Thoughts of a College Teen
As the first half of my first semester at college draws to an end I just thought I would briefly share the incredible way God has been working in my life. My prayer at the beginning of this semester
was that God would lead me where he wanted me to be for the school year. And out of all the organizations on campus he led me straight to the varsity swim team. Now if you were in my cabin this year at camp you would be thinking the same thing I did – I can’t swim. On the first night of orientation I ran in to one of my friends. He was a Jr. on the swim team, and was with a bunch of upperclass swimmers. Upon introducing me the first thing they all said was that I looked like a swimmer and should join the team. I politely told them that I didn’t know how to swim and therefore couldn’t join the team. To my surprise that didn’t seem to matter to them. “That’s Ok, we’ll teach you!” was their response. After a week I got lunch with my friend. At lunch he invited me to come to a captain led dry land practice. It was before the official season started and the pool hadn’t even opened yet. I figured why not, there was no swimming involved. I got hooked on the team and kept going to the drylands. As I continued showing up people of the team would ask me what events I swam. I would have to confess the embarrassing fact that I couldn’t actually swim. And to my surprise everyone’s response was still an encouraging that’s ok you’ll learn. I continued to wrestle with this concept and I didn’t think it was possible for me to join the team. I questioned what God had planned for me and why of all things he led me here. He had placed a passion in my heart for swimming, and I had no idea where it came from or why. How could I be passionate for something I didn’t even know how to do? The day finally came for the first water practice. JG worked with me all practice and taught me how to swim. That was 4 weeks ago. I practiced with the team everyday since then for the whole tryout period and made huge improvements. Then came decision day, and to my surprise I made the team and now am, by God’s amazing power, officially a collegiate swimmer. I never thought I would be able to say that. I have learned that the only limits you have are the ones you put on yourself and that you can’t put God in a box because he can do anything he wants if you let him.
-Male, Age 19
