Talk About Contrast by Pastor Ed Young

We’d been dating for over two years. But we made the move to Houston, over a 1,000 miles away.  Now, I thought, “Okay, I can finish up my high school career and wherever I get a scholarship, Lisa and I will just go to that same school. Then we’ll get married.” That was the plan. Now I want to talk to you again about this contrast thing.  Talk about contrast! I grew up in a very, very middle class environment.  We wore blue jeans and tee shirts to school.  That was it.  We moved from the Deep South to an area of Houston that was like Highland Park on steroids.

Dad moved from a church in South Carolina that had thousands to a church that was running around 700 people.  I was thinking, “This is really odd.”  It was a culture shock for me. Now I was going to high school with all these wealthy people.  And to show you how ignorant I was, I remember asking someone, “What are those horses on people’s clothes?” They looked at me and said, “That’s Polo man!  Where have you been?”  I remember seeing several cars that had these big hood ornaments, the round hood ornaments with things that looked like an upside down Y.

“What is that?”  “It’s a Mercedes.  It’s a Benz!”  I didn’t even know what they were. That year in Houston was a very, very tough year for me because I had a coach that not only betrayed me, but betrayed my family.  After ten or fifteen games I caught a severe case of mononucleosis.   But pre-season, I was picked by Dave Campbell as one of the top twelve recruits in the state of Texas.