Episode 22: Stephen Thompson, The First Play Changed Everything

Stevo Thompson had it made in the shade. As he approached high school, he would have celebrity status as a starting quarterback.

But sports had become an idol for Stevo, and that was all about to change, with the very first play of the very first game. A dramatic turn of events got him back on track with the Lord, and oriented him in a completely new career as a Christian rap artist.

Learn how Stevo's heart started to wander and how it came right back, even stronger.

Our Sendoff today features Stevo's very own music, Make Me Change.

Helpful links:

Stephen Thompson, Spotify.
Make Me Change, Spotify.
Follow Stephen on Instagram.
Stephen's new music video, Distant.
Follow Stephen on Youtube.

AWANA Christian discipleship program for kids.

Moody Bible Institute

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Transcript

One80 Podcast
Episode 22, Stevo Thompson
The First Play Changed Everything

This transcript may have errors that don't reflect the actual recording. 

Ryan Henry: Steve O I am so, so truly excited to have you on this show.

Stevo Thompson: Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here, Ryan. 

Ryan Henry: so I got a random question. Yeah. Okay. And I want you to think very deeply about this one.

Stevo Thompson: Oh, snap.

Ryan Henry: If you could enter a race horse in the Kentucky Derby, what would your horse's name be?

Hmm. Buck . Why, why buck? He's gotta buck all the, all the horses out of the way and win it all costs. Nice, nice win at any cost. Maybe that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, 

Ryan Henry: there you go. There you go. My daughter would really like that. She's obsessed with the word buck, like really loves the word buck or she says Bucky all the time.

Stevo Thompson: Give her a few bucks.

Ryan Henry: yes. 

Stevo Thompson: Yes. 

Ryan Henry: So Steve, as your music, so aptly puts it, would you take me back? , take us back to when you were a kid and if you could just reminisce about, the things that you did. I've heard that in a song somewhere. 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. It sounds like my song. 

Ryan Henry: What was your, what was your family life like? 

Stevo Thompson: Oh, man, family life. Well, I come from a huge family, , so I'm the second oldest kid of eight.

So there's always siblings around, always a lot to do. My parents, were, 

part of a church, in the suburbs of Chicago , my dad led, worship there. And then, he actually switched over into, he started his own full-time Christian, ministry. So that actually was like born, basically out of my family's basement. Wow. So the people that started getting involved with that ministry and doing work for it, they would come to our house every day and, work out of our basement.

So crazy. and growing up, my mom homeschooled, my siblings and I, so we were home. And so were all these other people, doing this work out of our basement. So our house was pretty chaotic and hectic. a lot of fun stuff going a lot, it was kind of, kind of a wild ride.

Lots of fun along the way, but a lot, a lot too. So yeah. 

Ryan Henry: So were you a good 

Stevo Thompson: kid? yeah. In my childhood, I'd say I was a pretty good kid., I had a really good upbringing, I lived in a really good neighborhood.

I had great friends. I loved playing outside. I loved sports. Sports were kind of my life growing up. I had, , aspirations of becoming an NBA player. I would dribble the ball in the driveway until it was dark and shoot free throws and, football, basketball, baseball, like I played sports all growing up.

And yeah, did it with my neighborhood friends. I just, , loved getting out, having fun. So just lots of good memories, , being an active kid. I think I was pretty innocent, as a kid, I had a good home life, so I wasn't a huge troublemaker or anything like that, ?

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. Tried to try to be a good kid I guess. Right, 

Ryan Henry: right, right. growing up in a family, like that, did you accept Jesus at a young age? 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah, definitely. So I, like I said, my dad was a worship leader at a church. 

We were very involved in it. We also did , certain youth group programs with the church. So when I was a kid,I was part of this program called AWANA which basically is helping kids memorize Bible versus

I remember all the cool stories they told us. And also they just have, games and run around and do kids stuff too. I remember Awana being a big part of my childhood. 

