November 27, 2024 • 45 mins
Have you ever had your sport taken away from you in an instant, leaving you to question your identity because it was so tightly tied to your athletic journey? When that happens, where do you turn? What do you look to for meaning? In this episode, we're joined by our good friend and first guest, Justin Hill, who shares his powerful story of navigating these very questions. As a former collegiate athlete, Justin’s journey took an unexpected turn that ultimately led him to seek a deeper connection with God and discover a newfound faith.
Justin Hill, a talented basketball player from Lancaster, California, earned first-team All-League honors at Antelope Valley College before transferring to Cal State East Bay to continue his basketball career. While Justin has numerous athletic achievements to his name, the most significant impact he's made has been through his passion for Jesus and his commitment to sharing His love with others.
Tune in to hear Justin's inspiring story and how faith reshaped his life and purpose beyond the court.
Mentioned:
Justin Hill: @itsjustinhill4
Justin’s Podcast: @seekhiim
If you enjoyed this podcast, reach out to us! We would love to hear more about you and your story. If you would like to hear more, subscribe to the 🧂 Athlete and follow us on Instagram!
@thesaltedathlete
TAKEAWAYS
- The mission of The Salted Athlete is to support athletes in their faith journey.
- Justin Hill shares his transformative journey from basketball to faith.
- Identity as an athlete can be deeply tied to performance and results.
- Faith can provide strength and purpose beyond sports.
- Seeking God is essential for spiritual growth and understanding.
- The Bible is a living document that speaks to personal experiences.
- Athletes can serve others and share their faith through their actions.
- God has a unique plan for each individual, especially in times of struggle.
- Understanding Jesus is crucial for a strong foundation in faith.
- Transformation through faith can lead to a life focused on serving others.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What's up?
(00:07):
I'm Tiana Weeks.
And I'm Evan Wardlow.
And you're listening to The Salted Athlete.
This is a podcast by Christian Athletes for all athletes.
Our mission here on The Salted Athlete is to encourage and support athletes in their
walk with Jesus.
Join us as we seek the Lord and create a community of Salted Athletes.
(00:28):
Let's get it!
What's up everybody?
Welcome to this week's episode of The Salted Athlete.
T, how you doing?
I'm doing good.
I'm super excited about today's episode.
We have our first guest, Justin Hill on the podcast today.
(00:49):
He's one of my good friends.
He played for East Bay Basketball and we led athletes' final study together.
So I just know he has a lot of wisdom and a lot of depth to him that I'm excited for
everyone to hear more about.
Yeah, man.
It'll be fun.
I was able to host this guy on his visit, meet his family when he came.
He was coming in when I was heading out of East Bay.
(01:11):
So I think this will be a great episode and we'll get to know more about him, his identity,
what he's doing, and his journey in faith along with basketball.
So let's get it!
Mr. Justin Hill, Mr. Justin Hill, the world awaits to hear from you.
Come on, man.
Let's do it.
(01:33):
I just want to say I'm excited that you're on.
This is so fun.
Yeah, I know.
It's pretty cool.
I haven't seen you guys in a minute.
It's been a long time.
Especially Evan.
I was like, dang, last time I saw Evan, I was just getting to East Bay.
Yeah, you know, welcome.
Literally welcome on.
You know, congratulations on being the first guest of the show.
We're really happy to have you.
(01:54):
I'm excited and I hope a lot of people can learn from our conversation.
A lot of people can grow closer in their faith and a lot of people can take a stance on what
they believe in and really fall into that.
So I'm excited.
I'm glad to be the first episode or first guest, but let's do it, man.
So I wanted to start off by saying thank you for coming on the podcast.
(02:19):
You were like a no brainer, we have to have Jay Hill on and we have to have him on first.
And so I just want you to tell us a little bit more about your story and how the Lord
shifted your perspective on basketball.
Yeah, for sure.
For starters, I didn't grow up in church at all.
So I probably attended church a handful of times in my life.
(02:41):
I remember my family going and getting church hurt and then we never went back to church
at all.
So my view of church was really tainted.
And when I got to college, Cal State East Bay, I got a scholarship to play basketball
there and at the time I had a girlfriend and I was doing so many things that were just
not respectful to my relationship.
(03:02):
I was doing a lot of things like that.
So in turn, my girlfriend ended up finding her faith.
Before I did, she was attending a group called Fellowship of Christian Athletes, FCA, at
her school.
And what ended up happening is she started to take this up so strongly.
She started to really faithfully do this that she was trying to share it with me.
And at the time when she was trying to share it, I was like, man, that's weird.
(03:24):
That's spiritual stuff is out for me.
I was kind of in a way persecuting her, telling her, that's just weird.
My view of church was for people that grew up in church that couldn't make friends outside
of the church.
That was my view.
So I thought it was just a bunch of weird people.
And at the time she ended up breaking up with me, which really hurt me.
So fast forward, I'm going throughout my basketball career.
(03:48):
I was there about a year and a half, and I was having constant friction with our head
coach.
We just couldn't come to a common understanding of what my role was on the team.
I could work as hard as I tried and never felt like I was achieving anything.
And it was tough because this was my entire life.
I had been playing basketball since I was probably about six years old.
(04:10):
I worked my entire life to get a scholarship.
I achieved a division one scholarship, ended up having to go to Juco.
They went to a division two at Cal State East Bay.
And I was like, man, I hadn't been through a journey.
I deserved some minutes on the floor.
I feel like I'm talented enough to be able to at least get that.
And we just weren't coming to a common understanding.
So it led to very, very hard friction.
(04:31):
And I remember a group approaching me on campus talking about, hey, like, do you want to study
the Bible, you know, look into your faith?
And I really didn't give them no time of day.
I was shying away from them.
I was like, man, I'm already a Christian.
I got to get to practice and I do all those things.
But it actually stirred something in me because even with my girlfriend breaking up with me
over that, I was like, you know what, maybe that is something I could dig into.
(04:54):
So I was pushed to start a ministry on campus called Intervarsity.
And this is something that, you know, I felt like contributed to getting my faith off the
ground.
And so as I was going to practice every single day, the end of the season came and I remember
sitting in coach's office.
I was the first exit meeting.
(05:16):
And in my mind, I was like, man, I'm going to get up out of here.
I'm going to transfer.
I know my talents could be used somewhere else.
And I get in the meeting and he's like, how do you think the year went?
And I was like, this is around my junior year.
And I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't think it went as planned.
I don't think it was best fitting for me.
And he was like, yeah, he said, you know, I won't be returning you next year.
(05:39):
Before I could even get any words out, he told me he wasn't going to return me.
And this hit home like crazy, shook me to the core.
All the years of growing up playing AAU basketball, everybody's always talked about like, you
always hear about these guys having bad attitudes, getting kicked out of school, losing scholarships.
And I was always like, that can never happen to me.
You know, I felt like I was the exception that I could never get to this level where
(06:02):
coach would just cut me.
And I think it, it made me realize that I'm not invincible.
So in turn, I was like, man, okay, I'm walking back and I'm heading back to the door.
We still had COVID restrictions.
So we had a intervarsity online Zoom meeting.
And I popped my laptop open.
(06:23):
We're in this intervarsity Zoom meeting.
A woman's basketball player was leading that night.
And I remember after the meeting, I closed the laptop and I was like, man, like,
what am I going to do?
I couldn't even be present in the meeting because I just lost my scholarship.
Like I can't confide to my parents about that because I don't really talk to them on
that emotional level.
(06:44):
Like I can't talk to my girlfriend.
She's not there.
I mean, the only thing I can continue to do is continue to party, drink, smoke, do all
these things that are like temporary, keeping my mind off of it.
But as I come back to the dorm, I'm thinking about this.
Like, what is my life now without basketball?
I'm a regular student.
This is something that's hit me.
And I laid back and I was like, you know what?
(07:06):
Sitting in my dorm on the couch and I was, let me just pray.
Let me just pray.
Like let's see if this actually works.
Let me just pray.
And I closed my eyes and I remember praying and I was like, God, if you're real, like,
I need something.
Teach me something.
Show me something.
And I made a prayer, I stopped and I'm like, let me just Google this.
(07:32):
What can I find on the internet?
And I Google, okay, how do I get closer to God?
Five things came up, showed me you have to have a Bible, find a community, start praying,
go to church and just have faith.
And as I was writing this down, journaling, how to do these things, I get a phone call.
(07:53):
But this phone call, this guy hits me up and his name's Daniel, never forget it.
He said, hey, are you willing to study the Bible?
Would you like to do a Bible study?
And I was like, how'd you get my phone number?
I knew this was the dude on campus.
I was like, how'd you get my phone number?
And he said, one of your teammates gave it to me because they said you'd be probably
(08:13):
open to even studying the Bible.
And I was like, whoa, hold on.
I said, okay, you know what?
I said, I had a little ego in me.
I was like, okay, you know what, if you really about it, meet me in the union at 8 AM.
And he was like, okay, I'll be there.
And I remember that morning I go and grab off the top of the shelf of my closet.
(08:35):
A Bible my dad gave me and it was a KJV Bible.
I pull it off and I have to blow dust off of it.
That's how long it's been since I've used it.
Yes, sounds about right.
And that's how long it's been since I used it.
I take it and I'm showing this dude, I'm like, hey, look, like last night I was doing this
and you called me.
I was looking at how to see God and he was like, bro, perfect.
(08:57):
I'm gonna show you exactly how to see God.
