April 30, 2025 • 23 mins
What happens when your entire identity and self-worth are wrapped up in athletic performance, and suddenly that's taken away? Wesley Tucker, an offensive lineman at Baylor University, lived this reality when a devastating injury sidelined him just as he was beginning to rebuild his relationship with God.
Growing up with sporadic church attendance, Wes had basic knowledge of Christianity but lacked genuine faith. By high school, football had become his god – dictating his sense of value based on performance. "I had a good game, I loved myself. I had a bad game, I hated myself," he recalls. Though he accepted Christ around age 15 after a powerful youth camp experience, that commitment faded as athletic achievement again took center stage.
Arriving at Baylor as a freshman, Wes faced the jarring transition from high school star to bottom of the depth chart. Searching for validation, he made choices that pulled him further from faith. But God wasn't finished with him. Through Baylor's team Bible study, Wes gradually reconnected with his faith. Then came the defining moment – a catastrophic knee injury that ended his season. Lying on the field in excruciating pain, something shifted: "Okay God, it's yours. You want my attention? You have it."
What followed was remarkable. Instead of despair, Wes found peace. The injury that stripped away his athletic identity became the catalyst for complete surrender. On December 17, 2024, surrounded by teammates, Wes was baptized – making "an outward profession of an inward transformation." Today, former drinking buddies attend church with him, inspired by his journey.
Have you tied your identity to something as fragile as performance or achievement? Listen to Wes's powerful testimony of finding purpose beyond the field and discovering that no one is ever too far gone for transformation.
Helpful links:
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Baylor Sports Ministry Discipleship
Ohio State Football Team Awakening
ESPN discusses football players faith being lived out
Austin Football Player interrupts press conference to give glory to God
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Margaret Ereneta (00:00):
Welcome back.
We're putting together anawesome season four for you, but
in the meantime, we had to getyou a couple stories of what God
is doing on college campuses,which is just incredible.
So we've got some special showshighlighting college football
and Unite US.
ESPN (00:17):
But it seems that both faith in above and faith in one
another is what got Ohio Statethrough.
I should talk to them But itseems that both faith and above
and faith in one another is whatgot Ohio State through.
I should talk to them.
What did they share?
You know, that was something,Emeka Egbuka and I talked about
this when I went to visit withRyan Day and several the players
before the Tennessee game, fewdays before that.
Andyou know, I mean, look, we hear
a lot of times people talkabout their faith and people.
Sort of dismiss it.
These guys were sharing theirfaith and reaching out and
baptizing guys on campus, youknow, not just football
teammates.
And it became somethingpowerful then.
Not because they thought it wasgoing to be handed to them to
win a game, but it developed, itchanged their relationships.
Margaret Ereneta (01:19):
If you happened to pay attention to
college football this year, youmight have noticed that faith
came alive in many players andwas noticeable in victory
speeches and with lots of media,so exciting.
One of thos students happens tobe Baylor offensive lineman Wes
Tucker.
We sat down with Wes to talkabout his personal
transformation this year and hisbaptism.
Welcome to Wes's 180.
Wes Tucker (01:36):
My name is Wesley Tucker and I'm from Argyle,
texas, growing up in the churchfor me kind of a basic story.
I had a family, we went tochurch sometimes, sometimes we
didn't.
You know, I always kind of knewabout God, about Jesus, about
the story, but it was more sojust, I'm just doing this on
(01:56):
some of the Sundays because myparents said so and then as I
started to grow up and get alittle bit older, obviously
sports became God in my life.
It was who I was, it was what Idid, it was everything.
It was what I decided eithermade me a good person one day or
a bad person the next day.
It was all based on how I wasdoing in my sport.
(02:20):
The true idea of God and allthat kind of just pushed it off
to the side.
People would ask like are you aChristian?
Oh yeah, I'm a Christian, butyou know, not really.
And then I started kind ofgetting involved in like this
youth camp.
It was a church camp out inEast Texas and it was just so
powerful and almost likeshocking to me seeing people my
(02:45):
age and then people who are alittle bit older within, like
the staff and the counselors andwhatnot, who just seem like so
on fire for God and like thelove they had for to me.
This like idea or concept that Inever truly got or understood
was just wild to me, and so itpiqued an interest.
Luckily for me, there wasenough good people who were
(03:07):
willing to pour out onto me andwork to me to where I came to
know Christ and I decided like,yeah, this is for me, this is
what I want, this is who I wantto be, and when I was probably
about 15, 14 or 15, it was whenI accepted Christ into my heart.
