Meet the Chaplain
Click the document below (JohnnySheltonBio.pdf) to learn more about Johnny Shelton's background and how he can inspire and energize your group, team, or organization. The document is in the Adobe Acrobat format, so you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your PC for this to work.
JohnnySheltonBio
Chaplain's Corner
One Team... One Vision
There Is No Off-Season Click the link to stay prepared.
What's My Purpose? Click the link to learn about our chaplain's purpose in life. Have you hit a nail yet?
Gratitude!! Do You Have It??? Click the link for ideas about Thanksgiving and Gratitude.
Are You Going to Finish Strong? Click the link to learn about starting, and finishing strong.
The Culture of Sport. Click the link to learn how the "culture of sport" squeezes athletes and how "heart transformation" is the answer.
There is No Off-Season
January 2010
The Christmas holiday is gone. January is not only here , but halfway gone. I don't know about you, but many people have set out to do some things different in 2010 than they did in 2009. They call them "NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS" Well this is the time during that first month in which those New Year resolutions that were set, kind of loose steam a bit and some even come to a halt already. I've learned over the years that just because it's the beginning of a new year, it does not make the beginning of a new me. What makes a new me is Beginning of a new SEASON of my life!!!! ( Romans 12:2)
The first two weeks of January at Virginia Tech have been slow because of the winter break and the players are at home spending some much needed time off with family and friends and the coaches are on the road recruiting. It has hardly been slow for me though. I have spent my first two weeks of the new year in some training classes. This was very good training and very much needed. It was a time to get together with chaplains from other teams to pray for each other and get refreshed. It reminds me of a verse in the Bible that reads " be ready in season and out of season" (II Timothy 4:2)
I sent the players a text of this scripture over their time off and reminded them that just because football season is over and they are out of school. Stay prepared, because the enemy (satan) does not take a day off. THERE IS NO OFF SEASON!!!
I want to remind you of that too. THERE IS NO OFF SEASON!!! Just because you obtained that goal, finished that project, secured that deal, lost those pounds, paid off your debts, got that job or whatever it is that you might have obtained. Does not mean it's time to relax. Now is the time to go even harder!!! God wants us to live a life of EXCELLENCE and that means to live a life that is honoring and glorifying to Him. So if that's you who set a new year's resolution just because it's the beginning of another year. You are not doing it because it's the beginning of another year, You are doing it because it's the beginning of a NEW SEASON in your life.
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What's My Purpose?
Summer 2009
Consider a hammer. It's designed to hit nails. That's what it was created to do. Now imagine that the hammer never gets used. It just sits in the toolbox. The hammer doesn't care. But now imagine that same hammer with a soul, a self-consciousness. Days and days go by with him remaining in the toolbox. He feels funny inside, but he's not sure exactly why. Something is missing, but he doesn't know what it is. Then one day someone pulls him out of the toolbox and uses him to break some branches for the fireplace. The hammer is exhilarated. Being held, being wielded, hitting the branches -- the hammer loves it! But something is still missing.
In the days that follow, he's used often. He reshapes a hubcap, blasts through some sheet rock, knocks a table leg back in place. Still, he's left unfulfilled. So he longs for more action. He wants to be used as much as possible to knock things around, to break things, to blast things, to dent things. He figures that he just hasn't had enough of these events to satisfy him. More of the same, he believes, is the solution to his lack of fulfillment. Then one day someone uses him on a nail. Suddenly, the lights come on in his hammer soul. He now understands what he was truly designed for. He was meant to hit nails. All the other things he hit pale in comparison. Now he knows what his hammer soul was searching for all along.
We are created in God's image for relationship with Him. Being in that relationship is the only thing that will ultimately satisfy our souls. Until we come to know God, we've had many wonderful experiences, but we haven't hit a nail. We've been used for some noble purposes, but not the one we were ultimately designed for, not the one through which we will find the most fulfillment. Augustine summarized it this way: "You [God] have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."
A relationship with God is the only thing that will quench our soul's longing. Jesus Christ said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will ever go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Until we come to know God, we are hungry and thirsty in life. We try to "eat" and "drink" all kinds of things to satifsy our hunger and thirst, but yet they remain. We are like the hammer. We don't realize what will end the emptiness, the lack of fulfillment, in our lives.
Usually when we keep God out, we try to find fulfillment in something other than God, but we can never get enough of that thing. We keep "eating" or "drinking" more and more, erroneously thinking that 'more' is the answer to the problem, yet we are never ultimately satisfied.
Our greatest desire is to know God, to have a relationship with God. Why? Because that's how we've been designed. Have you hit a nail yet?
