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Saturday, March 1, 2008
A Life Worth Following
Central Oklahoma, OK
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Justin Sullivan was The Oklahoman baseball player of the year in 2002. A day after the honor, he was killed in a car crash.
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The Yukon senior has continued to make an impact, albeit away from the baseball field. Chris Wall, one of the lead pastors overseeing the middle school, high school and sports ministries at Council Road Baptist Church in Oklahoma City recently wrote a book called A Life Worth Following. Here’s what Wall has to say about Justin, Justin’s life and the book which is now available.
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On the day that Justin died, I was in his life. I was always telling him that I wanted tickets when he played and I was teasing him and giving him a hard time. He was leaning toward Rice and wanted to be a surgeon but wanted to see where baseball would take him.
The day he died, I couldn’t believe it. I got a phone call saying he was in accident. I went to the hospital and I didn’t know what to prepare for.
When that happened it was the most difficult week of ministry for me.
When he was named player of the year we were excited. When it came out we thought it was incredible. That Sunday was a lot of fun. There were a group of guys at the restaurant at lunch and they all cheered him for being named player of the year.
Justin’s mom kept talking about a journal she had given him. As I kept hearing about it, I asked if I could look at it so I could prepare for the funeral. I was close to him, but I wasn’t close enough that I knew about his journal.
I looked at it, and I couldn’t believe it. Here was a high school kid that didn’t miss one day of writing. He dated every day with his time with the Lord. He was playing baseball and taking honors classes and he was so committed. He was so faithful. I knew something needed to be written about it.
All I did at the funeral was read one verse and then read to the people of what was in his journal. I read about eight days worth of it and that was about it. Basically his words were the content of the funeral. It was his words.
I thought about it for more than two years. In February of 2005, I met with Justin’s parents and told them my idea and asked if I could pursue it. Then in March I planned to self-publish a book. I’m not an author.
The writing journey was amazing. It’s a book on spiritual discipline and basically it is six disciplines I observed in his life through his journal writings. It’s a spiritual journal of his life.
I learned that he was a young man who had incredible insight to God. He spent time with people. He served people. You can see it all in his writings. He wrote down things. He studied the Bible. That was the strength of his life.
What made his life remarkable was the depth of his walk with God. That’s the other part of the story. Obviously, the player of the year was about what he accomplished on the field, but he connected with God. That’s what people need to learn from him.
Look at his life. He could have impacted people in Major League Baseball.
The reason this book was written is because people need to rub shoulders with him. No matter what faith you are, rubbing shoulders with him will help you. People ought to know about him.
The book arrived in November in 2007 and we started selling it on our website http://alifeworthfollowing.org. We sold out by January. The proceeds go to a fund called Justin Sullivan, A.L.W.F. We’re hoping that the book money can produce more books. We only could afford 2,000 copies to start. But now we have another shipment.
Books are available through the website or at Council Road Church. Mardel in Oklahoma City will also sell the book immediately.
For more information about Justin Sullivan and the book, check out the website http://alifeworthfollowing.org.
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