It was the first time I reallysaid yes to Jesus and actually
(03:27):
meant it, and so that's kind ofhow it started.
However, it didn't last as longas it should have, or I wished
it would have.
Margaret Ereneta (03:36):
However, is a big part of many people's
testimonies.
Wes made a genuine faithprofession, but he left it,
turned away from the Lord for awhile and later came back to a
renewed faith in Christ.
If you have a however in yourstory, rest assured you have a
story to tell and we call it areckoning.
(03:58):
Listen in.
Wes Tucker (04:00):
You know, you come off that Jesus high where
everything seems so great andeverything's so easy, because
you say that you love God somuch and you do all this.
But then, once things start toget a little bit difficult and
the aspect of discipline comesinto play, you start to fall
back.
Sophomore year of high schooland all that, like football,
(04:21):
became God in my life.
I prioritized football.
I said I have to go D1.
I have to be a great player, Ihave to do all this, this and
that, and it was all that I was.
All I cared about was football.
I thought that football waswhat made me special.
I thought it was what wouldmake people like me.
I thought it was what wouldmake my dad proud of me.
(04:43):
I have an older brother and heplays football as well and I
thought, well, if I can just beas good as him, then I'll be
enough.
And it just never was, becauseit was so inconsistent.
I had a good game, I lovedmyself.
I had a bad game, I hatedmyself.
There was never an in-between.
It was either I'm the best orI'm the worst and I just that's
(05:07):
all, all I ever cared about.
And then I was lucky enough towhere a handful of schools were
offering me scholarships andwanted me to come play for them,
and Baylor ended up being oneof my favorite offers.
They really showed me that theywanted me and that they cared
about me and that's ultimatelywhy I came to Baylor and that
was just so cool to me and itwas just very exciting.
(05:30):
Everything was starting to trendupwards once again and I ended
up graduating high school asemester early.
My first semester at Baylorwould have been my second
semester of my senior year.
So I got to Waco in January of2023 and quickly realized that I
was no longer the best ateverything.
(05:53):
I went from being pretty muchthe best to at the very bottom
and that was hard for me andit's hard for a lot of people
and you know it's obviously kindof expected, but it always hits
you a lot harder than you thinkit does.
And as somebody who my wholeidentity and whole sense of
(06:13):
self-worth was through myon-field performance, I'm sure
you can imagine how bad it waswhen I was routinely the worst,
how bad it was when I wasroutinely the worst, and through
that I tried my best to findother things that would make me
happy and make me feel like Iwas in control and I was doing
(06:36):
things I shouldn't do.
I was with people I shouldn'thave been with, putting things
in my body I never should, andtrying so hard to say, like I
can do this, or if I can getthis girl to like me, like then
I'll be enough, then I'll becool, then I'll be valuable.
And no matter how much of thosethings I was able to accomplish
(06:56):
, it only got worse because Iwas filling my mind and my soul
with terrible things anddisregarding God and, at some
point, almost like ignoring him.
Because it got to the pointwhere I was recognizing like
what I was doing was bad and Iknew that I had the ability to
(07:16):
do better and that's what Godwanted me to do.
But I was almost like tooscared because then I would have
to admit that I'm the issue,what I'm doing is wrong.
I need to change those badparts of myself and and and give
up what, at the time, wasmaking me feel good and I think
(07:37):
for so long I was just tooafraid to do that and I was
afraid to do what was hard inorder to grow and become better,
which, like looking back, islike well, duh, that's what you
have to do.
But in the moment, even if youdo know it's true, you just
don't want to do it because it'shard and people are afraid of
doing what's hard.
(08:03):
And then I end up making reallygood friends who are really good
people, who are, they're like,attempting to pull me in.
They're telling me to come tochurch with them, and I probably
went over a full year in Wacowithout ever going to church.
There was a Bible in a box whenI moved to Waco that had never
been opened, in a box when Imoved to Waco that had never
(08:26):
been opened.
They're just completelyinfatuated with myself and what
I wanted to do and disregardingthe things that I even was aware
of what was good for me.
And so I was lucky enough thatthe good group of guys decided
to bring me in meeting otherpeople at Baylor who had a
genuine interest in me and mysalvation, which was like to me
at the time, was like so weird.
(08:48):
But luckily I am blessed enoughto go to a school where there's
a lot of people who are likethat, and this is where our team
Bible study comes into play,and so we have a team Bible
study that we do throughout theentire semester, each semester,
and each semester is kind oflike a different theme or a
series.
