AJ Brown (Florida Gators) - College Basketball Series | Ep. 5

0:00Florida Gators, I mean, we're probably one of the hottest team out right now after winning an actual championship and possibly we can do it again. They used like three, four years old going against six or seven year olds. He was just dunking on. I was like, huh? It's like really? All right, go be, I guess. One of the songs I love to listen to is On Time God. He always shows up. He always shows up. I definitely knew the foundation of what Christianity was really built on. Then obviously college it. Welcome back to another episode of The Walk Podcast. We're today. We are so pleased to be joined by AJ Brown, Guard for the University of Florida. Welcome to the show, AJ. Oh, I appreciate it. Appreciate you having me on this show. It means a lot. Yeah, thanks, man. It's so good to have you on here. And I just want to give a little bit of an intro for you here before we get started. Thinking about AJ, he's from Florida. He's from Florida, so he's from Orlando, Florida. Replayed at a Marlando Christian prep in high school. He actually won two state

1:00championships in high school, too. Actually, was it warm? Three? Yeah, three peded. Yeah. Wait, so what years was it? Was it yours? It was my sophomore junior and senior. So you went out with a bang. I love it, man. I love it. So three state championships, even better. You have a twin sister, which I didn't, that's super unique. But you also have an older brother and a younger brother who plays basketball here at the University of Florida. Isaiah, which is awesome. And so I really just, yeah, I really do kind of kick it off. Like, I mean, we are here in Florida right now. Like, what was it like growing up in Florida? And like, did you grow up in the Orlando area? Or where were you? Um, I say Orlando because everybody knows Orlando, but we really grew up an hour from Orlando. So point Sienna, which is basically Kissimmee. And that's closer to the Disney and all those other like tourist attractions. But growing up is definitely, it was fun, especially with a full house. You know, you had an older brother, which you could play with almost every day, then also having a twin sister and then a younger brother. And we're all basically close in age.

2:04So growing up, definitely, it was a lot of fun. I know we're headaches, definitely to our parents. But, you know, they still love this and still, you know, make sure we had a great childhood. Um, it was a lot of, a lot of sport battles. Um, a lot of video game battles. It was basically just competitive, you know, just growing up ever since we was little competitive. Like, even my mom and dad would join in sometimes. Um, I remember when we were little, we would have little 2k battles with me, my older brother, my younger brother and also my dad. And we always go to his room and then we have some battles between each other. Sometimes they'll give a little chaotic, but it was always very fun and enjoyed those times, you know, this time. That's awesome. I got a couple questions there. One, did you grow up going to the amusement parks around here? Like, did you go to Disney World Universal ever? Or like, when you live here, do you not really do it? Like, that's a great question. I've been, uh, Disney one time. But that one, I was like, what?

3:04I was two years old. So I don't really two or three years old. I don't really remember going. But um, definitely went. But I don't think, because Disney's, I think it's more of a tourist attraction unless you really are a die-hard Disney fan. But I've been to Universal a lot, Bush Gardens, Sea World, but Disney is one of those, it's like, you got to really love it. It's also expensive too. It is. That was the main reason it was expensive too. And we had what? Four kids. They have four kids. My parents, that's a lot. Yeah. And so you mentioned like playing 2k and stuff, um, like growing up. Like, did you have more of an eye for basketball from a young age? Or like, what did sports look like for you? Um, sport, yeah. Sports started a very early age. I was around three years old, three years old, going to YMCA. Dad coached me, started off with the little mini hoops. And then the story, well, I remember a little bit of it, but they would always tell me, like, use like three, four years old, going against the six or seven

