When I was a kid I bounced off the walls a little bit. I was funny, a good kid, but had a really difficult time staying on top of anything. When I was supposed to be listening to my teacher, I would be thinking about dragging a magnet through the dirt or launching a frog with my giant sling shot. Of course all kids do this to some degree but I was a little over the edge. There was something weird about me in that I couldn’t stand being in one place doing one thing for very long. I would want to bolt.
Years later, I began to learn the doctrine of hell through high school homework. I hated it worse than anything. Just a few minutes after I got started I would feel like fleas were crawling in my head because I desperately wanted to be somewhere else doing anything else. It was a serious issue which had to be overcome.
Today I refer to this as the Wal-Mart feeling. It’s the stressful anxiety I get every time I go there. I see the 50 cash registers and only 3 overwhelmed 15 year old girls frantically working behind them and it’s in that stressful environment I want to be anywhere else on the planet. My mind darts all over the room. I begin to inwardly freak out over the dental hygiene of the feller next to me and the choice of tattoos at the top of everybody’s butt. I desperately search for an answer as to why so many women wear spandex to this place. Is this really Wally’s World or a Choctaw bingo reunion?
I have a big laugh on the inside of my head. No one around me appreciates my humor because my thinking is in a lot of different places at one single time. And are you ready for this …it works for me.
THE CURE
Don’t try and put me on Ritalin or send me out for shock treatment. Having many irons in the fire at once and a dozen different programs running on my computer has made me be able to make a huge difference in a lot of different areas. Don’t try and cure me unless of course you are willing to hire a giant staff to do all I do on a daily basis. I have turned what some call a disorder into a valuable asset. I am a master at multi-tasking.
If you multi-task long enough, you become multi-talented. Because I can’t stand doing the same thing or thinking about the same thing for very long – I’ve branched out.
At the age of 42, I have recorded 8 music CDs and had several songs published by various artists though the years. My bands have traveled throughout the world and I have played every kind of venue from funerals to weddings, bars to churches and birthday parties to stadiums with more than 30,000 people. I started the Johnson County Food Bank and today we give away well over a million pounds of food every year to the working poor in our communities and beyond. I have four orphanages with over 700 kids in them on three different continents. I have written five books and have two more I am about to publish. I started a church with seven people and have preached four sermons a week for 14 years. I write a newspaper column that is printed in multiple newspapers throughout the state. I teach leadership courses to companies and do upper management consulting. I do two three day conferences a year here locally and speak at conferences throughout the world. I have a beautiful wife of 20 years and four kids. Two kids are in college and two kids in high school. My youngest son rides saddle bronc in rodeos and my oldest son plays bass in one of my bands. My youngest daughter is a leader in our youth group and my oldest daughter is in nursing school to be an RN. In my spare time right now I am building a walk-in birdcage next to my waterfall and learning to convert from PC to a MAC.
I’m sure the devil would love to have me healed of A-D-D but that cosmic punk should of never messed with me. The Brewer says, “No Cigar, Diablo!” all while checking my email and scheduling another mission’s trip to Uganda East Africa.
Just because a kid doesn’t do well in one setting, say a class room, doesn’t mean he can’t do well in lots of other settings. If you have a teen that struggles like this, have hope. I don’t think most people with A-D-D need a cure they need a purpose and a passion. That’s where Jesus Christ comes in. What the Lord has done for me is nothing less than turning a curse into a blessing. He can do the same for you because that’s what He does best of all.
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalms 139:13-14
Troy Brewer Pastors Open Door Ministries and can be reached at troy@opendoorministries.org
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