It was cool to me to see all ofthese guys on the team, who I
(09:10):
had previously never been superclose with or had any
relationship with, all cometogether after we've just had
two days of hard practice, afull week left.
Everyone's tired, everyonewants to go home, we have
homework, all this stuff, butthey care so much about growing
together and growing in the wordthat they are willing to do
(09:31):
this and to me that was a littlebit crazy, but it was also very
motivating.
As time went on, I started toget more into it, I started to
learn more, I started to growmore and it got to the point
where new people would come andthey would ask me for help, ask
me for assistance, and I justthought that was crazy, because
(09:53):
that's who I had been a year ago, six months before.
That you realize like this isreal, this is real, like this is
working, this is I'm finallystarting to make the positive
change that God had been tryingto get me to do for so long and
(10:14):
that ended up just being like,really motivating.
I was kind of really trendingupward, obviously still messing
up in certain areas, but overalljust trying my best to stack
the little wins and really seethe way that God was using me
and working through me andreally feeling the amount of
love that he had for me andfinally starting to follow His
(10:37):
direction.
And then this past season hadstarted and things were not
going super well and I stillwasn't performing as well as I
wanted to in football and I hadallowed that to consume me and I
was only focusing on myfailures and shortcomings and I
wasn't focusing on on myblessings and my gifts that I
(10:57):
have been given that I got tothe point where halfway through
the season last year there was aplaying practice where I got
hit and I ended up tearing myACL, mcl and meniscus.
Complete three-part tearrequired a complete three-part
surgery.
It's going to end up beingclose to a 10-month recovery and
(11:19):
I remember being on the groundand being in so much pain and
the only thing I could think wasbasically
"O kay, god, it's yours.
Like you, you want my attention, you have it Like.
Here you are I am.
I am done holding back, I amdone trying to be one foot in,
(11:43):
one foot out.
Here I am trying to be one footin, one foot out.
"Here I am, you have me.
"At first I was so hard.
I was like, okay, well, myseason's completely over.
I now pretty much bring novalue to the team.
I don't contribute, I'm notable to perform, I'm off to the
(12:03):
sides, I'm behind everything.
What am I good for?
What am I good for Like whoeven am I now, you know?
Like, what purpose do I serveIf I can't play football?
I don't deserve to be at Baylor.
(12:24):
All of these thoughts.
But then I shortly realized,like no, that's not true, this
is just a different direction inmy life.
And with that came such anoverwhelming sense of of like
peace and security and calmness.
And I routinely found otherpeople feeling a lot worse for
(12:45):
me or feeling more sad for methan I felt for myself, which
was like so interesting.
And I realized that that was away of God to work through me
and show his power through me,and knowing that if I can stay
strong and if I can begood through this, all other
people will see that.
And the whole goal was for themto be like how is he doing so
(13:07):
good, how are you doing okay?
And people asking me that,people asking others that, and I
am then able to say, because Iknow that the Lord has me, I
know that this happens for areason.
I know that it will all makesense in the end.
I know that he would neverallow something so bad and
(13:27):
damaging to occur if it wasn'tfor a greater purpose and a
greater plan.
And even if I had no clue whatthat was even at times when I
have no clue what it is I haveto understand why this is
happening, why I'm doing this,who I'm doing this for, and that
has allowed me to impact peopleand reach people in a way that
(13:49):
I never would have been able tobefore.
And then, continuing on with myfaith, as the semester was
coming to a close and oursemester Bible study was ending,
(14:09):
one of our main leaders of theBible study Garrison Grimes is
his name is an amazing friend ofmine been so incredibly helpful
in my faith.
He said that two of the pastorsfrom Harris Creek Baptist
Church, jp and Nate were theirnames.
He was like, hey, these guysare going to come and they're
basically going to speak to usreally quick, and they had even
mentioned that they were open todoing baptisms.
Margaret Ereneta (14:31):
Baptisms on a college campus with Pastor JP.
Does this sound familiar to you?
This is Wes Pastor pastor, butJonathan Pecluda JP of Waco's
Harris Creek Baptist Churchhappens to be the very same
Pastor JP who is going to manycollege campuses all over the
country baptizing.
There's actually been 13,000decisions made for Christ with
(14:54):
this.
So Wes' story is an example ofstories being made all over the
country
with college students.
We'll link some of thoseexciting stories in the show
notes.
And I remember the second.
He said that it like really hitme hard because the idea of
baptism had always frightened mea little bit.
I was always like, well, I knowI'm supposed to get baptized,
(15:17):
but I don't think I'm goodenough to get baptized.
Maybe I'll wait another year tobecome a better Christian, so
that way then I'll be goodenough to be baptized.
