You may be in a time of evaluation. Your life may not have gone as you had planned, and you’re not sure what to do. But just because you’ve had a few bad breaks or taken some unusual turns does not mean your life is over. It may just mean a new beginning. There are exciting days ahead, if you will keep believing and put God first.
When you fail, society often views you as someone who is broken or needs to be fixed. God views someone who is broken as someone ready to be used. Did you know that distressed furniture is one of the most popular and valuable types of furniture you can buy? They say it provides aged character. If you look at the wood of distressed furniture, you see flaws. But the flaws make it valuable.
I have a scar over my left eye on my forehead. It came from playing sports when I was in elementary school in Gridley, California. We used to play touch football at recess, and I went for a long bomb to the deepest part of the field. I went back, put my hands up, and caught the ball over my head for the touchdown. A few steps later my eyebrow caught the wire from a chain link fence. It tore the skin over the top of my left eye. It hurt at the time. Blood went everywhere, but that didn’t stop me from playing a week later. Those stitches were only an interruption. I got back in the game.
Later that year I not only caught touchdown passes at recess, but I made the Pop Warner football team and scored touchdowns there as well. Today, when I look at that scar, I don’t think about the wire cutting my forehead and how much it hurt; I think about how I not only caught the ball but held on for the touchdown. Every year that story gets more heroic . . . But basically, I don’t let the scar remind me of my pain; I let my scar remind me of how I overcame.
You may have a lot of scars from life so far. Do you look at them and only see hurt and pain, or do you look at them and see how you’ve overcome and are still standing? Some people live proudly but suffer quietly because they are unwilling to let go of their pain. Every time they look at their scars, feelings of hurt and rejection fill their minds, and they never have victory over them. It’s time to let your scars become stars. Let go of your pride. John Gray says, “Your brokenness will have a perfume that pride can never produce.”1 Stop focusing on your hurts from the past and watch what God will do.
My friend and a member of our staff, Nick Nilson, played high school football for the Hononegah Indians in Illinois. He wore the number two, and his life was all about football. In one game alone he rushed for 268 yards and five touchdowns. College coaches were checking him out, and scholarship offers were coming his way. He was the big man on campus. He had it all: girls, parties, popularity, and it seemed like his life was all planned out. He was on his way.
But in the fourth game of the season in his senior year, Nick took the handoff on a sweep around the corner. As he was tackled, he could hear the ligaments pop and tear in his knee and his dream of playing college football was over. It had seemed like everything was going his way.
I’m sure that when he felt his injury, he not only felt the pain of a torn-up knee but also the pain of a lost dream. Nick could have stared at his scars, gotten depressed, and given up. But a friend invited Nick to a youth camp, and Nick heard about a God who could turn his scars into stars. At that camp, he accepted Jesus into his heart and began a new life that would influence more people than he ever could have by playing college football.
God called Nick into ministry, and now he is affecting thousands of people as one of the pastors of Lakewood Church.
Some people might look at Nick’s story and say that it was dumb luck. Some only see what might have been. But thousands of people hear him speak every week and many have come to know Christ through Nick’s ministry. They look at his tale as a great success story because of the way he’s touched their lives. Nick saw his own dad come forward after Nick had spoken in a service, and he prayed with his dad to receive Jesus into his heart. In Nick’s football days, people saw him wearing number 2. In God’s eyes, Nick went from number 2 to number 1. Now he’s changing the world.
A man named Saul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest followers of Jesus (Acts 9:3–20). He wanted to take them back to Jerusalem as prisoners, question them, and possibly execute them. The journey was interrupted when Saul saw a blinding light, fell to the ground, and communicated directly with a divine voice.
“Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Saul came in one way and was about to leave a changed man. The road you came in on may be different from the road you go out on. You can’t plan what God has destined. This was Saul’s divine interruption. He came to a place of brokenness, so God could use him. If you can’t humble yourself before God, you will struggle when humbling yourself before man. When you lay things down, God will use you.
Saul was about to find out that the same persuasive gifts he had used to do wrong, God was going to use to do right. He was changing from Saul to Paul. The gifts he once used to sin, God would use to help others to win. Here’s what the Bible says happened next:
So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”
Paul would become one of the greatest heroes of the faith. He is considered one of the most important figures of the apostolic age. Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament of the Bible are attributed to Paul. He traveled from a road of destruction to a road of victory.