And he did a Bible study with me, took me in depth through scripture, what it actually
looks like to see God with my whole heart.
And from then on, it just the trajectory changed my life.
It was like looking at something that I was like, dang, I didn't even know the Bible said
that.
Yeah.
I was calling my Christian an entire life and seeing that my life was being called out
(09:21):
by the Bible.
I was like, hold on, I got a choice to make.
Am I going to fall into this or am I going to just back out and say, hey, I'm not a Christian?
Yeah.
Go ahead.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And it's crazy because it's like in Hebrews four, it says the Bible is alive and active.
Right.
(09:42):
And I look at it and I'm like, man, the Bible is alive and active because when I looked
at it and opened it up, it read me like a book.
They said, this is who you are.
It's the only one that you can see it and it reads you.
That's what they say.
Yeah.
And honestly, I was, I was in shock.
I was actually in shock.
And I've heard this saying and it just sticks with me is like the Bible was a mirror, but
(10:07):
a lot of Christians nowadays use it like a window, right, to see other people and say,
Hey, you're they're not doing this.
They're not doing that.
No, no, no, no.
But when the word of God opens up, it's a mirror because it's reflecting who you truly
are.
And I think at that point I had the decision to make, man, am I going to be a disciple
of Christ or am I just going to fall out and say I'm a false Christian?
(10:29):
And that really convicted me, man.
And I ended up really getting heavily into my faith.
That I've been told a couple of months before that I'd be doing that.
I probably would have told you you were crazy.
But um, yeah, that's the short story, but it's a good story and that's the good news,
man.
It hit me.
It hit me.
Man, that's, that's a lot.
(10:52):
I mean, the story in general, and I think you hit on a ton of points for one, God, various
ways in terms of oftentimes what you put your identity in, especially as an athlete, when
that is all we know, he can oftentimes take that from you, but everything works out for
(11:15):
the good of those that love him, you know, and he used that to make sure that you for
one are saved eternally and two can now plant seeds for other people to hopefully be saved.
So, amazing, hard, and I'm sure there are days you probably didn't think you would make
it through.
(11:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's real.
And I think it's crazy because it's one thing to know that God has given us free will, but
it's another thing to know that he loves us enough that he wants us to worship him, glorify
him, and ultimately achieve heaven.
And I think even with that free will, he can't force you to love him.
So what will he do?
(11:56):
He's going to pull the things away that you say you love, that you think you love, the
things you idolize that are pleasing you for the temporary.
And he's going to pull that away to show you that he has an abundant happiness, a joyful
happiness, a happiness not based on circumstance that he could provide for you and fill that
void with.
But it took some deep thinking to see that, it took some hard times to see that.
(12:20):
And it's just, you know, you got to see that there's another side to the story.
I thought basketball was everything.
And ultimately it's not.
It's not.
It's hard because you spend your whole life.
I mean, for you guys specifically, it's been basketball.
That's your whole life.
And so how can you not put your identity in that until you meet the Lord and then everything
(12:43):
changes like you were saying, Jay Hill, your life changed drastically.
And I met you after you met the Lord.
I remember you would always say like, man, like you don't even know the person.
I was like, oh my gosh, like, no, he has like, yeah.
And that's so real though, because that's same with me too.
If you were talking to me, I don't know, five years ago, not the same person at all.
(13:05):
And I'll go right to God for that.
But Jay Hill, I also want you to touch on how your life changed from before the Lord and
then after meeting him.
I know you got baptized.
If you want to talk about that.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So my life, even before God, my walk with God was was crazy.
Like I, and I'm sure a lot of people can attest to this, but it was all about me.
(13:29):
My life was all about me.
Like the confidence was through the roof.
The talking to the girls was through the roof.
Like what I wanted, I felt like I could get.
It was just all about me.
And this is how much it was all about me is that the license plate on my car has my name.
I know.
Like this guy's license plate says Jay Hill with a sticker on it.
(13:52):
Yeah, I was like, I was like MJ in college.
I was like, I'm him.
But I think that that mentality carried into like different parts of my life that were
affecting relationships, affecting friendships.
And even it was, it was a risk to even those around me.
I remember one night I was coming from a party and I was pretty intoxicated, really, really
(14:15):
intoxicated.
And we were coming from a party and I had a car full of my teammates and I'm driving
and my car is pretty fast.
So I'm on the freeway racing.
The next morning I wake up, I say, Hey, I asked one of my teammates that said, Hey, how did
we get home last night?
And he was like, bro, you don't remember how he got home last night.
(14:36):
And that how, how scary is that that we could have all died that night because of me thinking
about me.
Yeah.
Right.
And I looked and I fast forward and I'm like, man, going through that time of desperate need
of saying, Hey, I don't know who I am because I've been so involved with my sport.
I don't know anything outside of that.
(14:57):
The seeking of God, reaching out to him really allowed me to, to grab hold and say that God
isn't far.
Right.
I had, I had never even had this idea of who God was and God wasn't far and all I had
to do with seek him.
And when I sought him, it was like, dang, I found him and he's found me.
(15:17):
Right.
Which even led me on March, March 2nd, 2022, I got baptized and I was like, man, this is
a life I'm taking and I'm not going to look back.
I'm not going to look back at my old life.
I'm not going to turn back to that.
That's just not going to happen.
Why?
Because now I'm renewed.
My life has changed.
My, my world is not about me anymore.
(15:39):
Right.
And when we say yes to Jesus, the team we're on, Jesus has invited us to his team to do
what?
To go out and actually share, to go out and actually bring more to the team, to go out
and bring more to the wedding banquet that he's called us to have with him.
It went from all about me to me thinking about everybody else.
And I think that's the most humbling thing ever because it just allowed me to really
(16:03):
say that there, there are others out there and I am nothing.
Right.
I am nothing in compared to God's eyes that yes, he loves me.
He's using me, but I am nothing.
I am nothing.
And when I started to realize that, that I could be helpful to other people and it just,
it changed my life and I'm really thankful for it.
Yeah.
(16:23):
Let's go.
That's awesome.
I know you've touched on and I just know you so well.
Your big thing is seeking the Lord.
If you seek him, you will find him.
So Jay Hill and I, we led something called our athletes and adversity together.
And one of the Bible studies that you led was seeking him and that's actually like a
brand that you have now is seek him.
(16:45):
So can you touch more on seek him and your brand there and what you're doing now with
that?
Yeah, for sure.
So yeah, I starting this, this thing, I always looked back and I'm like, I'm so big
on foundations, right?
I always called myself a Christian and I never knew what the foundation of that was.
(17:05):
And when my eyes were open to this seeking God study and actually understanding what
this concept was seeking God, I was like, man, this is foundation that everybody needs
to know.
I know there's a lot of people out there that claim that they're Christian Catholic, but
never looked into the foundations of what they actually believe.
They just inherited like it was a last name.
And this is actually a podcast I started and I was like, man, I want to use my story of
(17:29):
saying, Hey, I inherited this like a last name, but I actually was willing to go back
to the foundation and look into how to even seek God.
And I want to use that platform to show people say, Hey, I know you're Catholic.
I know you're Christian.
I know you're in the Muslim faith.
I know you're Jehovah Witness, but hey, look back into the foundation of what it actually
looks like to seek God and see that it's beyond just a label, a name, a title, that it's a
(17:54):
relationship, right?
One thing that was big in starting that, that brand, that label of seeking him is Matthew
chapter six verse 33.
I have my Bible in front of me, so I just read it.
But Matthew six 33 says, but first seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these
(18:15):
things would be given to you as well.
I found this so crazy was because Jesus was actually talking to his disciples and his
disciples had been following him for a while and he's telling them, he's like, Hey, don't
worry about these material things that everybody is worrying about.
He says that pagans worry about these things.
Pagans are unbelievers and he dyes in so much to say is that, Hey, the birds of the air
(18:38):
get taken care of.
If the birds of the air get taken care of how much more will God take care of somebody
made in his image?
And verse, it gets to verse 33.
He says, don't worry about these things, but do this instead.
And what he actually says, he says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
If we break these things down, it looks like two things, but Jesus is actually telling us
(19:00):
to do three things.
Right?
If we say, what does it look like to seek first his kingdom?
This is, this is exactly what I taught in this seeking God study at inner varsity.
I said, what does it look like to seek his kingdom?
And a lot of people, what comes to mind for me is a physical kingdom.
You think of a castle.
I recently watched gladiator and greatest movie ever.
(19:22):
But okay, besides the point, that's, that's like a kingdom, right?
This, this castle, this big old Coliseum, this is a kingdom.
And it's, if we think of, we break kingdom into two words, we say King being who God,
Jesus Christ, D O D O M standing for dominion.
So what is Jesus actually telling us?
People living inside this kingdom is the King and his people.
(19:44):
So when we think of kingdom, it's God and his people.
Jesus said, seek first God and his people.
And then he said, seek his righteousness as well.
Well, where do we find righteousness?
What does righteousness even mean?
This is a big word.
I, I, I came to this faith.
I was like, man, this is like, sounds beyond me, but an easy way to think about it.
(20:06):
Righteousness, the definition of is everything right in the eyes of God.
Where do we find everything right in the eyes of God?
In the word of God, in the way what God has said, right?
The things he, he's commanding of us, the things that he wants us to hold, the things
he wants us to live by.
That is where we find righteousness and how to live by that.
(20:26):
So he actually told us, seek God, his people and the Bible instead of these two things.
And I found it such a solution of what it looked like to seek God instead of worrying.