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Gratitude!!! Do You Have It ???
Thanksgiving, 2009
Gratitude keeps memory alive. It's a constant token that we carry with us of the blessings God has given us. In these difficult times, gratitude reminds us how good God is. When we don't know what to do, gratitude gives us clarity of purpose. When we're down and discouraged, gratitude infuses us with joy and gives us reason for hope.
I'm glad that we celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving in America. It's good that we take a couple of days away from the usual rhythms of our busy lives just to remember how much God has given us. I'm concerned, though, that if we can't cultivate the habit of gratitude throughout the year, by the time that fourth Thursday in November rolls around we'll find it very difficult to be thankful. Our lives get so busy and hectic and stressful, and I'm concerned that we can get like like those nine lepers: never quite able to find our way back to Jesus to give glory to God for the wonderful blessings he's given us. (Luke 17:12-19)
So, while all the good things that you do swirl around you, remember from time to time to throw yourself at Jesus' feet and thank Him. When you're feeling bitter about the bad breaks you've had, throw yourself at His feet and thank Him. When religion feels constricting and empty, throw yourself at His feet and thank Him. And when it seems that you don't have time to do everything you have to do -- well, that's especially when you need to take the time to throw yourself at His feet and thank Him.
God doesn't need our gratitude. Jesus doesn't need to see us there at His feet. But He knows we need it and He notices when we don't. Where are you? ARE YOU THANKFUL???
Patrick D. Odum
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The Culture of Sport
August 2009
Last month [July, 2009] the sports world grieved the tragic loss of a high profile, recently retired professional football player. He was shot several times in his sleep by his mistress, 16 years his junior, who in turn killed herself. It was a horrible tragedy and a too common occurrence. The media jumped on the story and they have danced all around the issues related tot he killing, but have not really dealt with the central question, "Why does this kind of thing happen?" The statistics related to divorce and bankruptcies among recently retired sports professionals are staggering. Education, brochures, presentations by former players, therapy sessions and professional consultations are having little effect on this issue.
I have thought about this a great deal and have had conversations with our players and coaches. I believe a strongly contributing factor is what the sport world doees to the highest achieving among us. The culture of sport squeezes athletes for all they have and forces them to identify themselves solely by how the perform on the field of competition. From the time they're 8 or 10 years old they are judged, rewarded, punished, acclaimed, criticized, valued or derided for their performance in sport. Beyond that, they derive most of their values, structure, discipline, and sense of purpose from those who direct their sporting life. Many times that comes from the coaching staff, the parents or organization for which they compete. And oh yes, of coarse the fans!!! Suddenly, at the end of the player's career, all the hype stops and the player is cast adrift. Years or even decades of structure and organization, provided externally by their life in sports, is removed and many players have no internal structure or guiding values to provide discipline for even the simplest aspects of life.
I am not trying to minimize the tragedy, not trying to downplay the series of foolish decisions, or to excuse his behavior. Rather I'm trying to understand what happened here and to discern what we should learn from such situations. As chaplain for the Virginia Tech football program, my commitment is to guard our players and coaches from similar fates. My purpose is to help build an identity, in Christ Jesus, which respects and understands a strong identity in the world of football, but also helps them see beyond the world to whom they are in relation to: family, community, the Church, and the Kingdom of God.
The answer is surely not simply a matter of education. It will certainly take a transformed heart to deal with these issues. There is a process that is outlined in Romans 12:1-3 that must be applied to our lives. My prayer every day is to help them resist the temptation to be conformed to the world's way and to trust Christ for transformation of a life that will permeate their entire being. Such life transformation will have an effect on them on-and-off the field of competition. It will impact them during and after their careers. It will change their relationships with teammates, coaches, friends and family. It will certainly save their lives in a spiritual sense, but may also save them from tragic consequences related to foolish decisions made by a deluded mind, driven by a poorly developed heart.
Roger Lipe
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Are You Going to Finish Strong?
November 2009
This is the question that I asked our football team in our pregame chapel before we took the field to play ECU this past Thursday, November 5. Well, It is November already. The leaves are Hokie colors and our football season is more than halfway over. Before the ECU game, we were coming off of two back-to-back ACC losses that dashed our quest for a third straight ACC championship. It was not a good feeling around here. It is a lot like going on a vacation and it ended before you were satisfied. Have you ever been there?
Well all is not lost, because through the adversity, what God is doing in the lives of players and coaches off the field has been amazing. There are men that are realizing that "Time" is very valuable and it waits for no one. We are going on a Journey here at Virginia Tech. I invite you to come join us!!!!!
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