The day I stopped writing…

The transformation of Mitch Creek from country basketball player to the NBA also bookends the end of one of my chapters in my life

I’m not sure even to this day why exactly I stopped producing the content I’d been churning out for the last few years on a whirlwind journey of what its like to taste a dream at the top to then have the very thing happen perhaps we all fear, a lack of control of our future. My years as a volunteer journalist for the sport I love was a culmination of study of a special interest that has always been my catalyst for sharing with others that if you have something you really want to do, then no matter where you are at life, spend even a small amount of time nurturing and caring for that craft, my mistake has been to drop it completely I’ve realised.

As my parents and people would know of my growing up, once I hit NBL basketball as an interest in the mid 1990’s I have never looked back. I am thankful to my Father Trevor for taking me to games week in and week out to see players that I now have the pleasure of still seeing from time to time around the SA Basketball scene including Brett Maher, Kevin Brooks and Steve Breheny for example. Not only that did I learn to study the game from a technical point of view, but my interest has always been the presentation of a game, the look, the feel, taking a small moment on court and turning it into a story of a moment. I think back to two seasons ago and the game two win in Perth to get us into our first Grand Finals since 2013, although the story didn’t finish the way I wanted it to for so many people I’d done a chapter of my life with, “Miracle on Swan River” remains one of my favourite stories to tell (You can read it by clicking here). That moment when I wrote that article about that game how much my writing was not just about telling a story of a basketball match but also the joy it gave people for the way it was written.

This same joy I love to echo in all my facets of anything I do, you’ll see this passion surface in my work with SA Church Basketball, the National Baptist Carnival down to my youth facilitating and mentoring at my workplaces. Many people do come to me and say how am I managing it all, my response to them is that “I’m trusting in Jesus, he knows me and knows my path, plan and what’s ahead.” As with most of us sometimes we feel we have to give away completely who we were created to be to fit into the jigsaw puzzle of life challenges we all deal with daily.

To juggle everything else both professionally and personally I stopped working on my craft of sports journalism thinking this is what others around me wanted to do, I did so willingly understanding that if I did then more of my story ahead would be revealed. This was cause those things I cared about very deeply and was willing to say I’ll step away from my personal passion to step into different kinds of joy giving. To write with guile is a professional skill and as a passionate sport journalist, I refuse to match what we see as a practice daily of creating a story from a negative or sensationalised piece of slandering news but rather create the story we all crave to hear daily. Ones of truth, elevation of a team or individuals achievement, the respectful nature of that we have the privilege to be able to share these athletes adventure both as spectators and as writers of their journey. Ironically the guile of writing style I have has been a blessing from the Lord for me as I’ve needed it to come to terms with decisions I’ve made in my life not have not been easy as well as realisation of myself as a person.

I have come to realise that sometimes no matter how much you sacrifice, change or rejig your life, there will always be factors and things beyond your control. This hit me like a freight train when I was asked to run my first ever faith based elective around Sport and Faith. I touched on three elements of the sporting life but also described that these things all biblically built as principles what we can control, what we can influence and what what we must adapt to. I realise I can control where I decide to put my time, effort and joy into but know through this I can influence others with my approach, my attitude and my approach to life daily. The day I stopped writing I realise I lost one of my abilities to be able to influence others the way I had been stepped on that journey by the Lord and as a result perhaps as most people know I lost the key thing that had been my gifting from the Lord and in no way manufactured by myself, I lost hope.

When hope leaves your life it is devastating, it has a tsunami like effect that engulfs you fully. When you have given it your all and poured so much time, effort and pain into things, relationships and life and it still isn’t enough its devastating. Over the time I stopped writing I realised this is not the end of my story and even though things remain in a “end of Empire Strikes Back” state, it is the end of a chapter of my life. There have been losses where I know I have had some control, some influence and also needed to adapt to and its been the single hardest lesson of life I have ever done. Out of that emerged finally what I have longed to know deep down for so long, was my identity truly laid in Christ after everything that has happened?

We never know until we have lost all our hope where the hope truly lies.

And doesn’t a good story keep its readers on the edge, what happened next tomorrow…