But then I realized that that'snot what it's about.
Baptism isn't something thatyou earn by completing enough
tasks.
It's you making an outwardprofession of an inward
(15:41):
transformation.
It's basically me saying God,I'm yours and I'm ready to fully
be yours.
And so, on December 17th 2024,myself and four other teammates
were baptized together, and Iended up being baptized by
Garrison, and it was amazing.
(16:01):
I remember coming out of thewater and feeling just like a
weight lifted off of me andknowing that this is who I'm
supposed to be, that this is nota hobby, this is not something
that I do to check a box like.
This is my life, this is mypurpose.
And it hasn't beenall smooth sailing and sunshine
(16:25):
and rainbows since then, but itit certainly has been much
better than it ever was, becauseI I understand that the hard
times are still going to bethere.
The struggles are still goingto be there, the challenges are
still going to be there, but I'mnot going through them alone,
and knowing who is inside of meand who is pushing me along has
(16:47):
made me so much stronger than Iever thought I could
ever be, and so that is kind ofa very long version of my story
very long version of my story.
(17:08):
Next West talked about the change that
happened in him and how he's nowable to witness to the old
friends and even bring them tochurch with him.
Wes Tucker (17:12):
I think something that I encounter frequently is,
unfortunately, there are peoplewho I used to know, who their
idea and perception of me is whoI was when I knew them, and
rightfully so.
And so I frequently find myselfin situations where people are
asking me to do something ortelling me to do this, this and
(17:33):
that, and making jokes andeverything, and I kind of just
say like hey, like that's not,that's not me anymore, you know.
But to be able to kind of havethat access towards certain
groups of people that othersmight not have, just because of
who I was and what I've done,it's really special to be able
(17:53):
to impact them, because I thinkother people might see it as
well.
If Wes can do this, then I cantoo, because it's it's no longer
somebody who's kind of like athe picture perfect Christian
who came in and has always doneeverything right.
You know, it's like we used tosee that guy out on the bar or
(18:14):
we used to see that guy withthat girl and then with that
girl, whereas, like now, it'slike guys will come to me with
questions and ideas and stuffand they're obviously afraid
because they either don't wantto branch out or if don't
understand, and knowing.
that there have been times whereI can be that person for them
(18:34):
because they don't feelcomfortable going to anybody
else,is really special and I'm really
grateful for that.
For them, because they don'tfeel comfortable going to
anybody else, is really specialand I'm really grateful for that
.
And so when people kind ofheard about me getting baptized,
it was like wow, well, if hecan do it, then surely I can do
it.
And I have so many greatfriends who a year or two ago we
started off as drinking buddiesand now we're
(18:59):
going to church together allthe time and in the same Bible
study group and learning andgrowing together and kind of
just choosing to leave the selfand worldly glorifying ways in
the past together, whereas for along time I think there were a
lot more people who werehonestly just too afraid to
start because they thought thatthey were too far gone.
Margaret Ereneta (19:19):
So many people think they're too far gone.
But don't give up on them, Godcan do anything.
Wes ends his show with hisadvice for others living a dual,
fake Christian life.
Listen in.
Wes Tucker (19:32):
I would say that try your best to truly give God a
try and to truly look inside ofyourself, because there's so
many self-gratifying things thatyou can do that might feel good
in the moment or might make youfeel cool or powerful or
valuable and whatnot.
But think of those things andthen try to think.
(19:55):
If they have ever lasted, Thinkabout those moments where you
felt cool and think how long didthat moment last, or was it
truly fulfilling?
You know the definition ofinsanity is doing the same thing
over and over again andexpecting a different result,
and so you are truly insane ifyou think that this thing that
(20:16):
continuously fails you is whatthe truth is, is what is going
to work.
And I also understanding thatit is hard.
But once you kind of find yourpurpose and your true calling
and your true home and you findothers who are looking for the
same thing, you start to notcare about what you used to
(20:38):
really care about and it becomesa thing where it starts off as
oh, I really want to, but I knowI shouldn't, so I'm not going
to, and then it ends up beingthat's not even a thought for me
.
Something that we always focuson is don't flee from sin, run
to God, and in doing that youwill get further from sin.
(21:01):
And so you can't just focus onleaving something.
You have to focus on obtainingsomething else, and that is what
will separate you from yourpast.
And there have been so manytimes where I have made the
wrong choice and just felthorrible.
