the great coaching staff and a really awesome organization as a whole. This season has really come around full circle for me personally. I've learned to not worry so much about the things that are going on in my life because every change is God putting us in a position to set us up for success. We have to just accept that change as hard as it might be and move forward knowing that he is in our corner. When God is in your corner you can NEVER lose! I'm just thankful that God blessed me with the ability to go through all the things that I went through this year. I got the ability to play for a great organization and to play with a great group of guys. At the end of the day, the ups and downs even the uncertainty was definitely worth it. Excited for what God has next for my wife and I!

Your Time is Coming

It seems to be very cliche for your parents or people that you look up to telling you that your time is coming. I know it's hard to believe and it's hard to practice the patience necessary for us to wait on our moment, but it will happen. In the media today we tend to hear about people as being over night success stories, but what they really don't talk about is how long it took for their dreams to become reality. Of course it takes hard work and some God given ability, but it also takes adversity. Adversity is the times we get kicked down and are in the valleys. In the times of adversity we tend to begin the thoughts of second guessing ourselves and negative thinking. That's the moments when we have to take a second and get out of the valley that were stuck in. I've always been told that God only puts his strongest warriors through the biggest battles. We have to know that we are all Gods strongest warriors and that in our times of need, that is when he is working his hardest. Be patient and know that your time is coming. It may be next week, next month, or even next year. But your time is coming. Continue to have faith in yourself and your abilities so that when your time does finally come, you will be ready for it . I'm still waiting on my time to come. Will you continue to be patient along with me or will you stay imprisoned in your valley?