4:06year olds. He was just dunking on. I was like, huh? I was like, really? All right. Go be, I guess. But um, definitely started a younger age at the YMCA. Um, then went a little to the wreck sports. And I'm here. That's awesome. That's awesome. And so obviously from a younger age, then you kind of were able to see some of the talent that you had. Um, when did that, when did your talent like really kind of get real to you where you like kind of realized like, man, like, this is something that like, I can maybe like do at the next level, like in college. Mm-hmm. I think for me, I started to realize it, but didn't fully understand. Fifth grade, because fifth grade I was playing up for OCP, literature prep. And I was killing it over there. So I was like, you know, maybe this is, this is definitely a possibility if it's, uh, you know, God's will. And then it got to eighth grade. And I was like, you know, what? It's getting closer. So it's getting real serious now. Now I can actually go to college for free and also get a

5:08education out of it. And also, you know, jumpstart my career from it. And now I'm in college fourth year. And I'm like, okay, now it's time to actually, you know, buckle down and do what you got to do. Yeah. And so you mentioned that you went to Orlando Christian prep. I mean, the word Christian is in that. So did you grow up like in a Christian home from as a young kid or like, what was your church life like growing up? Um, yes, I did. I grew up, we grew up, uh, Baptist still, I guess still a Baptist, but we would go to church every Sunday. Um, like on Christmas, we all read a little devotional about Jesus' life. Um, see what else we'll go do Easter things. Um, we'll do all the, you know, the Christian things and go to church. My parents, big believers, my grandparents, also big believers do a big push pushing on us to go to church, because we went through their church with them, um, which was also really nice. I mean, at the young age, you really, it was good, but then there was some days you were like, you know, very much

6:13to stay home. But it was always worth it when we went, you know, the little, what Sunday, Sunday kids groups were really nice. I remember, um, going and they would have these challenges where if they were called out a Bible book, a book in a Bible and whoever flips to it first would get like a dollar. I took that seriously. So I was walking out there with like three, four dollars and then I'll get to the church service and my grandparents would be like, now you can give something for offerings. I was like, you know, grandma, you're right. So usually I would go to Sunday group, do that and then go to church service and you know, give a few dollars just for ties and offerings, which is really nice. That's good. It seems like you had some, some things that really could encourage you early on like in your faith walk with like your family and grandparents and like just seems like a good good church community and all that stuff. Now, um, like I would say, there's obviously

7:14it in age you get to where you start to really be able to like kind of have more of an understanding of like really like what even is it that I like when I go to church like, what is this really all about like? Okay, I know this Jesus guy and like I know like this is all about God. Like what was your understanding of Christianity? Let's say like in high school like before you kind of went off to college. Um, so my understanding I definitely, I would say I accepted him into my life. Um, I definitely um, try to live following Jesus. Um, my understanding was, you know, have full faith in his death and resurrection for our life. So we do gain eternal life. And I've wholeheartedly believed that and um, especially being rooted at a young age is definitely was a foundation of my life. Um, so high school definitely, especially going to Christian school, we had Bible class. So that definitely helped me because now I know a little ins and outs of

8:19some Bible stories and how I can apply that to my life. Um, but definitely in high school, I, I definitely knew the foundation and what Christianity was really built on. Um, then obviously college it. So you mentioned, so you say college it and I'll be real. So I'm from Ohio. You know, I know and you went off to Ohio University and I know what comes with Ohio University. Yeah. Every year it ranks as one of the most of the biggest party schools in the country. Um, and very tempting environment. And so you're going, you're playing basketball, you're going off to owe you what's it like to kind of just be thrown into the college life? Definitely was an experience. Um, for lack of terms, I mean, grew, like I said, growing up, I had that foundation. Well, at least I thought I had that foundation and then college it. And I realized, wow, there's a lot more out there that I didn't really think

9:21I would be battling until I got to college. And I'll say when I got to college, at first I was, I was strong. And then I felt myself fading fading away to then now I am doing what the world does. I am going out in drunk. I'm going out. I'm trying to have a great time just because it feels pleasing to me to my body. So I was doing all the other I was doing all those things. And I would say I was Christian, but I wasn't living like it. I would, you know, post the Bible verse daily, but I wasn't living like it. So definitely when college hit, it was, it was definitely an eye opening to like, wow, maybe I wasn't ready. Or it was just something that I definitely needed to depend on God more, which I wasn't. And then I was hit with two major surgeries, two shorter surgeries,