And so I guess a piece ofadvice for somebody who is
really struggling in that aspectof living for the world and
(21:23):
chasing self-gratification isjust that once you understand
just like how powerful andmassive and amazing God is
compared to who you are, thenyou'll kind of be like there's
nothing I could give myselfthat's better than what he is
trying to give me.
And so just truly understandingand looking at yourself and
(21:46):
inside of yourself and lookingat what am I doing, why is it
not working?
Understanding why it's notworking and learning what works
and learning what works.
Margaret Ereneta (21:58):
Thanks for listening today.
We're so grateful that a Baylorstudent recommended Bay to be
on 180.
If you know somebody who has astory to tell, please share it
with us.
The link is in our show notes.
And that Unite US movement oncollege campuses actually ended
at Baylor with Pastor JP.
We went there so you could geta front row seat to what it was
(22:19):
like on college campusesactually ended at Baylor with
Pastor JP.
We went there so you could geta front row seat to what it was
like.
Listen in next week for ourshow on Unite US,
Welcome back.
We're putting together anawesome season four for you, but
in the meantime, we had to getyou a couple stories of what God
is doing on college campuses,which is just incredible.
So we've got some special showshighlighting college football
and Unite US.
ESPN (00:17):
But it seems that both faith in above and faith in one
another is what got Ohio Statethrough.
I should talk to them But itseems that both faith and above
and faith in one another is whatgot Ohio State through.
I should talk to them.
What did they share?
You know, that was something,Emeka Egbuka and I talked about
this when I went to visit withRyan Day and several the players
before the Tennessee game, fewdays before that.
Andyou know, I mean, look, we hear
a lot of times people talkabout their faith and people.
Sort of dismiss it.
These guys were sharing theirfaith and reaching out and
baptizing guys on campus, youknow, not just football
teammates.
And it became somethingpowerful then.
Not because they thought it wasgoing to be handed to them to
win a game, but it developed, itchanged their relationships.
Margaret Ereneta (01:19):
If you happened to pay attention to
college football this year, youmight have noticed that faith
came alive in many players andwas noticeable in victory
speeches and with lots of media,so exciting.
One of thos students happens tobe Baylor offensive lineman Wes
Tucker.
We sat down with Wes to talkabout his personal
transformation this year and hisbaptism.
Welcome to Wes's 180.
Wes Tucker (01:36):
My name is Wesley Tucker and I'm from Argyle,
texas, growing up in the churchfor me kind of a basic story.
I had a family, we went tochurch sometimes, sometimes we
didn't.
You know, I always kind of knewabout God, about Jesus, about
the story, but it was more sojust, I'm just doing this on
(01:56):
some of the Sundays because myparents said so and then as I
started to grow up and get alittle bit older, obviously
sports became God in my life.
It was who I was, it was what Idid, it was everything.
It was what I decided eithermade me a good person one day or
a bad person the next day.
It was all based on how I wasdoing in my sport.
(02:20):
The true idea of God and allthat kind of just pushed it off
to the side.
People would ask like are you aChristian?
Oh yeah, I'm a Christian, butyou know, not really.
And then I started kind ofgetting involved in like this
youth camp.
It was a church camp out inEast Texas and it was just so
powerful and almost likeshocking to me seeing people my
(02:45):
age and then people who are alittle bit older within, like
the staff and the counselors andwhatnot, who just seem like so
on fire for God and like thelove they had for to me.
This like idea or concept that Inever truly got or understood
was just wild to me, and so itpiqued an interest.
Luckily for me, there wasenough good people who were
(03:07):
willing to pour out onto me andwork to me to where I came to
know Christ and I decided like,yeah, this is for me, this is
what I want, this is who I wantto be, and when I was probably
about 15, 14 or 15, it was whenI accepted Christ into my heart.
It was the first time I reallysaid yes to Jesus and actually
(03:27):
meant it, and so that's kind ofhow it started.
However, it didn't last as longas it should have, or I wished
it would have.
Margaret Ereneta (03:36):
However, is a big part of many people's
testimonies.
Wes made a genuine faithprofession, but he left it,
turned away from the Lord for awhile and later came back to a
renewed faith in Christ.
If you have a however in yourstory, rest assured you have a
story to tell and we call it areckoning.
(03:58):
Listen in.
Wes Tucker (04:00):
You know, you come off that Jesus high where
everything seems so great andeverything's so easy, because
you say that you love God somuch and you do all this.
But then, once things start toget a little bit difficult and
the aspect of discipline comesinto play, you start to fall
back.
Sophomore year of high schooland all that, like football,
(04:21):
became God in my life.
I prioritized football.
I said I have to go D1.