Ryan Henry: Did you have a moment that you were like, I'm gonna ask Jesus in my heart right now.

Can you remember that moment? 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. So that's a good question. Honestly, I probably did it as a kid, like multiple different times to like really make sure I, was a Christian that's the kind of stuff, they talked about at church or, at AWANA the importance of accepting Jesus, for yourself.

So I definitely did Maybe when I was four or five. I don't know specific moments but I definitely knew I wanna be right with God. 

Yeah. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah. Did you feel like you had a pretty good awareness at that age of God? Like what were your thoughts of God at that point? 

yeah. It's interesting thinking back to that, cuz in some ways I feel like I did have an awareness of God and I really love God and just kind of like a childlike innocence, and adoration of God, like from the cool stories I was hearing about and the Bible versus, and how God so loved the world, he gave his son that whoever would believe in him, wouldn't perish, but would have eternal life.

Stevo Thompson: But at the same time, , I was just a kid. , I just hadn't like grown up or had life experiences yet for myself.

So it was hard to know if, that was, really. Genuine, I don't know. Sure, sure. Yeah. 

Ryan Henry: Well, I think it can be hard as a kid especially if you grew up in a fairly healthy environment right. that personal need for God. Is not necessarily felt at that a young age. Yes. 

Stevo Thompson: , yeah, that definitely makes a lot of sense. It's the environment that you're in, it's the culture, when you're a kid and you're raised in a Christian home and your parents are doing full-time Christian work, you know, a ministry run out of your house, you're involved in church, church programs.

Like you don't question it, it's your upbringing, , when you're a kid, like that's what it is. , you're trying to kind of fit into the, , culture that you're raised in, I guess. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah. Now you, you mentioned that you really like sports.

Yes. what was your favorite sport? I'm just 

Stevo Thompson: curious. basketball, definitely basketball. Yeah. You mentioned 

Ryan Henry: NBA. Wanna be the NBA? 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. That's cool. That basketball had my heart as a kid. Did you play everything else or? yeah. I didn't play football till I was a little older. Baseball, and then all kinds of sports, with the neighborhood kids too, like street hockey or volleyball I loved all sports. 

Ryan Henry: So did anything change for you as you were growing older? yeah. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, growing older in this family and your experiences and 

Stevo Thompson: So when I was 11, my family moved to a new house for two reasons.

One, my parents, Christian ministry organization was growing, and they needed a new space for a new building. It wasn't gonna be able to work out my parents', house, and then also my parents kept having kids. We were crammed into our. childhood room like sardines. So we, we, moved to this new house in, a new neighborhood, a new suburb. when I moved, it kind of marked the start of like, my preteen teenage years mm-hmm I just started growing up more in this new space that we had moved into. I remember like coming into the new neighborhood and there was a lot of friends, my age.

Like I started really connecting with the new friend group from people, who all went to, my middle school, we were very, tight knit, my friends and I in this new neighborhood, like we all played on the same football team. all started, the whole middle school, era together.

I, wasn't a part of that church that I grew up in. And so there's just some changes, that marked the beginning of my teenage years.

 So what 

Ryan Henry: did that look like? 

Stevo Thompson: As a teenager, a lot of times that's when the rubber hits the road because it's a whole identity time.

You're trying to find, your friends. What you're good at. You're getting exposed to more things. a few years after that, that friend group. I was hanging out with all the time. Those were, my homies started, getting new life experiences. 

I remember when I was, a teenager,,, I was exposed to like pornography for the first time. And, I started developing some bad habits and, I think my friends and just these different things of the world just became more exciting and appealing to me.

And I just, wanted to enjoy that. I don't know how else to describe it. I was excited and wanted to pursue those things and just run around and be a teenager and have a good time. Right. Like that's kind of what became my life.

