I come into my junior year and I'm about to get exactly what I want
About to get this thing called NFL
And I'm ten games away from this dream
That I wanted my whole life right this thing that I've been working for my whole life my whole life is dedicated to this
One game
I'm up Saturday mornings four o'clock five o'clock in the morning two miles to a fire station two miles back home I'm in the park
9:30 10:00 at night doing
Everything in my life surrounded the game of football I'm sitting at home at night I'm throwing balls up to the ceiling and I'm catching
them different type of ways trying to see if a receiver wants to check me if I want to catch an intercept like everything revolved
around this game and I finally get in the position in my life to where now I'm ten games away from it I've got the
paperwork that states I'm about to be an NFL draft pick
NFL on top of the paper Inky Johnson projected top thirty automatic
Multi-millionaire now all you have to do the hard part's over just play the next ten football games Ink you've made it
And I go out in a silly game against Air Force, two minutes left and I go to make a tackle
that I can make with my eyes closed
And I hit this guy and as soon as I hit him I knew it was a
problem but i didn't think it would be this type of problem
Like you know
How when things happen like I didn't expect that but I don't think it's gonna be anything too crazy
And when I hit him every breath from my body left my body goes completely limp
I fall to the ground I blacked out my eyes open I'm still not you know too concerned because it's football
I told pastor I never thought about a career-ending injury, you have injuries within the game
When my eyes open guys run over Ink let's rock man let's go let's finish them off and I'm like I can't
Like what do you mean you can't you are our starting corner get up you can nurse your injury after the game man
Like no I can't they said what do you mean you can't I can't move
It's a shock neck to my toes I can't feel anything
Shock leaves it stays in my right arm in hand I'm like maybe I got a bad stinger
They put me on the spine board wheeling me off the field
Doctor says to me as he's walking beside me I don't know how you're still alive son you don't have any pulse. We get to
the ambulance my father standing there I'm like pops I laid it on him right I put it on him right my dad's like yeah
but I think you got the worst part of this one Ink
Doctor say we're gonna take you over run a couple of tests bring you back into the room everything will be cool
They run the tests they bring me back into the room mom comes in kisses praise
Son you'll be fine she's going to walk out doctors rush in head boy says hey man got to rush him back to surgery he's about
to die
And I look at him and I want to ask him like man you can't use another word like use a synonym brother
Why you gotta say die like you sure die man
And he could tell from how I'm looking at him that I'm questioning him
He says to me you've ruptured a subclavian artery in your chest you're bleeding internally
If we don't perform his surgery tonight I guarantee you you won't be here in the morning
From seven years old to 20 years old bowled down to one moment
The sacrifice, the dedication, the commitment
Came down to one moment
And the next morning when I woke up from that surgery
The NFL on my scale of life
Was that big
SEC championship
That big
Cornerback
That big, I was embarrassed
I'm sitting there and people coming into my room like Inky man
I'm sorry about what happened to you
And I'm saying to myself
Man Ink you really messed it up this time
Like man that's really the only thing you wanted huh
Like you just thought because you grew up in this so-called hood
Two bedroom home, 14 people
Like the only thing you really wanted was the NFL that's it
I'm like man you limited God to that
Like life holds no substance no value like efficient but not effective. I did things right but I never did the right thing
And now the thing I place my identity in now it is gone That's why I laugh at people when they say man if I
could just get this i'll be
Man if I could just get this position I'll be whoo. Man if I could just get this amount of money I'll be I'm like
But what happens even if you get it or you don't get it. What happens when God says yes and no
Like do you have the ability to accept what you don't understand
Can you still see God's plan when it didn't go the way that you thought it would go
Can you handle when things get off course I'm sitting there and I'm thinking like man I'm eight games away and God is
redirecting me and I'm like God just let me get to the NFL then redirect me
Like let me get the contract then redirect me so that I can help my family and Gods like no
son I need you to really go that way and I'm like you sure like man I need to go this way
He's like no I need you to go this way I got something better it now i might take a little longer to manifest
but I got something even sweeter
Like I got something more fulfilling I got something more rewarding I got something son that's gonna carry you for the rest of your life
Like it's an amazing thing I knew this was what I was supposed to be doing when
One day
I'm backstage and I got the same feeling that I got when I used to be in the tunnel before I was running out in
Neyland Stadium
I said thank you God
And so now I live my life a certain type of way according to what God has done
I live my life a certain type of way
according to the power that I know the lord possess I live my life a certain type like when I go to the lord in
prayer I go bold
And every time I go bold I'm so thankful that that's not me and my lord's first time communicating
And people have the nerve to ask me all the time Inky why wouldn't you change what happened to you you got a paralyzed right
arm and hand
I'm like if you only knew and if you only saw the works that God has done in people's lives around me what he's done
in me yea it's great it's cool but what God has done in the people's lives around me like you can't put a price on that
Like at a certain point like what is it really about
Like and I know the initial
reaction when we go through things is to say man why does this have to happen to me and that's an honest reaction
Because sometimes good people go through some crazy stuff
And some of the things we go through I'm just be real there's not a scripture for it
It's not you can't go, hey go to roman's 2:2 they're like what
There's not
But this is what I've understood in life some people don't need you to preach a sermon they need you to live one
And so when they see you living it
They can connect and identify with that
The only thing I ask of you
As talented as brilliant as powerful as beautiful as you are
Never allow life to make you forget why you started in the first place
Meaning that first time you said man I'm riding with Christ let's go
That first feeling you got like that first
interaction that first connection you got like when you first got it it's like when people say at the beginning everybody is excited
Everybody is on fire but at a certain point you hit something along the journey and it's going to test that level of commitment
At a certain point you're gonna hit something is gonna test that level of faith and my definition of commitment was always
Staying true to what I said I would do long after the mood that I've said it in has left
Like am I gonna stay true to my beliefs and my
core and my
essence of who I am as an individual even if I get a paralyzed right arm and hand am I gonna stay true to even
if my career that I thought I was gonna have
disappears am I gonna stay true to it even if one day I'm in a football game the thing I love to do
The thing I have been practicing my whole life and then one moment it gets wiped out am I gonna stay true to it
Because depending upon if I'm gonna stay true to it a lot of other people's belief in their christian journey is predicated upon that in
my belief and my christian journey. In other words I've seen a lot of other people say Inky I want to give my life to
Christ not because of something that happened with me but because of something I've seen happen to you
And so when ESPN comes to me and says Ink you would be in the NFL right now like if you only knew
If you only knew my father got saved because of my injury
If you only knew
My three boys that went first round to the NFL all of them got saved if you only knew
If you only knew my mother the level of affect like if you only knew
Like I just seen God do some things through the injury and I'm like man every day I wake up I just try
to stay out of His way
I'm gonna leave you with this
We already know what to do when God says yes
We already know what to do when we get blessed. We already know what to do when our prayers get answered
But the question that I have for you and it's rhetorical what will you do when God says no