I have to be a great player, Ihave to do all this, this and
that, and it was all that I was.
All I cared about was football.
I thought that football waswhat made me special.
I thought it was what wouldmake people like me.
I thought it was what wouldmake my dad proud of me.
(04:43):
I have an older brother and heplays football as well and I
thought, well, if I can just beas good as him, then I'll be
enough.
And it just never was, becauseit was so inconsistent.
I had a good game, I lovedmyself.
I had a bad game, I hatedmyself.
There was never an in-between.
It was either I'm the best orI'm the worst and I just that's
(05:07):
all, all I ever cared about.
And then I was lucky enough towhere a handful of schools were
offering me scholarships andwanted me to come play for them,
and Baylor ended up being oneof my favorite offers.
They really showed me that theywanted me and that they cared
about me and that's ultimatelywhy I came to Baylor and that
was just so cool to me and itwas just very exciting.
(05:30):
Everything was starting to trendupwards once again and I ended
up graduating high school asemester early.
My first semester at Baylorwould have been my second
semester of my senior year.
So I got to Waco in January of2023 and quickly realized that I
was no longer the best ateverything.
(05:53):
I went from being pretty muchthe best to at the very bottom
and that was hard for me andit's hard for a lot of people
and you know it's obviously kindof expected, but it always hits
you a lot harder than you thinkit does.
And as somebody who my wholeidentity and whole sense of
(06:13):
self-worth was through myon-field performance, I'm sure
you can imagine how bad it waswhen I was routinely the worst,
how bad it was when I wasroutinely the worst, and through
that I tried my best to findother things that would make me
happy and make me feel like Iwas in control and I was doing
(06:36):
things I shouldn't do.
I was with people I shouldn'thave been with, putting things
in my body I never should, andtrying so hard to say, like I
can do this, or if I can getthis girl to like me, like then
I'll be enough, then I'll becool, then I'll be valuable.
And no matter how much of thosethings I was able to accomplish
(06:56):
, it only got worse because Iwas filling my mind and my soul
with terrible things anddisregarding God and, at some
point, almost like ignoring him.
Because it got to the pointwhere I was recognizing like
what I was doing was bad and Iknew that I had the ability to
(07:16):
do better and that's what Godwanted me to do.
But I was almost like tooscared because then I would have
to admit that I'm the issue,what I'm doing is wrong.
I need to change those badparts of myself and and and give
up what, at the time, wasmaking me feel good and I think
(07:37):
for so long I was just tooafraid to do that and I was
afraid to do what was hard inorder to grow and become better,
which, like looking back, islike well, duh, that's what you
have to do.
But in the moment, even if youdo know it's true, you just
don't want to do it because it'shard and people are afraid of
doing what's hard.
(08:03):
And then I end up making reallygood friends who are really good
people, who are, they're like,attempting to pull me in.
They're telling me to come tochurch with them, and I probably
went over a full year in Wacowithout ever going to church.
There was a Bible in a box whenI moved to Waco that had never
been opened, in a box when Imoved to Waco that had never
(08:26):
been opened.
They're just completelyinfatuated with myself and what
I wanted to do and disregardingthe things that I even was aware
of what was good for me.
And so I was lucky enough thatthe good group of guys decided
to bring me in meeting otherpeople at Baylor who had a
genuine interest in me and mysalvation, which was like to me
at the time, was like so weird.
(08:48):
But luckily I am blessed enoughto go to a school where there's
a lot of people who are likethat, and this is where our team
Bible study comes into play,and so we have a team Bible
study that we do throughout theentire semester, each semester,
and each semester is kind oflike a different theme or a
series.
It was cool to me to see all ofthese guys on the team, who I
(09:10):
had previously never been superclose with or had any
relationship with, all cometogether after we've just had
two days of hard practice, afull week left.
Everyone's tired, everyonewants to go home, we have
homework, all this stuff, butthey care so much about growing
together and growing in the wordthat they are willing to do
(09:31):
this and to me that was a littlebit crazy, but it was also very
motivating.
As time went on, I started toget more into it, I started to
learn more, I started to growmore and it got to the point
where new people would come andthey would ask me for help, ask
me for assistance, and I justthought that was crazy, because
(09:53):
that's who I had been a year ago, six months before.
That you realize like this isreal, this is real, like this is
working, this is I'm finallystarting to make the positive
change that God had been tryingto get me to do for so long and
(10:14):
that ended up just being like,really motivating.
I was kind of really trendingupward, obviously still messing
up in certain areas, but overalljust trying my best to stack
the little wins and really seethe way that God was using me
and working through me andreally feeling the amount of
love that he had for me andfinally starting to follow His
(10:37):
direction.