10:21which then I didn't depend. I would say I'd dependent on God, but really I was depending on other things to just feel that whole, full of the whole of not playing, full of getting through an injury, but not actually looking towards Jesus as I should. And now is when I transferred over here, definitely different story because Florida's community is insane. Now, I was great. Shout out Mark. You helped me a lot. You helped me more than you thought, but coming here really, really, what changed my life and really what made me give my life to Christ and surrender my life to him because there was a time it was in summer, July. And this is like this thing, we go to big Monday, which is AIA at least in actions. And they had something called summer getaway where we go to, we went to what went to Orlando for three days. It was actually close to my house like 20,

11:2625 minutes away, which is pretty cool. But we went to summer getaway and they were talking about how, how to freely live for Jesus. What are some things that you got to stop doing like sexual immorality or just drunkenness, just the wicked things that are bad fruit. And hearing that really changed my whole perspective, it hit me like a train. I said, well, wait a minute. I'm calling myself a Christian and I'm saying that I am living for Jesus that truly am changed, but really wrong or not. I'm not living like it. Like what? We're just lying to myself thinking that I can just live whatever way I want. And then hopefully before I pass away, I give my life to Christ, but we don't know when that time is coming. So right then there, I was like, you know, there's something has to change. And that's when I started taking everything seriously, just constant surrendering

12:31myself to the Lord and just giving him my full praise, my full attention. So he can't change my life for the good. And after that, started getting more involved with community, started doing discipleship, started just reading my Bible, more praying, more being more intentional with some of the things in my daily life that doesn't involve sports or social life, something so I could change on the inside to pour out on the outside. And one of the things that I did have to learn, which is hard, especially being an athlete, is changing my identity is that my identity isn't in basketball or what I do. My identity is in Jesus Christ. And that's one thing that I had to really graphs and really try to change because it's hard. It's hard because there's a lot of outside noise. You want to please everybody. And you just, you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

13:33But in reality, the only feelings you really need to care about is God's. And you need to care about, oh, you know, it's claiming. You need to care about other people's feelings of course. You need to care about other people's feelings. But if you're living for God, that's going to happen naturally. If you want to give God all the glory, you're going to naturally help others and care for others, just how Jesus cares for us. And I think that's one thing that I'm trying to do now is really switch my identity because as you know, I am reshirting. It's hard, man. I want to be out there with my team. I want to play with them. I want to give them everything I have. But I'm not realizing that I am. Even though I'm not playing, I practice with them every day. I'm in a locker room with them every day. And I'm in a games with them every day. I might not be playing, but I'm giving them the support that I can. I am going to be the best teammate that I can. So I can glorify Jesus in that way. Even though I'm not on the court, that I'm playing my role right now to make the team

14:40better. And I think that's something that is just hard to do, especially when you know you can be out there and you want to help your team. But there's other ways to help. And that's something I'm grasping on now and something that I'm grateful to have the opportunity to do because I know once I do, you know, get out of this stage of my life, it's going to it's going to help me for the better. That's so good. There's a lot of things I want to dive deeper on from that because that's really good stuff. And so you were talking about, so you mentioned how you're red shooting this year, because you're still recovering and to be ready to go full steam for next year. But I think what's so cool about that is you mentioned how it could be so easy to just be like, I can get through right now just because eventually I'm going to be able to be out there again. But the reality is you also are being intentional about how you can serve your teammates and love on your teammates and help your team go after winning an SEC championship and the tournament and then winning the national championship like and you can do that. But as you are in this season right