A lot of people would say, Hey, you told me something to do something, but you never
gave me practical how to do it and Jesus actually gave him practical.
He said, these material things that you worry about will give them to you as well.
(20:47):
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own, which actually led me to see that.
Hey, today I have to think about God.
I have to think about seeking him, his people, reading his word.
If I had these things solidified, then I'll be good.
I'll for sure understand what it, what it looks like to live righteous.
(21:08):
I'll understand what it looks like to live with courage.
It's given me faith and I think it's, it's so huge that we do these three things.
And this is foundation fundamental to the Christian faith.
And that's what I advocate for.
Yeah, that's so good.
Well, after you gave that Bible study, it's like that's stuff that I knew, but I always
(21:28):
go back to it.
It just simplifies things.
All I have to do is seek the Lord and I will find him.
And I think sometimes that can be difficult in athletics, at least for me, I feel like,
okay, my faith is right here.
And then I step on the court and my sport is here.
And sometimes it's hard to get them intertwined.
(21:49):
How do I bring my faith onto the court with me?
But after you taught that, I would just go back to it like, okay, I can seek the Lord
just saying, I'm not getting playing time.
I can seek the Lord.
How can I be a vessel for him when it's maybe not showing in my performance?
So like, I can't give glory to God for my stats, but like, how else can I be giving
him glory?
(22:09):
And I think it's as simple as seeking him and seeking his people and, you know, seeing
my teammates for more than just their performance as well, but seeing them as children of God.
So yeah, that Bible study was super helpful for me and still has a huge impact on my life
as I know it will for other people who are listening.
Yeah, I think the biggest thing of that is, I mean, you talk about you were living for
(22:34):
yourself.
In James, it tells us like, at the end of the day, if you are of the world and you love
the world, you're an enemy of God, you know, and so there's a lot of things that you touched
on that go along with the fundamentals of building faith, which I think that's why Christianity,
(22:55):
that Jesus himself is different because it's about relationship.
It's about the putting in the work, you come to him, he will come to you.
And like, as you said, you only find that in the word of God.
And I think lastly of even T, what you said is when it comes back to being an athlete,
when it comes to being in a sport and you're in that result driven entity and you are kind
(23:19):
of a product.
How do you bring your faith in to allow you to be so much more than just a product to
his producing on the court, on the field, whatever.
And I think it takes me back to Mark 1045, where Jesus tells us, for even the Son of
man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many,
(23:45):
many, many years of life, you know, and I think embodying that as assaulted athlete.
That is where, hey, you may not be playing, but you're still supporting other people.
You're the first person who one of your teammates calls when they're going through a hard time.
You know, you're there for others.
You're lifting them up.
You are being a presence, hopefully in a great situation where you can use your ability
(24:10):
and your talent that the Lord has blessed you with,
but also because we are following him.
As you said, you have to get out of yourself
and understand that he'll put you in places
and environments and on teams and around people
to bring those people to him and to plan a seed
so that he can now reach them
as the same thing happened for you on your journey.
(24:33):
You know what I mean?
And the same thing happened for both of us.
And I think anyone who is seeking Jesus,
there came a point where it's human nature
that you were thinking of yourself
and he brought someone maybe into your life
or worked some type of God-giving ability
to allow your eyes to be turned towards him.
(24:54):
So yeah, man, I think it's great.
Your journey is great.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy, man.
I think a big question with athletes, right?
Even being one is why me?
That's a huge question to ask.
When you're on the court, the field, whatever it is,
(25:16):
and you get hurt, man, it's like, you look up and you're like,
man, I was having such a great time, a good season,
a good game, and you're like, man, why me?
Why does this happen to me?
And I found myself asking that question multiple times
and just reading through the scriptures,
seeing it answered in Acts chapter 17 verse 26.
(25:39):
I just wanna share that quick.
I'll read 26.
It says, from one man, he made all the nations
that they should inhabit the whole earth
and he marked out their appointed times and histories
and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him
and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from any one of us.
And I look at this scripture and you ask, why me?
(26:02):
And for someone saying, why me?
From one man, God made all the nations,
that man being Adam.
And it says that he put Adam on earth
and Adam had descendants and he put them exact times
they needed to live in, the timeline,
the places they needed to be.
And God did this so that they would perhaps
seek him and find him, right?
(26:22):
So there was no coincidence you had that injury.
There was no coincidence you ended up at the school
you ended up at.
There's no coincidence that you had the coach you had.
There's no coincidence that you were surrounded
by the group you were around.
Why? God put you in these certain positions,
these times and places, so that you could perhaps
reach out for him.
And I say perhaps because God made it a choice.
(26:43):
Right? Right?
Free will.
You went through an injury.
Yeah, free will.
You went through an injury and you didn't like it.
And you asked that question, why me?
But God said, hey, I did this so that you could seek me.
Yeah.
I allowed this to happen so that you could seek me.
Now it's not to look at God and say, hey, let's blame God
for all the bad that's happening.
No, no, no.
(27:04):
Because we know Satan is there too.
But God allows these things to happen.
Why?
So you can see the bigger purpose to the picture
that he has in store.
And it just all goes back to what his plan looks like
for your life.
I think that's another scripture.
And we could probably get into that later with Jeremiah 29.
I mean, hey, everybody loves this scripture.
(27:26):
I mean, it's one of the greatest scriptures
to come off the Bible with God saying
he has a plan for us, a plan not to harm us,
but to give us a hope in the future.
And you know what?
Let's go there.
Let's go there.
Let's go.
I mean, it's too firing not to share.
It's too firing not to share.
But this is a key scripture.
(27:48):
And I love this scripture because everybody knows it.
Everybody reads it.
Everybody uses it as a daily affirmation.
People have it tatted on them.
People have it as their wallpapers.
And let's just go through and let's read it.
Jeremiah 29 verse 11.
It says, for I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
(28:08):
plans to give you hope in the future.
How awesome is that?
That God said he has a plan for you.
Yeah, you got hurt.
But God has a plan for you.
Yeah, you lost your scholarship.
But God has a plan for you.
Yeah, you lost a parent.
You lost a sister.
You lost a brother, a mother, grandma, grandpa.
But God has a plan for you.
(28:30):
And this is a scripture people are really
looking to take in and say, hey, God has a plan for me.
And they just leave it at that and continue with their life.
Yeah, I'm playing basketball.
God has a plan for me.
I scored 30 points all glory to God.
The next night I scored five points.
And is it all glory to God?
(28:53):
Was this in God's plan?
But in all reality, how do we even
know if God's plan is going into effect?
We have to be transformed.
And let's just keep reading.
This is a scripture that's not heavily kept read on.
And if we keep reading verse 12, it says,
then you will call on me and come to me and pray to me.
And I will listen to you.
Verse 13, you will seek me and find me
(29:14):
when you seek me with all of your heart.
Verse 14, I will be found by you, declares the Lord.
And I will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places
where I have vanished you, declares the Lord.
And I will bring you back to the place which I carried you
into exile.
Now it's crazy to give you context.
This scripture is talking about the Israelites
(29:36):
being in captive by the Babylonians.
Why?
Because they were holding on to idols.
So because they were holding on to idols.
And for us, for athletes, we would say our sport,
we're holding on to these idols.
God said, OK, you know what?
I'm going to let this go.
And you go ahead.
Let's see your idol produced for you.
Let's see how well you can go off and just say
you can do this on your own.
(29:57):
And he says, go ahead.
And what that does is that carries us into exile.
That carries us into sadness.
That carries us into bitterness.
And he says, you know what?
At this point, then you will call on me.
Then you will be found.
I will be found by you.
Then you will see what it actually
looks like to have my plan go into effect for you.
(30:18):
And then he says, that'll only go into effect in verse 13
when you seek me and you find me and you seek me
with your whole heart.
This goes back to the Sikh him is like, hey,
this is the foundations, right?
But where does he say we're currently at?
We're in captivity.
Why?
Because we've allowed ourselves to value our sport.
(30:39):
Because it's something we've been doing our entire life.
And we're captive.
We're held captives to our sport are our results.
We're held captive to that.
Our sins, we're held captive to that.
But it's not until we see God with all our heart
that he actually digs in and pulls us out.
I give this illustration of a card loaded with $500.
(31:02):
If I gave a card loaded with $500 to the both of you,
and I said, hey, go spend this however you please.
You guys both will go spend it at the store however you want.
You get to the register, and you swipe the card,
and it says decline.
And you're looking at the lady at the desk or the man
at the desk, and you're saying, hey,
I know there's money on here.
This guy gave me $500.
(31:23):
She says, OK, hold on.
Let me take it on my end.
She looks at it, and she turns it over.
And she says, oh, you didn't pull the strip off the back
to activate it.
And I look at that same way as like,
we've never dug into the foundations
and pulled the strip off our Walk with God
to activate these plans he has for us.
(31:43):
It's so crazy, but it's something
that I've come to realize in my Walk with God
that these foundations are needed.
These foundations are things we have to know,
that we have to research, that we
have to look into, because seeking after God,
he says that we could be found by him.
And he promises these plans.
So why not go in and say, hey, I trust God with these plans,
(32:05):
because God has created me.
He knows more than I do.
Yeah.
And I just found that to be such a graceful way of thinking,
a humble way of thinking, and saying, hey,
these plans are God's plans.
Let me look into that and see what that looks like.
Now just take the verse at face value
and say that I'm going to go live how I want,
and God has these plans.
So yeah.
(32:26):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Wow, that was really hitting home for me, Ali.