And then this past season hadstarted and things were not
going super well and I stillwasn't performing as well as I
wanted to in football and I hadallowed that to consume me and I
was only focusing on myfailures and shortcomings and I
wasn't focusing on on myblessings and my gifts that I
(10:57):
have been given that I got tothe point where halfway through
the season last year there was aplaying practice where I got
hit and I ended up tearing myACL, mcl and meniscus.
Complete three-part tearrequired a complete three-part
surgery.
It's going to end up beingclose to a 10-month recovery and
(11:19):
I remember being on the groundand being in so much pain and
the only thing I could think wasbasically
"O kay, god, it's yours.
Like you, you want my attention, you have it Like.
Here you are I am.
I am done holding back, I amdone trying to be one foot in,
(11:43):
one foot out.
Here I am trying to be one footin, one foot out.
"Here I am, you have me.
"At first I was so hard.
I was like, okay, well, myseason's completely over.
I now pretty much bring novalue to the team.
I don't contribute, I'm notable to perform, I'm off to the
(12:03):
sides, I'm behind everything.
What am I good for?
What am I good for Like whoeven am I now, you know?
Like, what purpose do I serveIf I can't play football?
I don't deserve to be at Baylor.
(12:24):
All of these thoughts.
But then I shortly realized,like no, that's not true, this
is just a different direction inmy life.
And with that came such anoverwhelming sense of of like
peace and security and calmness.
And I routinely found otherpeople feeling a lot worse for
(12:45):
me or feeling more sad for methan I felt for myself, which
was like so interesting.
And I realized that that was away of God to work through me
and show his power through me,and knowing that if I can stay
strong and if I can begood through this, all other
people will see that.
And the whole goal was for themto be like how is he doing so
(13:07):
good, how are you doing okay?
And people asking me that,people asking others that, and I
am then able to say, because Iknow that the Lord has me, I
know that this happens for areason.
I know that it will all makesense in the end.
I know that he would neverallow something so bad and
(13:27):
damaging to occur if it wasn'tfor a greater purpose and a
greater plan.
And even if I had no clue whatthat was even at times when I
have no clue what it is I haveto understand why this is
happening, why I'm doing this,who I'm doing this for, and that
has allowed me to impact peopleand reach people in a way that
(13:49):
I never would have been able tobefore.
And then, continuing on with myfaith, as the semester was
coming to a close and oursemester Bible study was ending,
(14:09):
one of our main leaders of theBible study Garrison Grimes is
his name is an amazing friend ofmine been so incredibly helpful
in my faith.
He said that two of the pastorsfrom Harris Creek Baptist
Church, jp and Nate were theirnames.
He was like, hey, these guysare going to come and they're
basically going to speak to usreally quick, and they had even
mentioned that they were open todoing baptisms.
Margaret Ereneta (14:31):
Baptisms on a college campus with Pastor JP.
Does this sound familiar to you?
This is Wes Pastor pastor, butJonathan Pecluda JP of Waco's
Harris Creek Baptist Churchhappens to be the very same
Pastor JP who is going to manycollege campuses all over the
country baptizing.
There's actually been 13,000decisions made for Christ with
(14:54):
this.
So Wes' story is an example ofstories being made all over the
country
with college students.
We'll link some of thoseexciting stories in the show
notes.
And I remember the second.
He said that it like really hitme hard because the idea of
baptism had always frightened mea little bit.
I was always like, well, I knowI'm supposed to get baptized,
(15:17):
but I don't think I'm goodenough to get baptized.
Maybe I'll wait another year tobecome a better Christian, so
that way then I'll be goodenough to be baptized.
But then I realized that that'snot what it's about.
Baptism isn't something thatyou earn by completing enough
tasks.
It's you making an outwardprofession of an inward
(15:41):
transformation.
It's basically me saying God,I'm yours and I'm ready to fully
be yours.
And so, on December 17th 2024,myself and four other teammates
were baptized together, and Iended up being baptized by
Garrison, and it was amazing.
(16:01):
I remember coming out of thewater and feeling just like a
weight lifted off of me andknowing that this is who I'm
supposed to be, that this is nota hobby, this is not something
that I do to check a box like.
This is my life, this is mypurpose.
And it hasn't beenall smooth sailing and sunshine
(16:25):
and rainbows since then, but itit certainly has been much
better than it ever was, becauseI I understand that the hard
times are still going to bethere.