15:44now where you feel like a little bit, there's still a level that you feel like you're kind of waiting on the Lord for kind of your next opportunity like playing SEC basketball and getting out there on the court playing in the games like just what's it really look like to like really just lean on the Lord and wait on him like trusting his timing for you. I think it goes back to a verse that has been sitting with me for a long time, Romans 828. And we know that God created everything for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them. And that's something that dwells deep inside of me because we're all faced with uncertainty. We don't know what's going to come next. We don't know where our life is going to be in five years. We might think we do but his plan is greater than we can ever imagine. And that's something that's hard to grasp because I'm like I want to be here. I want to do this. I want to be successful at this. That in reality you might be full 180 of what you thought he was

16:45going to do. And I learned that I need to stay faithful and just trust in his plan no matter what's happening. And that's what definitely what got me through this is just knowing that God is good. Like God is good. No matter what I go through, God is good. Like the Lord will provide when it is needed. You might think you need it now. If you don't see it now, it's not time. That's why you got to weigh in the Lord. And like one of the songs I love to listen to is On Time God. He always shows up. He always shows up. Like that's literally our testimony. He always shows up. He's on time whether you might believe it or not. He's always on time. And that's one thing that gives me peace is knowing that Jesus is always going to be on time whether I want it now or not. It's on his timing, not mine. And I just want to give him full control of my life. I don't

17:45want to control that. And I one thing I was told yesterday which opens my eyes is like let not what I do. Seek my own glory but give all the glory to God. Like in this horror because as humans is human nature just to be selfish and want to you know get all the praise but really you want to give all the praise to God and Jesus because without him you would not be where you are right now. So how do you because you obviously have a gift in playing basketball and a lot of ways it's like you know AJ why wouldn't you just go be a pastor you know like but I guess the reality is it's so cool is that you're able to glorify God in your sport as you said with the redirecting the praise to you to him but like from your perspective like what does it look like or like just in using the gifts that God's giving you like to bring him glory. I think especially

18:47being an athlete you can definitely build a platform especially being on 40 Gators I mean we're probably one of the hottest team out right now after winning an actual championship and possibly we can do it again. So having that platform and all the eyes around you on you you can use that just to spread little messages of how good God is and how Jesus loves you how I got to show it on now Jesus loves you I mean there's nothing better than knowing that there's always somebody out there that is always going to love you no matter what you're never too far gone for Jesus to come and love you and save you and that's one thing I had to realize like you know I'm we're all sinful so sometimes I do something like oh my goodness I feel so much shame and guilt but it's like God's already forgiven us for that but we have to actually believe it and repent and actually

19:48turn away from it and actually surrender all facets of our life not just 99% full 100 and let them seek us inside out because you kind of and it goes back to kind of what you mentioned earlier about not just seeing Jesus as an insurance policy right because are like oh I'm just going to live my way but Jesus like I do trust that you died for my sins and like I want to go to heaven and I want this eternal life and I believe that I believe it but I don't live for you in any way like but do I really believe it because it's like I'm not I'm not living for you at all exactly so when you like when you talk about when you went off to college and you kind of felt like you were doing this like one foot in one foot out you're like I'm a Christian but like I'm I'm trying to live my way I know a lot of people can relate to that I guess my question for you would be like what like I guess like what encouragement would you give or like maybe what did you find to kind of be something that could kind of break that pattern like what did you realize that kind of got you

20:48the place where you're like man I can't just be one foot in one foot out like I got to go all in on Jesus I think what helped me is definitely getting it to a community and seeing how other people are doing as well and how they are having fun doing it because some people think you know oh being a Christian following Jesus oh that's not fun you got to follow a bunch of rules this and that but right now it's probably the best I ever felt I'm having a lot of fun so having a sense of community that and have people around you that are holding you accountable encouraging you helping you to keep growing and looking on Jesus and even when you fall don't have them can don't have friends that condemn you for it have friends that would lift you up be like don't worry man don't worry Jesus still loves you Jesus forgives you just acts for his strength to turn away from whenever you are struggling with don't rely on your own strength you got to rely on Jesus strength

