Dear Younger Me Series - “Life Is Not In Your Control” (Bot9 #193)

Dear Younger Me Series
"Life is Not in Your Control" by Sean Rooney

This week's "Dear Younger Me" letter is written by Sean Rooney, a freshman infielder at Point Loma Nazarene University and an alum of Valor Christian High School. A theme of Sean's life has been a consistent a purposeful pursuit of our Lord, Jesus Christ. When some kids were grinding all summer on the baseball field, Sean would take a break to serve on international mission trips. He has overcome numerous trials and difficulties as he outlines in his letter. Sean will be playing for the Rochester Ridgemen this summer in the New York Collegiate Baseball League and will continue to impact teammates for Christ wherever he goes.

Dear Younger Sean,

You are a broken mess! Honestly you are a broken mess but that is absolutely ok. I wish I knew that it was ok to not always be all put together and perfect when I was your age. Rarely, do things work out the way that you thought they would and your biggest battle will be yourself, but it doesn’t have to always be that way. Things will go much better for you if you fully surrender your life to God.

High school is an absolute whirlwind, it will go by faster than you can imagine. I know I know you’ve heard that before but trust me it will go by in the blink of an eye. You will make friends and lose some along the way. You will struggle with who you truly are and where you fit in. Baseball will be your best friend somedays, and your worst enemy other days.

Making varsity has always been your dream, but what you don’t expect are the struggles that come along with that. When you make varsity as a freshman your life will be very different, people will look at you differently and you will struggle with yourself more than ever before. Like I said earlier your biggest battles will not be with anyone but yourself and I wish I knew that earlier in life. You will go through some slumps and often struggle but beating yourself up and telling yourself you suck will not help get you out of them. You will make errors and strike out, don’t worry about it. You won’t even start every game, that is something you have trust coach in and support your brothers no matter what. Just take each moment in stride and do your best to show off your skills every chance you get. It took me all the way through senior year to figure that out. I could barely hit and as a result Coach Wahl had to make a decision to play one of your best friends instead. Trust me that battle is not with anyone else but yourself. The reason I didn’t hit was not for lack of talent or effort but for the fact that I started to fight myself and doubt my abilities. You will be harder on yourself than anyone else will ever be on you, it’s time to start loving yourself more.

Where I am in life now is absolutely not where I thought, I would be when I was your age. Never in a million years did I imagine myself going to a university where I could literally walk to the beach in my free time, let alone get the opportunity to play baseball there. God has a way of working everything out for His glory. Many times, however that plan is completely opposite of what you thought it would be, but in the end, it always seems to work out for the better. The recruiting process starts early for you and you’ll get interest from some big-time schools, but then a small division 2 school will contact you. Before you know it, you will fall in love with the school and choose the love of the game over the stressful pressure of division 1. Like I said earlier things rarely work out the way you will plan them so stop thinking you have everything figured out and live each moment as an opportunity to grow and learn.

I hope you are seeing a theme in this letter. This life is not in your control, it is way better and easier to surrender it to God. Many times, you will struggle with this through your high school days. That is just part of being a stubborn perfectionist teenage male, but I’ll tell you I wish in times where I struggled the most I should’ve surrendered instead of kept on fighting. You are not weak by surrendering but actually you are filled with a strength this world cannot give you. God has a plan for you and you just have to listen and follow what He wants for your life. Going back to my senior season, I was playing off and on, but still not consistently producing the way I was capable of. Right before playoffs started, I got down on my knees and decided to fully surrender everything to God and held nothing back. It was not an easy conversation at all but trust me it was absolutely worth it. Baseball became fun again and I started to play more for the fun and love of the game, all along giving God the glory. Well, I ended up hitting a double in the bottom of the 7th of the regional finals, then one of my brothers Erik Ohman comes up and scores me to tie the game. We went to State! From there I will leave for you to find out when you get there but enjoy the ride! It will go by faster than you can imagine and give God the glory in everything. Don’t forget to surrender.

Love,
Sean