The struggles are still goingto be there, the challenges are
still going to be there, but I'mnot going through them alone,
and knowing who is inside of meand who is pushing me along has
(16:47):
made me so much stronger than Iever thought I could
ever be, and so that is kind ofa very long version of my story
very long version of my story.
(17:08):
Next West talked about the change that
happened in him and how he's nowable to witness to the old
friends and even bring them tochurch with him.
Wes Tucker (17:12):
I think something that I encounter frequently is,
unfortunately, there are peoplewho I used to know, who their
idea and perception of me is whoI was when I knew them, and
rightfully so.
And so I frequently find myselfin situations where people are
asking me to do something ortelling me to do this, this and
(17:33):
that, and making jokes andeverything, and I kind of just
say like hey, like that's not,that's not me anymore, you know.
But to be able to kind of havethat access towards certain
groups of people that othersmight not have, just because of
who I was and what I've done,it's really special to be able
(17:53):
to impact them, because I thinkother people might see it as
well.
If Wes can do this, then I cantoo, because it's it's no longer
somebody who's kind of like athe picture perfect Christian
who came in and has always doneeverything right.
You know, it's like we used tosee that guy out on the bar or
(18:14):
we used to see that guy withthat girl and then with that
girl, whereas, like now, it'slike guys will come to me with
questions and ideas and stuffand they're obviously afraid
because they either don't wantto branch out or if don't
understand, and knowing.
that there have been times whereI can be that person for them
(18:34):
because they don't feelcomfortable going to anybody
else,is really special and I'm really
grateful for that.
For them, because they don'tfeel comfortable going to
anybody else, is really specialand I'm really grateful for that
.
And so when people kind ofheard about me getting baptized,
it was like wow, well, if hecan do it, then surely I can do
it.
And I have so many greatfriends who a year or two ago we
started off as drinking buddiesand now we're
(18:59):
going to church together allthe time and in the same Bible
study group and learning andgrowing together and kind of
just choosing to leave the selfand worldly glorifying ways in
the past together, whereas for along time I think there were a
lot more people who werehonestly just too afraid to
start because they thought thatthey were too far gone.
Margaret Ereneta (19:19):
So many people think they're too far gone.
But don't give up on them, Godcan do anything.
Wes ends his show with hisadvice for others living a dual,
fake Christian life.
Listen in.
Wes Tucker (19:32):
I would say that try your best to truly give God a
try and to truly look inside ofyourself, because there's so
many self-gratifying things thatyou can do that might feel good
in the moment or might make youfeel cool or powerful or
valuable and whatnot.
But think of those things andthen try to think.
(19:55):
If they have ever lasted, Thinkabout those moments where you
felt cool and think how long didthat moment last, or was it
truly fulfilling?
You know the definition ofinsanity is doing the same thing
over and over again andexpecting a different result,
and so you are truly insane ifyou think that this thing that
(20:16):
continuously fails you is whatthe truth is, is what is going
to work.
And I also understanding thatit is hard.
But once you kind of find yourpurpose and your true calling
and your true home and you findothers who are looking for the
same thing, you start to notcare about what you used to
(20:38):
really care about and it becomesa thing where it starts off as
oh, I really want to, but I knowI shouldn't, so I'm not going
to, and then it ends up beingthat's not even a thought for me
.
Something that we always focuson is don't flee from sin, run
to God, and in doing that youwill get further from sin.
(21:01):
And so you can't just focus onleaving something.
You have to focus on obtainingsomething else, and that is what
will separate you from yourpast.
And there have been so manytimes where I have made the
wrong choice and just felthorrible.
And so I guess a piece ofadvice for somebody who is
really struggling in that aspectof living for the world and
(21:23):
chasing self-gratification isjust that once you understand
just like how powerful andmassive and amazing God is
compared to who you are, thenyou'll kind of be like there's
nothing I could give myselfthat's better than what he is
trying to give me.
And so just truly understandingand looking at yourself and
(21:46):
inside of yourself and lookingat what am I doing, why is it
not working?
Understanding why it's notworking and learning what works
and learning what works.
Margaret Ereneta (21:58):
Thanks for listening today.
We're so grateful that a Baylorstudent recommended Bay to be
on 180.
If you know somebody who has astory to tell, please share it
with us.
The link is in our show notes.
And that Unite US movement oncollege campuses actually ended
at Baylor with Pastor JP.
We went there so you could geta front row seat to what it was
(22:19):
like on college campusesactually ended at Baylor with
Pastor JP.
We went there so you could geta front row seat to what it was
like.
Listen in next week for ourshow on Unite US,
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