Career-ending injury brought Inky Johnson his dream life

The dream from age 7 was coming true. Inky Johnson was in his junior year in college with all the paperwork signed for the NFL draft. He was among the top 30 and was guaranteed to make millions doing what he loved.

All he had to do was play 10 more games and his future would be set, but when he went to make a regular tackle against an Air Force player in 2006 — a tackle “I could make with my eyes closed” — the cornerback ruptured his subclavian artery and could not get up.

“I never thought about a career-ending injury,” Inky says in an Above Inspiration video. “I woke up from that surgery and the thing I placed my identity in was now gone.”

His right arm was paralyzed. Every day he lives with pain. But he rose above the crushed spirit and now delivers motivational speeches, encouraging people to serve Jesus and trust Him with their destiny.

Inquoris Johnson was raised in a 14-member household crammed in a two-bedroom home on Atlanta’s poor and violent side. His mom pulled double shifts to put food on the table, and Inky says he wanted to pull the whole family out of poverty.

Every day was dedicated to training to fulfill the dream. He drilled, worked out and practiced. His family attended church, and he asked God to bless his dream.

When he joined the Volunteers at the University of Tennessee, he became their starting cornerback and was on the trajectory to success; the commitment and effort was paying off.

Then he woke up on the fateful day and followed his usual routine: run two miles to the fire station and two miles back to warm up. Throw the football at the ceiling to practice catches at all angles by surprise. Visualize himself performing to perfection.

“Two minutes left in the game, 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. When I hit him every breath from my body left, my body goes completely limp. I fall to the ground.”

Inky blacked out. His teammates came over to him and told him to get up. “Let’s rock man,” they said. Read the rest: When bad things happen to good people: Inky Johnson’s career-ending injury.

He couldn’t trust God

I don’t own the rights to this photo, and I’m not making any money on it.

Jacob had issues with trusting God

He couldn’t trust God with his future. He had to assure it for himself. God helps those who help themselves. — Doesn’t the Bible say that?

So he took advantage of his brother to wheedle out of him the birthright. Then he impersonated his brother in front of his blind (and probably half deaf) father to steal the blessing.

When he runs away, Jacob cuts up wooden limbs into stripes and spots to again try to assure his future when he’s going to be paid wages of striped and spotty animals. (Jacob does this because he’s a master geneticist.)

At every point along the way, the grandson of the father of the faith has none himself. As a result, he misses his mother’s funeral, never has a good relationship with his brother and reaps what he says. His uncle Laban swindles him like he swindled others.

Not until he’s a wit’s end does he start to trust God. Not until there’s nothing left that he can do to save himself. Esau, his brother, corners with 400 Special Forces in the desert. Jacob can’t fight, can’t run, can’t hide.

Then and only then, he prays a real prayer, and God shows Jacob why he should have trusted Him from the beginning.

How much pain and suffer would he have avoided if he simply would have trusted God from the beginning? You too, maybe?

God is the editor of your life

I’ve seen people fight editors. They want to write well. They foolishly think their prose is pure genius and needs no improvement.

I myself have done it. I wrote an article for the UCLA Daily Bruin. A friend shortened it and made it punchier. But I liked the original version. Why? Because it was mine. I reverted it. Years later, with more experience and wisdom, I regretted editing my editor.

I have also been an editor. It’s grievous to me to have writers resist the improvements I’ve made on their copy.

God is the editor of your life. An editor is not there to make you miserable or make you feel stupid. He’s only there to greatly improve your article.

Clumsy prayers

Now happily married for 22 years.

I had three girlfriends. They broke my heart.

Then I had two girlfriends — at the same time. I broke their hearts. I think I was trying to get some kind of weird revenge, unconsciously. But I didn’t feel good about it. As a Christian — a lukewarm one — I knew that what I was doing was wrong. So either way, whether my heart got broken, or I broke hearts, I felt bad, really bad.

With our daughter

Finally something good happened. I got disgusted with the whole darn dating scam and quit totally. I prayed: God, I don’t want to have anything to do with girlfriends anymore. Just drop down from the Heaven my wife so that one day I’ll open my door and there she’ll be. The prayer contained more bitterness than faith.

The whole family today

A year and a half later, I opened my door, and there was Dianna. How she wound up there is a story for another blog. Clumsily, I had stumbled on a truth: You can trust God even for the finding of the ultimate match-up. Also: Prayers don’t have to be perfect. Clumsy prayers are better than no prayer.