So how about you, Evan?
Thanks for church, my guy.
I was just sitting there.
Right.
It's Sunday, man.
As we're filming it, it's Sunday.
Everybody, I'm still here.
I'm still alive.
I was just silent, sitting in church.
We're two Earthly Gathering.
Yeah, we're two Earthly Defeats, man.
(32:48):
Yeah, for real.
Wow, well, my next question was going to be,
is there a verse or scripture that
has been particularly meaningful to you
during your athletic career?
I know you've shared a couple.
Is there another one that is helpful for you,
or did you already touch on those ones?
Yeah, I mean, I'll share one more scripture, a quick one.
(33:11):
In Psalms 119, I think these are just
so key to understand, just as I'm playing, how can I do this?
In Psalms 119, verse 1 and 2, I'll read it.
It says, bless are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
(33:32):
It says, bless are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
We got back to seeking him with all our heart again.
We found this again in scripture.
But I look at this man, and I say, hey,
as I was playing my sport, as I was getting humbled,
I looked at this, and I said, man,
(33:52):
what does it actually look like to see God with all of my heart?
Well, I look back, and I say, hey,
how can I do that in my sport?
Well, how does someone know that I'm seeking my sport
with all of my heart?
Evan, how does somebody know that?
In terms of your sport, you're working relentlessly.
You reap what you sow.
(34:13):
And as you're about to get to it,
you will reap what you sow in Jesus.
Yeah, and I just look at this, and I say, man, OK,
how does someone know that I was seeking
basketball with all of my heart?
They knew, priority, I had to get to practice.
Had to show up on time.
You had to dress like it.
You had to walk like it.
(34:33):
You had to talk like it.
You had to watch film and think about this all day
long.
This is how you know you've sought something
with all of your heart.
And then you see it reflected on whatever you're,
the wherever way you perform.
And I look at it and say, OK, well, then,
if I take that same sport athletic mentality,
and I say, hey, OK, how does this apply to the sport I am
(34:55):
playing?
Then I say, OK, I understand that I
seek these things with all of my heart, practice, all
these things.
OK, now how can I incorporate the two
and bring God into it?
OK, seeking God with all of my heart,
I have to do the same thing.
I have to compete.
I have to understand that, hey, I have to train.
OK, while training, I'm taking these scriptures
(35:15):
that I'm reading and I'm applying them to real life.
So when I show up to practice, hey,
I'm going to love all my teammate.
He's having a bad practice.
Maybe I'm having a great practice.
I'm not going to shy that away.
I'm going to go actually look and, hey, man,
it's going to get better.
Let's get up.
Don't even worry about today.
You got tomorrow.
You want to stay in after practice.
We can stay in after practice and grind it out.
(35:36):
And I hope you put up some shots.
I hope you get some sets in.
I hope you get some goals on the soccer field.
I hope you get some rest in baseball.
All these different ways.
This is how you carry it.
You have to seek God with your whole heart
and all these things to start to transform into your life.
You take these, the things you read.
You don't just read them like it's a book,
but you take them to apply them.
(35:58):
It's so awesome that this scripture has this,
because I look at the term blessed.
Blessed in different translations translates to joyful.
And this is a happiness that you're
going to achieve mixing these two on the court, on the field,
and seeking after God first.
That these two things will mix and you will be joyful.
(36:20):
That is the gift God has granted you.
That you're doing all these things
that you will be joyful in what you do.
That you're doing all these things.
God will have this plan for you.
And that plan is to make you happy,
not to harm you, give you hope in the future.
And I love how all these scriptures just
intermix and twine because it's evident that God's word
is alive and active.
(36:41):
It's working today, that it's grinding today.
Go ahead.
And as you said, in Jeremiah, it
says that he has a plan for your future.
He has plans for your life.
And I feel like that is important to say,
because as you're saying, by seeking him,
(37:01):
we have our desires.
He has his desires and his will for us.
And he wants to combine.
And as you do that, you will be able to have a perspective of,
it's not about me, but it is about truly how do I serve him.
He is the one that gives you the strength.
(37:22):
It's not of your own strength.
And I think when you're seeking him as an athlete,
that will not only give you the strength to go when it's
harder, but to continue to push.
And hopefully, you are blessed in your granted
and you're able to play your sport, use your ability,
and change a lot of people's lives.
But at the end of the day, seeking him
(37:42):
will give you that strength and ability
to you never know who you may meet on that journey
and affect their lives, ultimately, for his good pleasure
and for the ultimate green light best thing
that we can ever have, which is stepping into eternity.
Yeah.
(38:03):
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
I think it's huge, even for athletes,
to understand that just being a previous athlete,
I think we can get so caught up into ourselves
and our results and our sport and pleasing our coach
and pleasing our teammates and things like that.
And I think it's just evident that, hey, that's not
(38:24):
what's going to sustain you.
That's not what's going to make you a better person.
Yeah, it gives you that want to compete,
but there is peace in competing.
You should have peace in competing.
You should have peace in knowing that this is going to work out.
You should have peace in knowing that it's not going the way
(38:44):
it's going, but I know that the storm doesn't last forever.
You should have peace in these moments.
And I think, going back to what you were talking about, Evan,
with Philippians is like, your strength is in God, not yourself.
So with your strength being in God,
you have peace in knowing that your situation isn't
going to last forever and that there is another side to it.
(39:09):
So I really like what you shared, man.
That's good.
I think that goes, whether it's good or bad,
we're winning the championship, NCAA, whatever,
that's not going to last forever.
So what are you putting your peace in?
What are you putting your hope in?
What is going to last forever?
What do you turn to the point of view in athletics?
So I think that's so good.
(39:30):
On the Salted Athlete, our part behind it
is how can athletes have an eternal perspective
when playing their sports?
How can they share the gospel with their teammates
when things are going good, not going good, whatever
the circumstances?
So our last, probably our last question for you,
is what is one piece of advice you
(39:51):
would give someone who is trying to grow as a Salted Athlete?
I like that.
I like that.
One piece of advice.
And you don't want to be on foundation.
I would say get to know who Jesus is.
If you've been a Christian, if you don't know where to go,
where to navigate, read the book of John,
get to know who Jesus is.
(40:12):
Great starting point.
I always look back and say, hey, somebody in our walk with God.
And I teach a lot of the football players of where I'm at.
And they're always like, man, I've grown up a Christian.
I've read the Bible.
But I just feel like sometimes I don't know where to start
or pick it up.
And I say, hey, get to know who Jesus is.
(40:35):
There's a whole Old Testament.
But in the book of John, Jesus actually says,
he tells the Pharisees, he says, you guys search the scriptures
thinking you'll find eternal life in them,
not knowing that the very scriptures you're reading
are talking about me.
Yeah, because he's like that.
Yeah, hey, a lot of people, hey, everybody's like, man,
I love Jesus.
(40:55):
But until Jesus starts coming at them with some crazy sayings,
and they're like, oh, hold on.
That Jesus ain't for me.
But Jesus was a cold cat, man.
He was a cold cat.
And I think understanding who Jesus is.
Get to know who that man is.
And read the book of John.
See what he's about.
I love the book of John because it's
so descriptive on Jesus' ministry and who he is.
(41:19):
And once you get to know who Jesus is,
then you can go anywhere in the Bible and see Jesus.
And that's one piece of advice I would give to somebody
looking to grow their faith.
One piece of advice I would give to somebody
that's already in their faith is go back
and you can never get a fresh refresh of who Jesus is.
(41:40):
So that's one thing I would encourage people to do
is take a look at that and seek him, man.
Seek him.
That's all I could say.
Seek him.
Shout out.
Shout out.
Seek him.
Shout out to Seek Him podcast.
That's all I could say, man.
That's all I could say.
It was one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me
(42:02):
to say, hey, that's the goal.
That's the foundation.
You get to know who he is.
Nothing can stop that.
So.
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Appreciate you guys for having me.
Oh, yeah, of course.
Thank you so much for everything.
That was awesome.
Listen up if you try to go to church.
(42:22):
Hey, hey, hey.
It had me self-reflecting on a lot of things volleyball wise.
I was like, oh, yeah, like this.
I don't know.
It just that was really good.
Yeah, I'm still playing.
You just got me.
I'm like, thank you, Jesus.
Check my heart.
I want to go back and play.
I need these checkups.
Yeah, I'm still in it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think and even on top of that,
(42:43):
like I haven't played competitive basketball in a long time.
I kind of find it sad, but I look at it, man.
It's like there's a reason God pulled me out of that.
Changeable.
There's a reason I don't look at it and say, hey,
sometimes I look at it.
I'm not going to lie.
I look at it.
I watch it on TV.
I'm like, man, there's a lot of dudes on TV
that I used to play basketball with.
And I was like, dang, like, and it shakes me to the core.
(43:07):
But sometimes it's like, you know what?
God had a greater purpose.
Maybe you have the opportunity to reach out to them on TV,
those that need it.
And they wouldn't have had that if you would never
got pulled out to support.
So I always look at that, man.
Like, you know, God has the greatest plan.
So it's never a negative when something happens
and it's God's will.
It's for you to seek God.
(43:28):
So I'm sorry.
Yeah, man.
Well, we appreciate you.
We love you.
Yeah, man.
Love y'all, man.
Love y'all.
I feel like we should have J. Hill pray us out.
Yeah, go ahead.
Let's go.
Hey, if everybody, hey, you know what it is.
If you're driving, keep your eyes on the road.
If you're listening.