When you die to yourself, God is looking at a person He can use. The plans you had for your life just got bigger. He loves the underdog, the comeback story, the against-all-odds “You made it!” headline. That’s where God shines. God desires restoration even more than we do. He will not rest until He’s settled things.
We know a Champions Club is working when we see a Champion and their family moving from injured party to conquering warrior. When they are still going through extreme difficulty but, even in that unbelievable challenge, they find a way to rise above and testify to the goodness of God. Believe me: when the odds are stacked against you like they are for a special-needs parent, that’s not an easy thing to do. I met a woman in Lanús, Argentina, who did just that. I was coming to speak at Presencia De Dios church in their services that weekend and then planning to go to one of their sister churches where a new Champions Club had been launched. I love the Argentinian people. They are so passionate. I’ve never been kissed so much in my life.
When I arrived to speak in the services I couldn’t believe the crowds. They were lined up outside. I knew they weren’t coming to see me, because I wasn’t a well-known speaker; but Jonatan, my host, said they were coming to hear me because I represented them.
I said, “What do you mean? I’m nobody.”
He said, “Not to them. They drove from all over because they feel you are one of them.” It’s true. If you have a special-needs child and you meet someone else who has been on the same journey, you have an instant connection. Even though your individual journeys may be different, you face very similar things.
I thought I was just coming to help dedicate a Champions Club and preach, but I couldn’t comprehend that I was representing a nation of special-needs people who had never been fought for by anyone from a place of influence. Now I was actually preaching about their lives from the platform. They were so responsive. I wanted to connect to the crowd by telling them I became of fan of soccer by watching one of their native sons, Lionel Messi, play. Lionel Messi is considered one of the greatest soccer players in history—if not the greatest. When I said that, you would have thought we were at a soccer game. They went crazy. Between services some of them even went home and brought back Argentina Messi jerseys—and the church’s leader, Pastor Bernardo, and his team actually give me a signed Barcleona Messi jersey. I have it hanging in my office to this day.
When I finished speaking I tried to get back to the green-room area, but I couldn’t get through the crowd. Families and organizations of people serving special-needs kids, teens, and adults were bringing their children up to me to give me a hug and kiss and ask me to pray for them or bless them. Some said they’d traveled hundreds of miles to get there. I asked them why they traveled so far, and they said, “You’re the first one who’s ever spoken for us.” I looked at them in disbelief. I began to cry because I was beginning to see the magnitude of what this ministry meant to these families. Busloads of special-needs individuals were coming from far distances to hear someone say to them that they were going to do great things and that God has a destiny for their lives. For eight services, I got the privilege of connecting with and meeting these beautiful families. It was one of the greatest, most effective days of ministry I’ve ever experienced.
That evening we went to Iglesia Conexión Con Dios Church in Buenos Aires, which had launched a Champions Club for special-needs children in 2015. We were so excited to see all God had done since then. In just a few months, the Champions Club had close to eighty families attending. They had excellent leadership and an incredible team of more than thirty volunteers serving there.
After I spoke in the last service that day, they asked if I would come back to one of the classrooms and encourage and greet the many families and kids who attended Champions Club. I knew most of these families were rejected in their culture and hidden, with no real hope or future. Many families are taught to hide their children because they are an embarrassment or a curse as a consequence of sin in their life. Nothing could be further from the truth; but I was still expecting our meeting to be more focused on their many needs and struggles.
I told Jonatan to let the families know I would say a word of encouragement first, and if they have any needs we would be honored to pray for them. I then added, almost as an afterthought, “And, if any of them has a testimony of something that has happened since they started attending the Champions Club, we would love to hear it.” But honestly, I didn’t expect to hear many stories of victory in the face of all they were suffering.
We opened up the door and stepped in to a packed room of special-needs parents and their children. Let me say—it was loud. They had been waiting for twenty minutes, and the kids were obviously getting restless.
I then began to encourage the parents and tell them what a gift their children were to this world and what heroes these parents were to us. When I asked for their needs, to my surprise, one parent after another began to share testimony after testimony of how God was using this ministry to help their children grow and develop.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from these parents who were in such desperate circumstances. We went around the whole room, and not one parent presented a need, but every parent had a testimony of what God had done.
When that happens you know you have a successful Champions Club ministry. The first parent was a single mom with a severely autistic child. She lived north of Buenos Aires, but every Sunday got up at three in the morning to take her autistic son on a community bus for six hours just to get to Champions Club. They had to stop at every bus stop through every village to get there.
