story: Travis put down

Travis looked at me and said, “No, I’m not smart enough to go to college.” I had asked him if he would go to college with me in California, and that was his answer.

Travis was my best friend growing up. We went to the same church and the same school from 4 years old through to high school.

He was as smart as me, and I couldn’t figure it out. So, I asked him why he thought so poorly of himself.

Travis said that all his life his dad had told him he would never amount to anything if he didn’t work harder. His dad said he wasn’t smart enough and should study harder.

Many times the words to study harder or work harder were left off the sentence, and all Travis heard was that he wasn’t smart and wasn’t good enough to amount to anything.

We were in his parent’s house at the time of our discussion. I don’t remember a lot of detail, but Travis’ dad came home while I was there.

You’d think after all those years of being best friends, that I should have already known about his dad putting him down all the time. But, I didn’t see it. A light turned on in my head. It all made sense to me why Travis acted the way he did all those years growing up.

I was always respectful to Travis’ dad and never had the courage to directly confront him until that moment.

I said Mr. Cotterill, “I asked Travis to go to college with me in California, and he told me he wasn’t smart enough to go to college.”

Mr. Cotterill looked at us with a startled look and paused in confusion. He responded with something like this, “Travis, of course you are smart enough to learn. You go to college to study and learn, and you don’t have to already know everything before you go.”

As Travis looked confused at his father’s answer, I quickly responded, “Mr. Cotterill, would you be willing to help Travis pay for college if he went with me?”

Travis’ parents had plenty of money to pay for college, and Mr. Cotterill gave a confident yes to my question.

I turned and looked at Travis. He was emotional, and his head was down.

Travis finally responded and said, “All my life you have told me I wasn’t good enough. Why all of a sudden are you saying I’m smart enough to go to college?”

Mr. Cotterill knew that we loved to play competitive basketball more than anything else, so he used the example of the basketball coach.

He said, “Your basketball coach is constantly yelling at your team that you aren’t working hard enough, and not good enough. You need to work harder. I was just trying to motivate you to work harder to become better in sports and life.”

Travis looked at me. Many times we had talked about how we disliked the basketball coach for always yelling at us and being so negative all the time.

Travis finally responded with his answer, “I’m not going to college. I’m not smart enough.”

He wasn’t angry when he said it. He quietly and calmly stated it as a matter of fact. Later Travis and I drove down to California together in his dad’s classic 1964 Ford Mustang. It was our last major hang out together.

Travis and I loved old cars and he got jobs as a delivery driver for parts companies. For years he told me that driving deliveries was all he was good at doing. Whenever he said those statements, I would tell him I didn’t believe it. I knew he was as smart as me.

Well, Travis eventually married. Tammy is wonderfully strong and very intelligent. She worked for Boeing as a supervisor, and their son, Craig also entered Boeing. Somehow, it was after Craig went through the training that my conversation with Travis was different.

Travis explained how he decided to work for Boeing, and what the training was like. He worked on the electrical system installs for one of the newer plane models.

I told him I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, and I intentionally threw in the phrase, “Travis, I think you’re smarter than me. I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”

It felt so good to say it, as he laughed and agreed with me.

In conclusion. What happened?

First, those wicked words kept Travis locked up and burdened his mind.

Second, because of those words he worked as a delivery driver for years.

Third, eventually Jesus removed the burden and the real Travis finally came out.