If you're at home sitting on the couch, don't be afraid.
(43:51):
But bow your head, pray with us.
And let's get into it.
Dear Father God, I just want to thank you for these two.
These amazing two.
God, they are moving and they are
looking to help those that are in need of help, God.
They are looking to help those that are athletes, God,
that are growing and competing, God,
and working super hard every single day, God.
(44:13):
But the ultimate, God, they're looking to serve and grow
your kingdom.
God, I am so thankful for these two.
Father, I pray that as the person on the other side
of this voice, the person on the other side of this podcast,
God is listening, that you move in their heart
to seek you with 100% of their heart, God.
That you have the ultimate greatest plan, God.
(44:34):
That you have the plan that is willing to change
their life, transform their life, God.
To move their life closer and closer and closer to you.
Father, we pray that we achieve the ultimate goal
of getting to heaven and getting to see you
face to face, God.
That it is only right, God, that we serve you
and glorify you.
(44:54):
We love you and we thank you.
It's in your miraculous loving name, God, we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Let's go.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to The Salted Athlete by Tiana Weeks
and Evan Wardlow, a podcast by Christian Athletes
for all athletes.
What's up?
(00:07):
I'm Tiana Weeks.
And I'm Evan Wardlow.
And you're listening to The Salted Athlete.
This is a podcast by Christian Athletes for all athletes.
Our mission here on The Salted Athlete is to encourage and support athletes in their
walk with Jesus.
Join us as we seek the Lord and create a community of Salted Athletes.
(00:28):
Let's get it!
What's up everybody?
Welcome to this week's episode of The Salted Athlete.
T, how you doing?
I'm doing good.
I'm super excited about today's episode.
We have our first guest, Justin Hill on the podcast today.
(00:49):
He's one of my good friends.
He played for East Bay Basketball and we led athletes' final study together.
So I just know he has a lot of wisdom and a lot of depth to him that I'm excited for
everyone to hear more about.
Yeah, man.
It'll be fun.
I was able to host this guy on his visit, meet his family when he came.
He was coming in when I was heading out of East Bay.
(01:11):
So I think this will be a great episode and we'll get to know more about him, his identity,
what he's doing, and his journey in faith along with basketball.
So let's get it!
Mr. Justin Hill, Mr. Justin Hill, the world awaits to hear from you.
Come on, man.
Let's do it.
(01:33):
I just want to say I'm excited that you're on.
This is so fun.
Yeah, I know.
It's pretty cool.
I haven't seen you guys in a minute.
It's been a long time.
Especially Evan.
I was like, dang, last time I saw Evan, I was just getting to East Bay.
Yeah, you know, welcome.
Literally welcome on.
You know, congratulations on being the first guest of the show.
We're really happy to have you.
(01:54):
I'm excited and I hope a lot of people can learn from our conversation.
A lot of people can grow closer in their faith and a lot of people can take a stance on what
they believe in and really fall into that.
So I'm excited.
I'm glad to be the first episode or first guest, but let's do it, man.
So I wanted to start off by saying thank you for coming on the podcast.
(02:19):
You were like a no brainer, we have to have Jay Hill on and we have to have him on first.
And so I just want you to tell us a little bit more about your story and how the Lord
shifted your perspective on basketball.
Yeah, for sure.
For starters, I didn't grow up in church at all.
So I probably attended church a handful of times in my life.
(02:41):
I remember my family going and getting church hurt and then we never went back to church
at all.
So my view of church was really tainted.
And when I got to college, Cal State East Bay, I got a scholarship to play basketball
there and at the time I had a girlfriend and I was doing so many things that were just
not respectful to my relationship.
(03:02):
I was doing a lot of things like that.
So in turn, my girlfriend ended up finding her faith.
Before I did, she was attending a group called Fellowship of Christian Athletes, FCA, at
her school.
And what ended up happening is she started to take this up so strongly.
She started to really faithfully do this that she was trying to share it with me.
And at the time when she was trying to share it, I was like, man, that's weird.
(03:24):
That's spiritual stuff is out for me.
I was kind of in a way persecuting her, telling her, that's just weird.
My view of church was for people that grew up in church that couldn't make friends outside
of the church.
That was my view.
So I thought it was just a bunch of weird people.
And at the time she ended up breaking up with me, which really hurt me.
So fast forward, I'm going throughout my basketball career.
(03:48):
I was there about a year and a half, and I was having constant friction with our head
coach.
We just couldn't come to a common understanding of what my role was on the team.
I could work as hard as I tried and never felt like I was achieving anything.
And it was tough because this was my entire life.
I had been playing basketball since I was probably about six years old.
(04:10):
I worked my entire life to get a scholarship.
I achieved a division one scholarship, ended up having to go to Juco.
They went to a division two at Cal State East Bay.
And I was like, man, I hadn't been through a journey.
I deserved some minutes on the floor.
I feel like I'm talented enough to be able to at least get that.
And we just weren't coming to a common understanding.
So it led to very, very hard friction.
(04:31):
And I remember a group approaching me on campus talking about, hey, like, do you want to study
the Bible, you know, look into your faith?
And I really didn't give them no time of day.
I was shying away from them.
I was like, man, I'm already a Christian.
I got to get to practice and I do all those things.
But it actually stirred something in me because even with my girlfriend breaking up with me
over that, I was like, you know what, maybe that is something I could dig into.
(04:54):
So I was pushed to start a ministry on campus called Intervarsity.
And this is something that, you know, I felt like contributed to getting my faith off the
ground.
And so as I was going to practice every single day, the end of the season came and I remember
sitting in coach's office.
I was the first exit meeting.
(05:16):
And in my mind, I was like, man, I'm going to get up out of here.
I'm going to transfer.
I know my talents could be used somewhere else.
And I get in the meeting and he's like, how do you think the year went?
And I was like, this is around my junior year.
And I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't think it went as planned.
I don't think it was best fitting for me.
And he was like, yeah, he said, you know, I won't be returning you next year.
(05:39):
Before I could even get any words out, he told me he wasn't going to return me.
And this hit home like crazy, shook me to the core.
All the years of growing up playing AAU basketball, everybody's always talked about like, you
always hear about these guys having bad attitudes, getting kicked out of school, losing scholarships.
And I was always like, that can never happen to me.
You know, I felt like I was the exception that I could never get to this level where
(06:02):
coach would just cut me.
And I think it, it made me realize that I'm not invincible.
So in turn, I was like, man, okay, I'm walking back and I'm heading back to the door.
We still had COVID restrictions.
So we had a intervarsity online Zoom meeting.
And I popped my laptop open.
(06:23):
We're in this intervarsity Zoom meeting.
A woman's basketball player was leading that night.
And I remember after the meeting, I closed the laptop and I was like, man, like,
what am I going to do?
I couldn't even be present in the meeting because I just lost my scholarship.
Like I can't confide to my parents about that because I don't really talk to them on
that emotional level.
(06:44):
Like I can't talk to my girlfriend.
She's not there.
I mean, the only thing I can continue to do is continue to party, drink, smoke, do all
these things that are like temporary, keeping my mind off of it.
But as I come back to the dorm, I'm thinking about this.
Like, what is my life now without basketball?
I'm a regular student.
This is something that's hit me.
And I laid back and I was like, you know what?
(07:06):
Sitting in my dorm on the couch and I was, let me just pray.
Let me just pray.
Like let's see if this actually works.
Let me just pray.
And I closed my eyes and I remember praying and I was like, God, if you're real, like,
I need something.
Teach me something.
Show me something.
And I made a prayer, I stopped and I'm like, let me just Google this.
(07:32):
What can I find on the internet?
And I Google, okay, how do I get closer to God?
Five things came up, showed me you have to have a Bible, find a community, start praying,
go to church and just have faith.
And as I was writing this down, journaling, how to do these things, I get a phone call.
(07:53):
But this phone call, this guy hits me up and his name's Daniel, never forget it.
He said, hey, are you willing to study the Bible?
Would you like to do a Bible study?
And I was like, how'd you get my phone number?
I knew this was the dude on campus.
I was like, how'd you get my phone number?
And he said, one of your teammates gave it to me because they said you'd be probably
(08:13):
open to even studying the Bible.
And I was like, whoa, hold on.
I said, okay, you know what?
I said, I had a little ego in me.
I was like, okay, you know what, if you really about it, meet me in the union at 8 AM.
And he was like, okay, I'll be there.
And I remember that morning I go and grab off the top of the shelf of my closet.
(08:35):
A Bible my dad gave me and it was a KJV Bible.
I pull it off and I have to blow dust off of it.
That's how long it's been since I've used it.
Yes, sounds about right.
And that's how long it's been since I used it.
I take it and I'm showing this dude, I'm like, hey, look, like last night I was doing this
and you called me.
I was looking at how to see God and he was like, bro, perfect.
(08:57):
I'm gonna show you exactly how to see God.
And he did a Bible study with me, took me in depth through scripture, what it actually
looks like to see God with my whole heart.
And from then on, it just the trajectory changed my life.
It was like looking at something that I was like, dang, I didn't even know the Bible said
that.
Yeah.
I was calling my Christian an entire life and seeing that my life was being called out
(09:21):
by the Bible.
I was like, hold on, I got a choice to make.
Am I going to fall into this or am I going to just back out and say, hey, I'm not a Christian?
Yeah.
Go ahead.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And it's crazy because it's like in Hebrews four, it says the Bible is alive and active.
Right.