And that's when, , again, the rubber hitting the road, I started realizing, oh, I don't really know if I want God. Like, I don't really know how I feel about my upbringing? How do I feel about all these things I've been told, all these, Bible principles, maybe these rules, these dos and don'ts this whole church culture, like, I think it's kind of lame.

 It seems restrictive. I just wanna , go out and have fun. Yeah. Be me be fun. Go out and do my life with my friends. And I think that there was also a point in time when I knew that wasn't. Gonna fly with my parents. The older I got the more, , bad stuff I got into.

And I started loving it and getting into all that stuff, I started getting into that more and more, , going to parties, different things, and I knew that that wasn't stuff that my parents were gonna approve .

I really wasn't living for God at that point in time. Yeah. So I knew I was like rebelling, but , I just wanted it, I would do whatever I could to. Be with my friends, do what I wanted to do and kind of be a good kid.

Yeah. When I was at home or at church, but when there was all just kind of an act so that I could, go out and do what I really wanted to do. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah. Now, if you don't, I mean, I don't, if you're comfortable, are you talking like we talking drugs? Are we talking? No, 

Stevo Thompson: nothing like that? No, nothing crazy. Like when I was like, thankfully like my rebellious period of life, I was still pretty young.

I mean, I'm talking like 13, 14, 15 years old. Mm-hmm so I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not doing drugs, nothing crazy, but still like, you. yeah, still sneaking outta the house, going to late night Hangouts and parties with my friends, you know, I'm liking girls for the first time day.

Like me, I'm an athlete, I'm playing sports and they're all coming to the games and I'm all like, oh, I'm the coolest, you know, everyone likes me. I'm really good at stuff, you know? Yeah, yeah. I also started doing music a little bit then. So I started like making my first rap songs in, in the studio that I had ever made before.

Cuz my dad, part of his Christian work was like doing media and music so I had grown up with studio equipment. So I started making some rap songs and showing 'em to my friends and it was just like a whole. World to me where I could just be accepted by my friends. People liked me and it, you know, just felt cool.

It felt fun instead of, lame and restrictive. 

Ryan Henry: So basically in this time, it's, you know, there's not necessarily like, you know, one or two like specific things that we were just, you know, going all out, like totally bad kid, you know, but more so just 

Stevo Thompson: the heart kind of pulling away.

Yes. 100% and having 

Ryan Henry: this, like, you know what the Bible says, like the pride of life, you know, less of the eyes. Yep. LUS the flesh, like just loving the 

Stevo Thompson: stuff. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. No, that was, that's what I was, I liked that you, talked about the heart Ryan too, because that's the best way I know how to describe it.

Like I wasn't off the deep end. I wasn't, , Some drug addict or, , doing anything like crazy, crazy, but just in that youthful time of my life. My heart was just more and more wanting to get into things that were leading me away from God. I just wanted to do me and do those things that seemed exciting and appealing to me.

So it was more of a. Heart wandering, yeah. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah. and you, said you started making rap beats at this time? I 

Stevo Thompson: did. Yeah. So like, I could be 

Ryan Henry: like,

you're, you're gonna lay down a beat right now. Right. You gonna, you're gonna rap for me.

Okay. That was pretty good. I think we could go places.  (Beatboxing)

Ryan Henry:  I think we could start touring Canada at least make a next tape. Yeah. so how bad did it get, Steve, can you take us to some moments help are our listeners like understand? You know, like how about take us to maybe a specific moment?

Yeah. You know, you mentioned maybe sneaking out , you know, do you have a sneaking out story for us? You 

Stevo Thompson: can. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, like I said, I just got more and more like my whole running off with my friends and wanting to do me. That whole scene, like I just got into that more and more. , like, whatever happens. I need my friend group. I need everyone to like me. I wanna hold onto this. My friends, my social world, like that was probably the biggest thing. Like it is for a lot of teenagers. That was the biggest thing for me that I was just really wanted.