21:51because of what you're own you're going to lose every time and having a community around you definitely will just give you more perspective on how to do it and what also helped me was pick up the Bible read the gospels read how Jesus lived I mean that's basically a how to manual on what to do what not to do how to love others how to treat your neighbors how to live life is is something that is just you can always look back on and be like okay if you're ever in the evidence on something and you having troubles or questions or something look back to the word and just base your evidence off of that and not what other people are doing and then just you just try to stay intimate and pray like even if you are struggling you believe in

22:54God but you know it's hard to live it out just pray for strong conviction pray that you know God will meet you where you at and then when you start doing things you just you're like you know what I really want to change my life I really want to step away from what I'm doing now so for somebody who might be listening to this I just be curious for your perspective on it because something like listen to this and be like okay JJ you talk you say you know you talk to Jesus like you have a relationship with him and you know he ultimately is doing this work in your heart and he's changing who you are but somebody's looking at this and they're just like man did like what do you mean like you talk to Jesus or what do you mean that like that like you have the Holy Spirit or like I guess like my question here is like how do you know that like for you like what reveals like that God is real to you I think what reveals that to me is just the goodness all around me yeah like I know some people you know might be going through

23:56hard times right now it might you know might not seem any good in your life but there's always so much good around you if you just look away from the bed I mean I know it's hard trust me it's hard but one thing that I've learned is there's so much around like just looking at creation in general like looking how everything works how the earth works how everything is working simultaneously who simultaneously to work together and just bring God glory even if you know you might not think it is just and then just people around me especially with parents and how they love on me and how others that might not know me show me love and I'm like what it just shows me that the good in the world that's God's doing that's God is good everything that's come out

25:01good in this world is from God that's really good because I think I think one thing I've seen too is that if we if you almost just change your mindset to be like man let me try to like open my mind to like what if God is real and like let me start to like change like thinking about like once you have a mindset where you're just more open to the idea God will start to reveal himself to you in a lot of ways but a lot of us just surrendering to the idea that like um maybe I don't have this all figured out and maybe there is a crater created me and the reality is too AJ every single day that you woke up every single day I wake up every single day but when I was watching this wakes up we can be reminded that God stills a purpose in the plan for our life man and it's really cool um and so okay I want to ask too so like kind of diving into how your faith intersects with actually like when you play and so I guess my question would be like how do you invite God onto the court with you I think with some things I do it might be practical but just pray before you hit the court ask for strength ask for wisdom to know that when

26:05you go out there that your instinct is going to take over but it's not you it's the holy spirit taking over you know hooping so one thing I do is definitely pray before a game so I can set my mind right be calm in the moment and play that I'm playing to give God the glory so and then also when you're on the court you can pray as well man it's timeouts happening or when um you might do you might do something bad you might turn a ball over something you might be a little frustrated just as you run it back on defense just say God I know I got it next time God help me for next time um so those are some things that I do that just invite God with me on the court just just invite him in my heart and let the holy spirit steer in so I can just feel his presence as I am on the court even if everything is going chaotic I could have a sense of peace of like everything's gonna be okay stay the course these gonna be okay that's really good I uh so as I don't know if I

27:13mentioned this earlier on the podcast but last year we interviewed your brother correct your brother Isaiah and so cool to see how God was moving in his life then when we interviewed him and um I guess I just would love to kind of see what it's like just take me behind the curtain on what it's like to one just be brothers with Isaiah and two to be brothers in Christ brothers in Christ with Isaiah now being brothers I mean we're like I say we were always competitive so everything's almost a competition you know oh man he got more food than me it was my food it's something as little as that but um definitely off the court is it's a lot of fun to be reunited with him let me just hang out with him almost 24-7 um we live close each other not the same apartment but close enough to where he's walking distance um but just being it around him just it's nice man it's nice especially having a bond with your brother and just playing with him and experiencing life college life with him not only just high school and middle school but also college life

