ROBBIE’S JOURNEY

Hey Guys,

I hope you are all keeping safe and enjoying some free time at home with your families. I really miss hanging out with you all, hopefully it won’t be long until we can all see each other again!

I’m currently training to be a secondary school R.E. teacher at Stranmillis University. I play a bit of football for Glenavon F.C. and I’m a massive Man United fan (although the less said about that the better at the minute.)

I was born on 16th April 1998 (fun fact – I once got my D.O.B. wrong when sharing my testimony lol). I was born with an illness called Erbs Palsy which left me very restricted in my movements. Babies can recover from this, but it can also deteriorate significantly and at one stage my family thought I would be in a wheelchair. On top of this, I was born with Cataracts in my left eye, Cataracts is more common among older people, but if you have it as a baby it can be linked to brain damage. Despite all this, I was blessed to be born into a Christian family. My dad is from England, so there were several churches in England and N.I. all praying for me. I went through physio and surgery to try and help my condition and over a period of time the Erbs Palsy left my body and after about two months the Cataracts was completely gone!! I believe that I was healed by God through the power of prayer, and I’m forever grateful to those many people who prayed for me as a baby. 

However, as a baby I obviously didn’t have any awareness of what had happened. So, I just continued life as normal. I breezed through school life, I didn’t face any real adverse life experiences, I just did my work, messed around with my mates and played football. I went to church with my family, but that was more to just tick a box and please my parents. Turning up to Church on a Sunday was as far as my faith went. 

I got to Lurgan College and suddenly alcohol, house parties, girls and pre formals were beginning to become quite appealing to me. I decided I wanted to go my own way and do my own thing. I didn’t go off the rails or anything, I just started to push the boundaries with these things. I still called myself a Christian, but I wasn’t really living like it, it was a half-hearted attempt to follow Jesus. At 16, I had the opportunity to go to Uganda on a mission team. My friends were going, I could play football with the kids, I could experience another culture and my parents encouraged me to do it. I didn’t go expecting what happened to happen. The Bible tells us that, Jesus dwells amongst the poor, and whilst in Uganda, I had encounters with Jesus that I didn’t even know were possible. 

 I came home from that trip and kept saying to myself, there has to be more to life than what I’ve been living. I started to seek God for myself and try and find some answers. In this time, God spoke very clearly into my life. He gave me this verse;

Romans 12v1-2 

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world.” 

As a 16 year old, this was a bit confusing but as I prayed and kept reading it, I sensed God say, “Robbie, I don’t want half of you, I want all of you, surrender your whole life to me.” Up until this point my faith hadn’t cost me anything. I knew God was calling me to sacrifice everything, all my worldly desires and all my ambitions for Him. It was either all or nothing. “If God’s not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all” (Pastor Phil). That night I made the best decision I’ve ever made, and it’s given me an inner joy and satisfaction that I can’t find anywhere else in the world.

I promise you, if you follow Jesus with everything you have, if you go “all in”, you will soon realise it is not boring but it is the most fulfilling, life giving, purpose bringing adventure you will ever embark on. 

Since that moment I haven’t looked back. I’ve just gone after Jesus with everything I have. Sometimes I mess up, but what I’ve learnt is that “holy obedience is not about being perfect but when I fall getting back up and following Jesus with all that I have again” (Pete Greig). I started to share with people this amazing new life I was experiencing. I was just so hungry for more of God, so some friends and I started a Bible study, we just read the Bible, shared what we thought God was saying to us, took communion and prayed together. I wouldn’t be where I am today without having good, like-minded friends around me to journey through this life with.

I’m sure a lot of you are aware, I play a bit of football. I played for Lurgan Town growing up and then moved to Glenavon when I was 14 and I’ve been there ever since. If I’m honest, I loved the attention that playing for Glenavon brought, I played for my own glory. I wanted other people to think well of me and I found all my identity in what I did and achieved. I quickly realised that I was always needing to do more and achieve more to find value. I found my identity in what others said about me, consequently, I was always trying to please people instead of God. When I decided at 16 to give my all to God, I needed to deal with this pride. I started to realise that I am who God says I am, not anyone else. It doesn’t matter what anyone says or thinks about me, what matters is what God thinks about me. Now I try to give God the glory in EVERYTHING I do. I started to realise that God has me in the football world for a reason and I’m now using it to tell others about Jesus. I pray on the way to football that God would give me opportunities to tell people about my faith, that He would help me to point people to Jesus in how I love people, in how I speak and act. 

After school, I decided to do an internship in Emmanuel Church. During my internship, I decided to get up early each morning to pray and read my Bible. I developed a real hunger for God’s word, it was my daily bread, I relied on it. As I started to make time for Jesus and make him a priority, my relationship with him went to a more intimate level than ever before. When we spend time with Jesus, we start to become like him. Therefore, I was beginning to be changed, the way I spoke to people, the way I behaved and the choices I made started to reflect Jesus. As I became full of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus it began to flow out into my everyday life. 

At the beginning of August 2019, I tore my ACL and my footballing career came to a swift halt. I have played football every year since I was about 3 or 4 years old and had never missed a game through injury…. until now. It was likely that I wouldn’t play one match this season. In the midst of this difficult time, I had a decision to make, was I going to blame God and run away from Him or trust Him and run toward Him. I often say Jesus is my everything, but is he? When a major part of my life is taken away do, I still hold to this? The world can take things away from me, but it can’t take Jesus, and if I have Him, I have all I need. I started to trust that as His word says 

 “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” 

 Romans 8:28

Whilst being injured, I’ve come to understand that it’s easy to say God’s good in the good times but now I’ve experienced the goodness of God even in the bad times. He never changes, he is always good and always will be and I find great joy in that. 

Finally, “God is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). When I was a baby, football wasn’t an option for me, my family and I would never have dreamed of what I am doing now. Through the Grace of God, I’m playing football and using it to tell people about Jesus. God has a good plan for each of your lives, therefore, no matter what situation you’re in or what you’re going through you need to know that He has amazing plans for you, plans to prosper you, to give you hope and a future.

Don’t miss out on the amazing life He has for you! God bless you guys.

Much love,

Rob