Win in Auburn Before You Win in Arizona

I feel as if my previous blogs have been a bit gloomy and dramatic so hopefully I can put more of a positive spin on this one and evoke some feelings of hope rather than despair. The other day I was driving back from class as usual and I looked out to my right and I saw a man around the age of 50 with a bulky knee brace on moving at about the speed of muddy water rolling uphill. I have probably seen this gentlemen a total of 100 times in my college career whether it's been at Wal-Mart working at the front door, on College Street climbing a steep side walk slowly, or walking past ACF on Gay Street, I see this guy all the time. Every time I see him I wonder the same thing, why doesn't he just order a ride from a taxi or take any of the offers nice people give to him? It must take him at least two hours to get to Wal-Mart from where ever he lives on Gay Street. Then it occurred to me, maybe it's not about the time to get to where he is going, but maybe it's about the journey. Maybe with every slow limp he encounters on his long walks he intentionally enjoys them. Taking my time is something I'm painfully bad at, while hanging with my great friends Leah and Eric, who will be a beautiful married couple next year, I realized I'm not ready for the life they are about to ensue. I rush into relationships when I find them usually because I know what I want when I find it, but the truth is I may have what I want but I have no idea where I'm going with it. For example, when my parents bought me my first 4-wheeler at the age of nine, I thought from watching all the older kids I knew how to ride my new ATV. In my usual rush I jumped on my machine thinking I knew what I was doing but in the few seconds after my attempt to push the gas as hard as possible I found my self up under my uncles house disconnected from my 4- wheeler. I wanted to go fast but I had no clue what I was doing. Too often in life we overlook where we are and look to the future for our hope, we move-on or move too fast. We've never been a patience people, whether it motivates us to correct the wrongs of slavery or motivates us to kill the savior. When our current situation consumes us we look to our dreams of what our future will be like to save us. When the truth is we don't need to trust in what our future holds when we have a lord who is willing to be our battle axe in our times of war in life. We don't need to huddle under our dreams when we have the lord who is willing to be our shelter in a storm. We need to find refuge in the saviors arms and have the patience to look to the hills for which that's where our help will arrive. I heard Coach Rocker (our Defensive Line coach at Auburn) say, "You have to win in Auburn before you win in Arizona."( where the national championship game is) We have to win the battles of today before we dream of the successes of the future, we must enjoy every step like the gentleman with the knee brace, and we must not rush or we may find ourselves discounted from more than our 4-wheelers. At the end of the day we must Win in Auburn Before You Win in Arizona.

May GOD bless you, May GOD bless these United States and may he bless us all with patience.