Pastor Corey Brooks: This is why my walk across America must pause after 190 days

After more than 190 days of walking across America through heat and cold, through forgotten cities and highways, through moments of extraordinary grace and moments of hope. Deep bone fatigueThe doctors told me I should stop. I’m scheduled to have surgery on my heel on March 30th, and next Thursday, I have to see a cardiologist as well.

I didn’t plan this. I wanted to keep walking.

From Nashville to the South Side of Chicago, fatherlessness haunts America

But I’d be lying to you if I stood here and pretended I wasn’t an emotional wreck tonight. This journey has taken everything from me on a physical, spiritual and emotional level. I spent every reserve I had when I started this walk. There was nothing left in the tank I put there myself.

I know I will keep walking, because I keep thinking about the kids on Chicago’s South Side for whom we are building a center of leadership and economic opportunity. Every mile is theirs. Every step is for the opportunities we create.

However, I know I can’t quit smoking. I know I can’t go home South side of Chicago As a withdrawal. I keep coming back to a verse I have relied on many times before: Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things.” In Christ who strengthens me“Not through my own conditioning, not through willpower or ruthlessness or sheer stubbornness, but through him. Because if this march depends on what you have left in me tonight, it will already be over.

Stop trusting political parties to save urban America. It is time for us to rise up and rebuild

The pain started in my heel, a purulent granuloma. It’s the name of a painful growth that I had once cut off, only to recently wake up to find that it has grown back. The pain was excruciating with every step. It’s the kind of pain that makes you doubt everything. Pain has a funny way of doing that. It makes you ask why you do what you do. It makes you wonder if what you’re doing is worth it.

But I know I will keep walking, because I keep thinking about the children on the South Side of Chicago for whom we are building a center of leadership and economic opportunity. Every mile is theirs. Every step is for the opportunities we create. My purpose is stronger than my pain and I believe that now more than ever.

But the authority has its own accountability, and it ultimately presents the bill.

I think about The Apostle PaulWho wrote from prison. He was beaten, shipwrecked and left for dead. He said in 2 Corinthians 4:8 that we are “persecuted in every way, but not broken; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” I admit, this is not poetry for me tonight. But it describes my condition, and the path I am walking. I was pressured from every side. I’ve been beaten. But I wasn’t destroyed.

The church is sacred ground and not a scene for the wrath of the political left

God did not give me 190 days and 3,000 miles to leave me on the side of a Louisiana highway.

I have to believe it. I believe in that. Until tonight, when faith costs more than ever.

The journey will stop for surgery, for recovery, for whatever the cardiologist finds when he looks at my heart next week.

Why would the mayor defend a dictator while his streets continue to burn?

I won’t pretend I’m not afraid. I’m not going to give a strong performance that I don’t have tonight. What I have instead is faith. Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I can’t see the finish line from where I stand now. But I walked 190 days on the evidence of its existence.

Click here for more Fox News opinions

The mission is to build a $47 million community center on Chicago’s South Side, a place where young men and women can learn trades, find mentors, and discover that their lives have direction and value. This building doesn’t care about my heels. These babies don’t get a pause button for the circumstances they were born into. The need does not subside while I recover.

So, this is what I’m asking.

Click here to download the FOX NEWS app

Pray for me. I believe in the power of prayer the same way I believe in breathing. I need it now. If you believe in what we are building, stand with us. Share the task. Let the people in your life know that you are there The pastor is somewhere in Louisiana Who is broken, hurting and trusting in God, and who will return to this path as soon as the Lord allows it.

The journey may stop, but the goal cannot. The South Side kids are waiting, and I’m still coming.

Click here to read more from Pastor Corey Brooks