Reflections after Nationals

As promised, here is the post written after Nationals. For those who would like to see, the current NCFCA Nationals break announcements are here.

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After the Fact

 Here I am. Nationals is officially over. I remember sitting in Oregon, loading up my tattered binder from the previous post…and thinking that I didn’t want to go to Nats. However, now that I’m sitting here after the fact I look back and realize all that God did during my time at the college campus.

See…there were these hallways. They connected the lecture halls, which served as the student hang-out area, and the alumni building, where the tournament happened in 66 rooms on three different floors. Now the cool part is…not many people knew about these hallways. Hence, they were quiet and undisturbed. They were hallways of professor’s offices, however, the doors are usually closed, and the hallways are air conditioned. There were four hallways, two on level 2 and two on level 3. These hallways were a gift from God.

I think back to Thursday afternoon. I found out that I had broken in my persuasive speech the night before, and it was thirty minutes before my round began. I escaped to a secluded hallway on the third floor. It was quiet, it was protected, it was a place to get away. I sat there, thinking back over the past rounds, and realizing…that this round would determine a lot. I opened my Bible to 1 Corinthians and began reading chapters 1 and 2. I sat in that hallway, reading the scripture allowed quietly, listening to my voice echo in the stillness of my hide-away.

I read, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” It was only by the power of God that I could walk into that competition room. It was only by the power of God that I wouldn’t have a memory slip, it was only by the power of God that the speech I was about to give would impact any of my judges…it was only by the power of God. God would take that speech, and do His work in spite of me…not because of me.

I have to admit, I was nervous… but I also have to say… that the semi-final round was the best that I have ever given that speech. Not only that, but the room was full of people. My guess is that fifty people at least heard the message, the message that God had given me to convey six months ago as I sat at my computer on a morning in January writing that very speech. He was there when I wrote it, He was there when I memorized it, He was there through all the qualifying tournaments, and now, as I stood in the semi-final round at the National Championship, it was still His message, not mine.

The semi-final round of that tournament was the ultimate test of my faith. There was heavy competition, all weighted with the question of, “Who’s going to make it to finals?”… but as I sat in that hallway, fifteen minutes before my round began, tears in my eyes, I knew, as I’d known before, that it wasn’t about the competition. Such a realization seems incredibly cliché, because that’s always what everyone says. But what I realized was that my speech had become more than a speech to me. I remember not picking my topic because I wanted to win, but rather, because it was important. If God wanted the message of that speech to reach more ears, and draw more attention, then He would move it forward.

And He did. I sat in the hallway on Friday morning, thirty minutes before the final round. I read the passage over and over again, the same passage that I’d read the day before. God confirmed in my heart His calling for the next round. I ought to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. That’s what ultimately matters. My commitment to my savior is my ultimate source of strength. I am not with persuasive words, but I come with the power of God. He’d put me there, placed that calling before me, and all I needed to know Christ and Him crucified, and God would take care of the rest.

The night before, I’d met the Scott brothers and Tait Deems by the parking garage and they congratulated me on making it to finals. Then Tait added, “So, at least the top three, kay?” …I laughed and replied, “I’ll talk to God about that one.”…And He did it. I placed in the top three.

Yesterday, Liz and I took one last trip to the hallways. I stood looking down that hallway, thinking of the times I had paced it, praying and reading, all the times I had used it as a quiet escape in order to focus my thoughts. I walked down the hallway one last time, with my backpack slung over my shoulder - the same backpack that held my tattered binder. The messages of the scripts within it had been proclaimed at a tournament…one last time. I saw how my calling at Nationals had been completed. God did His work in spite of me, not because of me…and yet…I was given the privilege of being used by Him.