A different kind of sports column

By DAVID HUNTER

I decided to do something different this week instead of the normal sports column. Next week, I will get back to sports as I detail my first experience of homecoming at Cannon County High School.

Today, I will share something, I dealt with about 18 months ago, and thanks to my faith in God I have been able to bounce back from it.

During that time, I was dealing with a lot of personal issues, and it got the best of me.

Honestly, it made it worse not only for me, but the people I care about the most, including family, friends and co-workers.

Hopefully, I have come out of it as a different person, including an increased faith in God. I hope I am not offending anybody with my faith, but without it I might not be writing this column right now.

However, I know there are people who go through much worse things than me, and they do not let it stop them from living life to the fullest. Honestly, I need to do a better job of it.

It is part of the reason, I have been on mission trips, help feed the homeless during the winter, and attend a weekly prayer meeting at First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro.

All of these things along with the support of family, friends and co-workers has helped me get through it. At the same time, I know there is still a long way to go in trying to be a godlier person through Christ.

It is why, I have taken great pride in stepping out of my comfort zone of covering sports and attend the Ignite Music Festival for the past two years.

The wide range of Christian music and worship speakers has helped me deal with them along with increasing my faith with God. Two of the musicians I talked to a couple of weeks ago said they wanted their music to help those who are struggling right now.

"We want to spread our message of love, peace and change," David Manning, one half of the Christian Rap Group Change Musik said.

Christian singer Megan Swindler added, "I talk to people who seemed to have struggles and when you are able to take those struggles and use God's dependence to help him get you through that."

According the Men of Integrity magazine, and from Philippians 3:13-14, "I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."