(09:42):
And I look at it and I'm like, man, the Bible is alive and active because when I looked
at it and opened it up, it read me like a book.
They said, this is who you are.
It's the only one that you can see it and it reads you.
That's what they say.
Yeah.
And honestly, I was, I was in shock.
I was actually in shock.
And I've heard this saying and it just sticks with me is like the Bible was a mirror, but
(10:07):
a lot of Christians nowadays use it like a window, right, to see other people and say,
Hey, you're they're not doing this.
They're not doing that.
No, no, no, no.
But when the word of God opens up, it's a mirror because it's reflecting who you truly
are.
And I think at that point I had the decision to make, man, am I going to be a disciple
of Christ or am I just going to fall out and say I'm a false Christian?
(10:29):
And that really convicted me, man.
And I ended up really getting heavily into my faith.
That I've been told a couple of months before that I'd be doing that.
I probably would have told you you were crazy.
But um, yeah, that's the short story, but it's a good story and that's the good news,
man.
It hit me.
It hit me.
Man, that's, that's a lot.
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I mean, the story in general, and I think you hit on a ton of points for one, God, various
ways in terms of oftentimes what you put your identity in, especially as an athlete, when
that is all we know, he can oftentimes take that from you, but everything works out for
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the good of those that love him, you know, and he used that to make sure that you for
one are saved eternally and two can now plant seeds for other people to hopefully be saved.
So, amazing, hard, and I'm sure there are days you probably didn't think you would make
it through.
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Yeah, yeah, it's real.
And I think it's crazy because it's one thing to know that God has given us free will, but
it's another thing to know that he loves us enough that he wants us to worship him, glorify
him, and ultimately achieve heaven.
And I think even with that free will, he can't force you to love him.
So what will he do?
(11:56):
He's going to pull the things away that you say you love, that you think you love, the
things you idolize that are pleasing you for the temporary.
And he's going to pull that away to show you that he has an abundant happiness, a joyful
happiness, a happiness not based on circumstance that he could provide for you and fill that
void with.
But it took some deep thinking to see that, it took some hard times to see that.
(12:20):
And it's just, you know, you got to see that there's another side to the story.
I thought basketball was everything.
And ultimately it's not.
It's not.
It's hard because you spend your whole life.
I mean, for you guys specifically, it's been basketball.
That's your whole life.
And so how can you not put your identity in that until you meet the Lord and then everything
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changes like you were saying, Jay Hill, your life changed drastically.
And I met you after you met the Lord.
I remember you would always say like, man, like you don't even know the person.
I was like, oh my gosh, like, no, he has like, yeah.
And that's so real though, because that's same with me too.
If you were talking to me, I don't know, five years ago, not the same person at all.
(13:05):
And I'll go right to God for that.
But Jay Hill, I also want you to touch on how your life changed from before the Lord and
then after meeting him.
I know you got baptized.
If you want to talk about that.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So my life, even before God, my walk with God was was crazy.
Like I, and I'm sure a lot of people can attest to this, but it was all about me.
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My life was all about me.
Like the confidence was through the roof.
The talking to the girls was through the roof.
Like what I wanted, I felt like I could get.
It was just all about me.
And this is how much it was all about me is that the license plate on my car has my name.
I know.
Like this guy's license plate says Jay Hill with a sticker on it.
(13:52):
Yeah, I was like, I was like MJ in college.
I was like, I'm him.
But I think that that mentality carried into like different parts of my life that were
affecting relationships, affecting friendships.
And even it was, it was a risk to even those around me.
I remember one night I was coming from a party and I was pretty intoxicated, really, really
(14:15):
intoxicated.
And we were coming from a party and I had a car full of my teammates and I'm driving
and my car is pretty fast.
So I'm on the freeway racing.
The next morning I wake up, I say, Hey, I asked one of my teammates that said, Hey, how did
we get home last night?
And he was like, bro, you don't remember how he got home last night.
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And that how, how scary is that that we could have all died that night because of me thinking
about me.
Yeah.
Right.
And I looked and I fast forward and I'm like, man, going through that time of desperate need
of saying, Hey, I don't know who I am because I've been so involved with my sport.
I don't know anything outside of that.
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The seeking of God, reaching out to him really allowed me to, to grab hold and say that God
isn't far.
Right.
I had, I had never even had this idea of who God was and God wasn't far and all I had
to do with seek him.
And when I sought him, it was like, dang, I found him and he's found me.
(15:17):
Right.
Which even led me on March, March 2nd, 2022, I got baptized and I was like, man, this is
a life I'm taking and I'm not going to look back.
I'm not going to look back at my old life.
I'm not going to turn back to that.
That's just not going to happen.
Why?
Because now I'm renewed.
My life has changed.
My, my world is not about me anymore.
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Right.
And when we say yes to Jesus, the team we're on, Jesus has invited us to his team to do
what?
To go out and actually share, to go out and actually bring more to the team, to go out
and bring more to the wedding banquet that he's called us to have with him.
It went from all about me to me thinking about everybody else.
And I think that's the most humbling thing ever because it just allowed me to really
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say that there, there are others out there and I am nothing.
Right.
I am nothing in compared to God's eyes that yes, he loves me.
He's using me, but I am nothing.
I am nothing.
And when I started to realize that, that I could be helpful to other people and it just,
it changed my life and I'm really thankful for it.
Yeah.
(16:23):
Let's go.
That's awesome.
I know you've touched on and I just know you so well.
Your big thing is seeking the Lord.
If you seek him, you will find him.
So Jay Hill and I, we led something called our athletes and adversity together.
And one of the Bible studies that you led was seeking him and that's actually like a
brand that you have now is seek him.
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So can you touch more on seek him and your brand there and what you're doing now with
that?
Yeah, for sure.
So yeah, I starting this, this thing, I always looked back and I'm like, I'm so big
on foundations, right?
I always called myself a Christian and I never knew what the foundation of that was.
(17:05):
And when my eyes were open to this seeking God study and actually understanding what
this concept was seeking God, I was like, man, this is foundation that everybody needs
to know.
I know there's a lot of people out there that claim that they're Christian Catholic, but
never looked into the foundations of what they actually believe.
They just inherited like it was a last name.
And this is actually a podcast I started and I was like, man, I want to use my story of
(17:29):
saying, Hey, I inherited this like a last name, but I actually was willing to go back
to the foundation and look into how to even seek God.
And I want to use that platform to show people say, Hey, I know you're Catholic.
I know you're Christian.
I know you're in the Muslim faith.
I know you're Jehovah Witness, but hey, look back into the foundation of what it actually
looks like to seek God and see that it's beyond just a label, a name, a title, that it's a
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relationship, right?
One thing that was big in starting that, that brand, that label of seeking him is Matthew
chapter six verse 33.
I have my Bible in front of me, so I just read it.
But Matthew six 33 says, but first seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these
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things would be given to you as well.
I found this so crazy was because Jesus was actually talking to his disciples and his
disciples had been following him for a while and he's telling them, he's like, Hey, don't
worry about these material things that everybody is worrying about.
He says that pagans worry about these things.
Pagans are unbelievers and he dyes in so much to say is that, Hey, the birds of the air
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get taken care of.
If the birds of the air get taken care of how much more will God take care of somebody
made in his image?
And verse, it gets to verse 33.
He says, don't worry about these things, but do this instead.
And what he actually says, he says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
If we break these things down, it looks like two things, but Jesus is actually telling us
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to do three things.
Right?
If we say, what does it look like to seek first his kingdom?
This is, this is exactly what I taught in this seeking God study at inner varsity.
I said, what does it look like to seek his kingdom?
And a lot of people, what comes to mind for me is a physical kingdom.
You think of a castle.
I recently watched gladiator and greatest movie ever.
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But okay, besides the point, that's, that's like a kingdom, right?
This, this castle, this big old Coliseum, this is a kingdom.
And it's, if we think of, we break kingdom into two words, we say King being who God,
Jesus Christ, D O D O M standing for dominion.
So what is Jesus actually telling us?
People living inside this kingdom is the King and his people.
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So when we think of kingdom, it's God and his people.
Jesus said, seek first God and his people.
And then he said, seek his righteousness as well.
Well, where do we find righteousness?
What does righteousness even mean?
This is a big word.
I, I, I came to this faith.
I was like, man, this is like, sounds beyond me, but an easy way to think about it.
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Righteousness, the definition of is everything right in the eyes of God.
Where do we find everything right in the eyes of God?
In the word of God, in the way what God has said, right?
The things he, he's commanding of us, the things that he wants us to hold, the things
he wants us to live by.
That is where we find righteousness and how to live by that.
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So he actually told us, seek God, his people and the Bible instead of these two things.
And I found it such a solution of what it looked like to seek God instead of worrying.
A lot of people would say, Hey, you told me something to do something, but you never
gave me practical how to do it and Jesus actually gave him practical.
He said, these material things that you worry about will give them to you as well.
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Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own, which actually led me to see that.
Hey, today I have to think about God.
I have to think about seeking him, his people, reading his word.
If I had these things solidified, then I'll be good.
I'll for sure understand what it, what it looks like to live righteous.
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I'll understand what it looks like to live with courage.
It's given me faith and I think it's, it's so huge that we do these three things.
And this is foundation fundamental to the Christian faith.
And that's what I advocate for.
Yeah, that's so good.
Well, after you gave that Bible study, it's like that's stuff that I knew, but I always
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go back to it.
It just simplifies things.
All I have to do is seek the Lord and I will find him.
