I think, as athletes, we've been given a platform, and we can use it in a lot of different ways. We can use it for negative. We can use it for positive. We can be indifferent. But if you've been given a platform, I think God is pleased when you share... His truth in love.
Interpretation
Athletes have a responsibility to use their platform positively, sharing truth and love.
In this quote, Benjamin Watson emphasizes the importance of influence that comes with being an athlete. He suggests that with the privilege of a public platform, individuals have a choice to either use it for negative purposes, remain indifferent, or utilize it to uplift others and share meaningful truths, particularly those aligned with love and positive values. Watson implies that the moral obligation lies in using one's voice for good, thus pleasing a higher power.
In practice
A motivational speech during a community event.
We all have the same problem as human beings. And it's something that we are born with, and we just see it manifest in different ways. And in this situation, it's racial. It's brutality. It's people breaking the law. It's the smoke, but the underlying fire is something that we all have to deal with, and that's our sin.
It's been a constant struggle with my athletic career to identify myself as a child of God and understand that His love is unconditional for us; it's not conditional like fans, or coaches, or even myself.
We need to look at truth. We need to look at justice, and we need to look at righteousness. And let that be our guide going forward.
By deciding to live our lives based on solid values and unwavering truth, we can leave a legacy for the young men and boys who want nothing more than to follow in our footsteps.
Sometimes, we feel like we don't want to offend people, but there are times that we need to express ourselves without fear that somebody is going to shut us down simply because we have differing opinions. That's how we grow.
There shouldn't be any looting or anything like that. But we're seeing a lot of frustration, and nobody knows the answer. All of us are saying we need an answer, and what I'm saying is we need, all of us, a heart change so, as America, we can move forward.
We look a little bit disorderly, indecisive, leaderless. That's a real problem, and that's a problem that concerns me particularly on foreign affairs. The presidency, not just President Obama, but the presidency in recent years has lost some of the terrain that they used to dominate in the making of foreign policy. I think President Obama has to make a serious effort to regain it because he lost some of it himself.
I want to stand up for people who look like me and feel like they don't have a voice. And I'm lucky enough that some people in the world care about what I have to say. So I try to make sure that I say it and say in a correct way, or in a way that people understand.
At least there's a political input, but when you put on the robe, at that point the politics is over.
Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves.
We never used to blink at taking a leadership role in the world. And we understood leadership often required something other than drones and bombs. We accepted global leadership not just for humanitarian reasons, but also because it was in our own best interest. We knew we couldn't isolate ourselves from trouble. There was no place to hide.
It's hard for me to grasp the concept of somebody being nervous when I'm talking to them.
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