Breaking Down Idols

By: Jordan    

    I'm Jordan Slavin, I am a senior at the University of North Dakota and I play on the women’s hockey team. My ultimate goal has always been to play in the Olympics. I was selected to play on the USA U18 world team. I know it’s not the Olympics but this was one step closer to my goal. I was so proud of my self and what I had accomplished. I was finally getting the success I had always dreamed of.

     Little did I know, my whole world was about to change. After the World Championship I was training and completely tore my ACL and meniscus in my knee and was told I needed surgery and I would be out of hockey skates for 6 months! Could this really be true? I was devastated. Everything I had just achieved, boom, gone. Down the drain.

     I told myself, “Everything happens for a reason, it’s going to be ok, you’re going to be stronger, God has a plan” He did have a plan indeed. After I was cleared, I caught a glimpse of what it was like to play for the Lord and not myself. I caught a glimpse of relying on the Lords strength instead of my own. And then it was gone.

     Tore my other ACL and meniscus, another 6 months down the drain. I was cleared to play again, however I didn’t know if that’s where God wanted me. Kept battling back and forth in my head as to if I should be playing hockey. Then I tore my ACL and meniscus for a third time, and I was sure this was God telling me that I should quit hockey and he didn’t want me playing any more. I wanted to play hockey, and did not really know anything other than hockey. All these outside voices telling me I should quit and give up and that it’s not worth it.

     When I was at home last year over Christmas break a great friend of my family, came over for dinner one night. (He is a cowboy preacher) As I was telling him about my struggles and all these outside voices I was hearing, he told me that God had given me these talents for a reason. He wouldn't have blessed me with the ability to play hockey if there wasn't a reason for it. He shared with me John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." 

     I realized that God wasn't telling me to quite hockey, the thief was trying to completely destroy the good I had come to known. But you know what? This isn't the thief's world anymore, it's Jesus' and God constantly reminds us of that truth through his power. 

     I was reminded of God's power this summer through a series on Moses we talked about at church. I have heard/read the story of Moses many times, but never once understood why God sent the plagues he did. Why would He turn water into blood, send frogs, boils, locus and many other things to prove that he was God? This summer I learned that for every plague God sent he was destroying an Egyptian god. He was telling the people of Egypt "Hey this god that you worship, yea they aren’t real." Think about that. Each plague God sent He was destroying a god that they worshiped daily. How powerful and amazing is that?! God has the power to over come everything and anything. 

     God showed me through all three of my surgeries that life wasn’t about my success in hockey. Life is about Him and bringing him the glory. Hockey isn’t about me anymore, hockey is a way I can worship my King and He has blessed me with the ability to worship and play for him once again, to give him all the glory. I still struggle with this constant battle of playing for the Lord and not for my success, but I know when I mess up, I still have Jesus. Knowing that He laid his success down by dying in my place so that I may be successful through him. And when God looks at me he does not see my sinful record, but He sees Jesus perfect record. Jesus is my ultimate gold medal and paid the price so that I may live with Him for eternity.