And I think sometimes that can be difficult in athletics, at least for me, I feel like,
okay, my faith is right here.
And then I step on the court and my sport is here.
And sometimes it's hard to get them intertwined.
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How do I bring my faith onto the court with me?
But after you taught that, I would just go back to it like, okay, I can seek the Lord
just saying, I'm not getting playing time.
I can seek the Lord.
How can I be a vessel for him when it's maybe not showing in my performance?
So like, I can't give glory to God for my stats, but like, how else can I be giving
him glory?
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And I think it's as simple as seeking him and seeking his people and, you know, seeing
my teammates for more than just their performance as well, but seeing them as children of God.
So yeah, that Bible study was super helpful for me and still has a huge impact on my life
as I know it will for other people who are listening.
Yeah, I think the biggest thing of that is, I mean, you talk about you were living for
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yourself.
In James, it tells us like, at the end of the day, if you are of the world and you love
the world, you're an enemy of God, you know, and so there's a lot of things that you touched
on that go along with the fundamentals of building faith, which I think that's why Christianity,
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that Jesus himself is different because it's about relationship.
It's about the putting in the work, you come to him, he will come to you.
And like, as you said, you only find that in the word of God.
And I think lastly of even T, what you said is when it comes back to being an athlete,
when it comes to being in a sport and you're in that result driven entity and you are kind
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of a product.
How do you bring your faith in to allow you to be so much more than just a product to
his producing on the court, on the field, whatever.
And I think it takes me back to Mark 1045, where Jesus tells us, for even the Son of
man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many,
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many, many years of life, you know, and I think embodying that as assaulted athlete.
That is where, hey, you may not be playing, but you're still supporting other people.
You're the first person who one of your teammates calls when they're going through a hard time.
You know, you're there for others.
You're lifting them up.
You are being a presence, hopefully in a great situation where you can use your ability
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and your talent that the Lord has blessed you with,
but also because we are following him.
As you said, you have to get out of yourself
and understand that he'll put you in places
and environments and on teams and around people
to bring those people to him and to plan a seed
so that he can now reach them
as the same thing happened for you on your journey.
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You know what I mean?
And the same thing happened for both of us.
And I think anyone who is seeking Jesus,
there came a point where it's human nature
that you were thinking of yourself
and he brought someone maybe into your life
or worked some type of God-giving ability
to allow your eyes to be turned towards him.
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So yeah, man, I think it's great.
Your journey is great.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy, man.
I think a big question with athletes, right?
Even being one is why me?
That's a huge question to ask.
When you're on the court, the field, whatever it is,
(25:16):
and you get hurt, man, it's like, you look up and you're like,
man, I was having such a great time, a good season,
a good game, and you're like, man, why me?
Why does this happen to me?
And I found myself asking that question multiple times
and just reading through the scriptures,
seeing it answered in Acts chapter 17 verse 26.
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I just wanna share that quick.
I'll read 26.
It says, from one man, he made all the nations
that they should inhabit the whole earth
and he marked out their appointed times and histories
and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him
and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from any one of us.
And I look at this scripture and you ask, why me?
(26:02):
And for someone saying, why me?
From one man, God made all the nations,
that man being Adam.
And it says that he put Adam on earth
and Adam had descendants and he put them exact times
they needed to live in, the timeline,
the places they needed to be.
And God did this so that they would perhaps
seek him and find him, right?
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So there was no coincidence you had that injury.
There was no coincidence you ended up at the school
you ended up at.
There's no coincidence that you had the coach you had.
There's no coincidence that you were surrounded
by the group you were around.
Why? God put you in these certain positions,
these times and places, so that you could perhaps
reach out for him.
And I say perhaps because God made it a choice.
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Right? Right?
Free will.
You went through an injury.
Yeah, free will.
You went through an injury and you didn't like it.
And you asked that question, why me?
But God said, hey, I did this so that you could seek me.
Yeah.
I allowed this to happen so that you could seek me.
Now it's not to look at God and say, hey, let's blame God
for all the bad that's happening.
No, no, no.
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Because we know Satan is there too.
But God allows these things to happen.
Why?
So you can see the bigger purpose to the picture
that he has in store.
And it just all goes back to what his plan looks like
for your life.
I think that's another scripture.
And we could probably get into that later with Jeremiah 29.
I mean, hey, everybody loves this scripture.
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I mean, it's one of the greatest scriptures
to come off the Bible with God saying
he has a plan for us, a plan not to harm us,
but to give us a hope in the future.
And you know what?
Let's go there.
Let's go there.
Let's go.
I mean, it's too firing not to share.
It's too firing not to share.
But this is a key scripture.
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And I love this scripture because everybody knows it.
Everybody reads it.
Everybody uses it as a daily affirmation.
People have it tatted on them.
People have it as their wallpapers.
And let's just go through and let's read it.
Jeremiah 29 verse 11.
It says, for I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
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plans to give you hope in the future.
How awesome is that?
That God said he has a plan for you.
Yeah, you got hurt.
But God has a plan for you.
Yeah, you lost your scholarship.
But God has a plan for you.
Yeah, you lost a parent.
You lost a sister.
You lost a brother, a mother, grandma, grandpa.
But God has a plan for you.
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And this is a scripture people are really
looking to take in and say, hey, God has a plan for me.
And they just leave it at that and continue with their life.
Yeah, I'm playing basketball.
God has a plan for me.
I scored 30 points all glory to God.
The next night I scored five points.
And is it all glory to God?
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Was this in God's plan?
But in all reality, how do we even
know if God's plan is going into effect?
We have to be transformed.
And let's just keep reading.
This is a scripture that's not heavily kept read on.
And if we keep reading verse 12, it says,
then you will call on me and come to me and pray to me.
And I will listen to you.
Verse 13, you will seek me and find me
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when you seek me with all of your heart.
Verse 14, I will be found by you, declares the Lord.
And I will bring you back from captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations and places
where I have vanished you, declares the Lord.
And I will bring you back to the place which I carried you
into exile.
Now it's crazy to give you context.
This scripture is talking about the Israelites
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being in captive by the Babylonians.
Why?
Because they were holding on to idols.
So because they were holding on to idols.
And for us, for athletes, we would say our sport,
we're holding on to these idols.
God said, OK, you know what?
I'm going to let this go.
And you go ahead.
Let's see your idol produced for you.
Let's see how well you can go off and just say
you can do this on your own.
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And he says, go ahead.
And what that does is that carries us into exile.
That carries us into sadness.
That carries us into bitterness.
And he says, you know what?
At this point, then you will call on me.
Then you will be found.
I will be found by you.
Then you will see what it actually
looks like to have my plan go into effect for you.
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And then he says, that'll only go into effect in verse 13
when you seek me and you find me and you seek me
with your whole heart.
This goes back to the Sikh him is like, hey,
this is the foundations, right?
But where does he say we're currently at?
We're in captivity.
Why?
Because we've allowed ourselves to value our sport.
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Because it's something we've been doing our entire life.
And we're captive.
We're held captives to our sport are our results.
We're held captive to that.
Our sins, we're held captive to that.
But it's not until we see God with all our heart
that he actually digs in and pulls us out.
I give this illustration of a card loaded with $500.
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If I gave a card loaded with $500 to the both of you,
and I said, hey, go spend this however you please.
You guys both will go spend it at the store however you want.
You get to the register, and you swipe the card,
and it says decline.
And you're looking at the lady at the desk or the man
at the desk, and you're saying, hey,
I know there's money on here.
This guy gave me $500.
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She says, OK, hold on.
Let me take it on my end.
She looks at it, and she turns it over.
And she says, oh, you didn't pull the strip off the back
to activate it.
And I look at that same way as like,
we've never dug into the foundations
and pulled the strip off our Walk with God
to activate these plans he has for us.
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It's so crazy, but it's something
that I've come to realize in my Walk with God
that these foundations are needed.
These foundations are things we have to know,
that we have to research, that we
have to look into, because seeking after God,
he says that we could be found by him.
And he promises these plans.
So why not go in and say, hey, I trust God with these plans,
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because God has created me.
He knows more than I do.
Yeah.
And I just found that to be such a graceful way of thinking,
a humble way of thinking, and saying, hey,
these plans are God's plans.
Let me look into that and see what that looks like.
Now just take the verse at face value
and say that I'm going to go live how I want,
and God has these plans.
So yeah.
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Yeah.
That's awesome.
Wow, that was really hitting home for me, Ali.
So how about you, Evan?
Thanks for church, my guy.
I was just sitting there.
Right.
It's Sunday, man.
As we're filming it, it's Sunday.
Everybody, I'm still here.
I'm still alive.
I was just silent, sitting in church.
We're two Earthly Gathering.
Yeah, we're two Earthly Defeats, man.
(32:48):
Yeah, for real.
Wow, well, my next question was going to be,
is there a verse or scripture that
has been particularly meaningful to you
during your athletic career?
I know you've shared a couple.
Is there another one that is helpful for you,
or did you already touch on those ones?
Yeah, I mean, I'll share one more scripture, a quick one.
(33:11):
In Psalms 119, I think these are just
so key to understand, just as I'm playing, how can I do this?
In Psalms 119, verse 1 and 2, I'll read it.
It says, bless are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
(33:32):
It says, bless are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.
Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
We got back to seeking him with all our heart again.
We found this again in scripture.
But I look at this man, and I say, hey,
as I was playing my sport, as I was getting humbled,
I looked at this, and I said, man,
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what does it actually look like to see God with all of my heart?