28:13is neat not many people get to do that especially in basketball as well um and then what's even more unique and neat is being brothers in Christ as well I mean he's somebody who has helped me tremendously especially coming down here and him just introducing me to big Monday and just introducing me to community and just having a warm welcoming um definitely helped me and especially seeing how he does things and trying to you know take things out of his book and apply it to my life and one thing that he also just holds me accountable on certain things like he's the one that really got me to go to summer gate away he was like oh you should come I was like hi and I don't know and then I was supposed to go somewhere but it got canceled so then I was like okay well I'm gonna go now and obviously I did not regret that because that

29:13changed my life changed my life but he's been big help now I love him a lot and I'm truly grateful for and so when you say summer getaway change your life like what what changed your life about summer getaway which hence my life is my perspective on what being truly saved meant um it definitely meant to me is that I can't be lukewarm meaning I can't say I believe in God but also live for the world I have to be all in I can't like that knowledge I can't say on the fence because the devil owns that fence I have to hop off that fence and join God's team and join his side and that's one thing that I had to realize it was like I have to make sacrifices sacrifices that will glorify the Lord in the end sacrifices that would change my life for the better sacrifices that would not only help me but also help others as well especially with like I said this platform

30:20that we have I can use use it to just spread the gospel and spread Jesus love all over the world but summer getaway was definitely something that would never forget nice it's got a couple more questions here for you um I feel like one thing that's gonna be good to do is just to look back and just kind of see almost reflect on like just God's faithfulness over your life and like obviously you know God has you here in Gainesville right now um for like especially and appointed for at this time just to to do his work um I guess just like as you reflect back on it like man has God just been so faithful to you in every way now 100% and so faithful I mean even when I wasn't obeying him and doing things that I wanted to do he was still faithful he's still showing up my god like I couldn't tell you how many times while I was like man God I want to but

31:23I don't know about right now like I want to but I can't change my ways it's too hard I want to just keep living my way and he still showed up in the end he still was like don't worry I got some for you it's like nowhere that's good man this because well so I want to land this land the plane on this episode and I think um we have a lot of listeners who might be watching this who are really encouraged by your story AJ or maybe just are kind of curious about this Jesus guy and maybe like you know kind of taking some next steps to get to know him I guess kind of the question here would just be like for somebody who's maybe starting to have some of those feelings like I guess what encouragement would you give somebody I will give the encouragement I would give them is to give give God a chance give him a chance actually try and trust his plans for you because there's no sense of peace then knowing that everything is gonna be good and then

32:24I mean knowing that through all my trials and tribulations there's somebody on the end waiting for me to let me know amen it's gonna be okay and that's what Jesus embodies is a look come to me I already overcame the world so come to me you don't have to fear nothing you don't have to be anxious about anything just come to me with open hands even if you don't know what you're doing just that little curiosity is enough for Jesus to slip in and be like okay here I am so just say yes to things if you're invited church give it a try go to church and just with open mind and see what Jesus does for you or if you're invited to Bible study just say yes and see what Jesus does for you because those little acts of faithfulness is things that God can use to bring your life to where he wants it to be and that will ultimately bring him glory

33:28so what I'll say to the listeners and viewers out there is to say yes and be afraid when doing it it's okay to be afraid just know that God is always gonna be with you every step of the way he will never leave us he will always love us no matter what we do we're never too far gone from God he is always there no matter if you feel worthy or not worthy you're always worthy in the eyes of God just stay faithful stay true to him and just give him a chance and really just say your eyes on him and everything you do amen beautifully said amen if you guys are watching this episode right now and then you would like your very first Bible on the walk foundation we would love to send you on and so if you would just email us at info at the info at the walk foundation dot org like I said we would absolutely love to send send you on info at the walk foundation dot org but AJ we appreciate you man may the Lord bless you in your future God bless you as well thank you for having me