She said, “Iglesia Conexión Con Dios Church and Champions Club have changed our lives. My son, who was struggling in school, is doing much better now. His behavior is better, his comprehension is better, and he loves coming to the Champions Club—and I love being able to sit in an entire service and know that for the first time my child is being loved, accepted, and developed just like every other child.”
All I could do was cry.
She could finally smile as she looked proudly down at her child with hope, and with victory.
We recently did a survey of fifty families from five Champions Club locations around the world, and the results show us what restoration and victory look like in progress:
• 86 percent of parents said that Champions Club has positively affected their child academically.
• 96 percent of parents have seen positive changes in their child’s behavior since attending Champions Club.
• 93 percent of parents said that Champions Club has positively affected their child’s social emotional growth (identifying emotions in self and others, sharing, empathy, making and maintaining friendships, asking for help, helping others, increased eye contact during conversations).
• 89 percent of parents said Champions Club has helped develop their child’s gifts and talents in a positive way.
• 100 percent of parents said that Champions Club has positively affected their child’s spiritual life.
• 96 percent of parents said that the four components of Champions Club (sensory, motor, education, and spirit) have benefited their child holistically.
• 100 percent of parents said Champions Club has benefited them as a family, allowing them to share in life experiences and attend church.
• 100 percent of parents said the services Champions Club provides (for example, church services and respite nights) have helped their marriage or family dynamics.
• 100 percent of parents said Champions Club has positively affected their home life.
• 75 percent of parents said Champions Club has helped their children transition into an inclusive environment.
We are beginning to see fruit that we never could have imagined when we started. When you take that step to build others, God will take it to places you could never dream of, and He will raise up new overcomers.
One thing overcomers have in common is that although they may have struggled with their faith, they never lost it. They found a core belief deep inside that said, “No matter how many times I fail, I will keep getting up and I will hold on to my dream.”
If your life hasn’t gone as planned, let me ask you a question: If you can’t do anything else, can you still believe? It doesn’t have to be a bold, confident declaration; it may be a quiet word under your breath saying, “I believe.” Pastor Joel Osteen says, “Don’t use your energy to worry; use your energy to believe.”2
No matter how hard, worn-out, or dirty your past is, your future is spotless. Every disappointment, every wrong, every closed door has prepared you for your future. Failure may have paved the road to your greatest success.
The first part of my life was a journey in understanding my identity and my purpose on this earth. As I look back, I missed what was important more often than I recognized it. I had compassion for people but nothing like what was going to take place later. It doesn’t make me better than anyone else, but it has made me become a better person. If you can see—truly see—people beyond their exterior and abilities, you become a part of them. You will share their hearts, and you will see them for who they are and who God created them to be.
God has shown me through Connor that even when Connor didn’t know how to express his feelings, we could still feel his love. We see you, Connor. Even when you can’t express how you feel, we see you. When you don’t know how to deal with all your emotions, we see you. When you can’t do things typical kids can do, we see you. We see what you can do that others can’t. You have a purpose. Autism is your interruption, but you will touch people like no one else can. Along with your brother and sister, you are your mother’s and my greatest accomplishment. You are a masterpiece. You are a gift. You are our cause.
On World Autism Day I don’t celebrate autism. I celebrate the brave kids and families who fight it and overcome every day. Autism is not my cause. Special needs are not my cause. Connor is my cause. People are my cause. Passion is more powerful when there is a name and face attached to it.
I celebrate Connor and every child, teen, and adult who fulfills their purpose in spite of their challenges. I see them now! I will never look at them the same way again. My senses are alive for the hurting, broken, and forgotten. My unexpected challenge awakened me. It enlarged my heart. It broke my spirit so I could let love be poured out. It was the greatest gift God could bestow on me. Whatever you are going through, God is breaking you for something much bigger than yourself. It’s your time to shine.
Connor is doing amazing today. He loves to sing, swim, and listen to music. He’s an excellent student and is at the top of his class. He is drawn to spiritual things, and he can quote more than fifty scriptures. I can see him one day running the Champions Club and speaking to thousands.
I have watched God speak through Connor in such profound ways. A few years ago when we were eating dinner, I asked Connor what he wanted to be when he grew up. I was expecting the typical answer of a singer, a fireman, or a ball player. But without hesitation he looked at me and said, “I want to be grateful.” I sat there stunned because I had never heard an eleven-year-old say that before. I knew God must have said it through him. I can’t wait to see how God is going to use Connor in the future.