Well, I look back, and I say, hey,
how can I do that in my sport?
Well, how does someone know that I'm seeking my sport
with all of my heart?
Evan, how does somebody know that?
In terms of your sport, you're working relentlessly.
You reap what you sow.
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And as you're about to get to it,
you will reap what you sow in Jesus.
Yeah, and I just look at this, and I say, man, OK,
how does someone know that I was seeking
basketball with all of my heart?
They knew, priority, I had to get to practice.
Had to show up on time.
You had to dress like it.
You had to walk like it.
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You had to talk like it.
You had to watch film and think about this all day
long.
This is how you know you've sought something
with all of your heart.
And then you see it reflected on whatever you're,
the wherever way you perform.
And I look at it and say, OK, well, then,
if I take that same sport athletic mentality,
and I say, hey, OK, how does this apply to the sport I am
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playing?
Then I say, OK, I understand that I
seek these things with all of my heart, practice, all
these things.
OK, now how can I incorporate the two
and bring God into it?
OK, seeking God with all of my heart,
I have to do the same thing.
I have to compete.
I have to understand that, hey, I have to train.
OK, while training, I'm taking these scriptures
(35:15):
that I'm reading and I'm applying them to real life.
So when I show up to practice, hey,
I'm going to love all my teammate.
He's having a bad practice.
Maybe I'm having a great practice.
I'm not going to shy that away.
I'm going to go actually look and, hey, man,
it's going to get better.
Let's get up.
Don't even worry about today.
You got tomorrow.
You want to stay in after practice.
We can stay in after practice and grind it out.
(35:36):
And I hope you put up some shots.
I hope you get some sets in.
I hope you get some goals on the soccer field.
I hope you get some rest in baseball.
All these different ways.
This is how you carry it.
You have to seek God with your whole heart
and all these things to start to transform into your life.
You take these, the things you read.
You don't just read them like it's a book,
but you take them to apply them.
(35:58):
It's so awesome that this scripture has this,
because I look at the term blessed.
Blessed in different translations translates to joyful.
And this is a happiness that you're
going to achieve mixing these two on the court, on the field,
and seeking after God first.
That these two things will mix and you will be joyful.
(36:20):
That is the gift God has granted you.
That you're doing all these things
that you will be joyful in what you do.
That you're doing all these things.
God will have this plan for you.
And that plan is to make you happy,
not to harm you, give you hope in the future.
And I love how all these scriptures just
intermix and twine because it's evident that God's word
is alive and active.
(36:41):
It's working today, that it's grinding today.
Go ahead.
And as you said, in Jeremiah, it
says that he has a plan for your future.
He has plans for your life.
And I feel like that is important to say,
because as you're saying, by seeking him,
(37:01):
we have our desires.
He has his desires and his will for us.
And he wants to combine.
And as you do that, you will be able to have a perspective of,
it's not about me, but it is about truly how do I serve him.
He is the one that gives you the strength.
(37:22):
It's not of your own strength.
And I think when you're seeking him as an athlete,
that will not only give you the strength to go when it's
harder, but to continue to push.
And hopefully, you are blessed in your granted
and you're able to play your sport, use your ability,
and change a lot of people's lives.
But at the end of the day, seeking him
(37:42):
will give you that strength and ability
to you never know who you may meet on that journey
and affect their lives, ultimately, for his good pleasure
and for the ultimate green light best thing
that we can ever have, which is stepping into eternity.
Yeah.
(38:03):
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
I think it's huge, even for athletes,
to understand that just being a previous athlete,
I think we can get so caught up into ourselves
and our results and our sport and pleasing our coach
and pleasing our teammates and things like that.
And I think it's just evident that, hey, that's not
(38:24):
what's going to sustain you.
That's not what's going to make you a better person.
Yeah, it gives you that want to compete,
but there is peace in competing.
You should have peace in competing.
You should have peace in knowing that this is going to work out.
You should have peace in knowing that it's not going the way
(38:44):
it's going, but I know that the storm doesn't last forever.
You should have peace in these moments.
And I think, going back to what you were talking about, Evan,
with Philippians is like, your strength is in God, not yourself.
So with your strength being in God,
you have peace in knowing that your situation isn't
going to last forever and that there is another side to it.
(39:09):
So I really like what you shared, man.
That's good.
I think that goes, whether it's good or bad,
we're winning the championship, NCAA, whatever,
that's not going to last forever.
So what are you putting your peace in?
What are you putting your hope in?
What is going to last forever?
What do you turn to the point of view in athletics?
So I think that's so good.
(39:30):
On the Salted Athlete, our part behind it
is how can athletes have an eternal perspective
when playing their sports?
How can they share the gospel with their teammates
when things are going good, not going good, whatever
the circumstances?
So our last, probably our last question for you,
is what is one piece of advice you
(39:51):
would give someone who is trying to grow as a Salted Athlete?
I like that.
I like that.
One piece of advice.
And you don't want to be on foundation.
I would say get to know who Jesus is.
If you've been a Christian, if you don't know where to go,
where to navigate, read the book of John,
get to know who Jesus is.
(40:12):
Great starting point.
I always look back and say, hey, somebody in our walk with God.
And I teach a lot of the football players of where I'm at.
And they're always like, man, I've grown up a Christian.
I've read the Bible.
But I just feel like sometimes I don't know where to start
or pick it up.
And I say, hey, get to know who Jesus is.
(40:35):
There's a whole Old Testament.
But in the book of John, Jesus actually says,
he tells the Pharisees, he says, you guys search the scriptures
thinking you'll find eternal life in them,
not knowing that the very scriptures you're reading
are talking about me.
Yeah, because he's like that.
Yeah, hey, a lot of people, hey, everybody's like, man,
I love Jesus.
(40:55):
But until Jesus starts coming at them with some crazy sayings,
and they're like, oh, hold on.
That Jesus ain't for me.
But Jesus was a cold cat, man.
He was a cold cat.
And I think understanding who Jesus is.
Get to know who that man is.
And read the book of John.
See what he's about.
I love the book of John because it's
so descriptive on Jesus' ministry and who he is.
(41:19):
And once you get to know who Jesus is,
then you can go anywhere in the Bible and see Jesus.
And that's one piece of advice I would give to somebody
looking to grow their faith.
One piece of advice I would give to somebody
that's already in their faith is go back
and you can never get a fresh refresh of who Jesus is.
(41:40):
So that's one thing I would encourage people to do
is take a look at that and seek him, man.
Seek him.
That's all I could say.
Seek him.
Shout out.
Shout out.
Seek him.
Shout out to Seek Him podcast.
That's all I could say, man.
That's all I could say.
It was one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me
(42:02):
to say, hey, that's the goal.
That's the foundation.
You get to know who he is.
Nothing can stop that.
So.
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Appreciate you guys for having me.
Oh, yeah, of course.
Thank you so much for everything.
That was awesome.
Listen up if you try to go to church.
(42:22):
Hey, hey, hey.
It had me self-reflecting on a lot of things volleyball wise.
I was like, oh, yeah, like this.
I don't know.
It just that was really good.
Yeah, I'm still playing.
You just got me.
I'm like, thank you, Jesus.
Check my heart.
I want to go back and play.
I need these checkups.
Yeah, I'm still in it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think and even on top of that,
(42:43):
like I haven't played competitive basketball in a long time.
I kind of find it sad, but I look at it, man.
It's like there's a reason God pulled me out of that.
Changeable.
There's a reason I don't look at it and say, hey,
sometimes I look at it.
I'm not going to lie.
I look at it.
I watch it on TV.
I'm like, man, there's a lot of dudes on TV
that I used to play basketball with.
And I was like, dang, like, and it shakes me to the core.
(43:07):
But sometimes it's like, you know what?
God had a greater purpose.
Maybe you have the opportunity to reach out to them on TV,
those that need it.
And they wouldn't have had that if you would never
got pulled out to support.
So I always look at that, man.
Like, you know, God has the greatest plan.
So it's never a negative when something happens
and it's God's will.
It's for you to seek God.
(43:28):
So I'm sorry.
Yeah, man.
Well, we appreciate you.
We love you.
Yeah, man.
Love y'all, man.
Love y'all.
I feel like we should have J. Hill pray us out.
Yeah, go ahead.
Let's go.
Hey, if everybody, hey, you know what it is.
If you're driving, keep your eyes on the road.
If you're listening.
If you're at home sitting on the couch, don't be afraid.
(43:51):
But bow your head, pray with us.
And let's get into it.
Dear Father God, I just want to thank you for these two.
These amazing two.
God, they are moving and they are
looking to help those that are in need of help, God.
They are looking to help those that are athletes, God,
that are growing and competing, God,
and working super hard every single day, God.
(44:13):
But the ultimate, God, they're looking to serve and grow
your kingdom.
God, I am so thankful for these two.
Father, I pray that as the person on the other side
of this voice, the person on the other side of this podcast,
God is listening, that you move in their heart
to seek you with 100% of their heart, God.
That you have the ultimate greatest plan, God.
(44:34):
That you have the plan that is willing to change
their life, transform their life, God.
To move their life closer and closer and closer to you.
Father, we pray that we achieve the ultimate goal
of getting to heaven and getting to see you
face to face, God.
That it is only right, God, that we serve you
and glorify you.
(44:54):
We love you and we thank you.
It's in your miraculous loving name, God, we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Let's go.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to The Salted Athlete by Tiana Weeks
and Evan Wardlow, a podcast by Christian Athletes
for all athletes.
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