TRAGEDY INTO TRIUMPH | When God Says No - Inky Johnson Inspirational & Motivational Video

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.