Yeah. So it, I think I just got like more and more desperate to like, , be in with everyone and be cool. And you know, that whole thing. So I started Doing more to be with them all the time to be at every party I could be at, all these different things. Like just trying to maintain that, social status or whatever.

Yeah. And so there was one night where, , I really wasn't even like supposed to be going out. I think my friends were like having some late night hangout leading up until the start of high school. Me and my friends kind of wanted to like, hang out before high school started one last time, because we were all busy, my buddies and I, like, we were playing on the football team.

So we'd have football practice for hours and hours, in the morning. And then, we'd all be tired. And we knew high school was about to start, so things were gonna get really busy.

And Yeah. They're having some hangout and, everyone was going I don't think my parents wanted me out that night .

 I think the party was starting earlier I knew like my parents probably wouldn't want me at this thing. So I just like tried to come up with a plan to leave and just sneak outta the house, nappy nose, whatever.

So I took my football pads and I basically made a little bed dummy, something dumb . So I, I made a little dummy, you know, and pulled the covers over it. Like someone was sleeping there and I there's this little window window that I would always like sneak out, 

so, oh my gosh. Anyway, so the problem was my, my younger brother. slept in the same bedroom as I did. Okay. And so my mom actually came downstairs. She was like, saying goodnight to my younger brother. And, she was gonna say goodnight to me. And then she saw the dummy looked like I was already asleep.

So it worked. She was like, okay. Yeah, we don't wanna bother Steven worked, and then, my younger brother's like, he's not there. and my mom, what do you mean? He is not there? Oh, my brothers, like he left. Oh. So my mom goes over. She pulls back the concert herself. Oh my gosh.

Finds all these football pads in my bed. And she was like, oh, snap. My parents knew I was becoming like. Actually they knew I was a bad kid, but they didn't like, they didn't know all my secrets. They didn't know all my crap that I did my best to cover up and try to be a good church kid, , so when she's, when she's seeing this kind of stuff, she's like, okay, he's, he's sneaking outta the house.

Like, this is not good. She got really like, what is going on? Yeah. They started like wondering where I was , I was at my friend's house. We're all hanging out. All my friends were there. We had like some bonfire in my buddy's backyard. And my, other friend like came to that party late.

And he was like, Hey, I think your parents are like looking for you, Steve. And I was like, what? They found out like I'm hoed gut just dropped to my toes. The girl that I liked at the time, she was like, Steven, are you okay? Like, I was like distraught.

 I was trying to like, figure out should I sneak back into the house? And , try to like cover it up somehow. Like, It's dumb teenage stuff, but anyway, my parents they found where I was at.

They pulled up to the house so I like, oh, great. So then I got front get in the car and it was a long, quiet car ride, you know?

 My dad was like, you know, like, so what's going on I'll tell him some of the stuff I've been doing and stuff that I'm into, but not everything like as much as I can hide, still wanting to hide.

But anyway, so he, you know, that drive ended with him being like, you know, You're getting older, you high school's about to start, you know, you have life decisions that you really need to be thinking through. Like if you're wanting to go down, I don't know, like keep doing what you're doing and just living for yourself, living for, you know, the excitement of the world and everything that it's, you know, throwing your way or, you know, if, you're wanting to like actually live how God wants you to live and, and if you want to, you know, spend your life to Jesus.

And, and at that point in time, again, like I knew the gospel. I knew the story of Jesus and how he had, come down to earth to save people, save us from our sins and how, how he was calling us to, live in relationship with him and , to love him and love people.

Like I had heard all those things since I was, a kid. So,I knew all those things. I just really didn't want it at that point in time. And at that point in time, , I also knew that all the things that I was getting into, like I had, I had also like developed a bad like pornography addiction at that point in time.

there's just a lot of like secret sin, , a lot of it was just, , revolving around people and my social sphere and all my friends and wanting to be cool, wanting to be liked. Sports became an idol. It just became something that I could do to make people look at me and say, oh, you know what a stud, you know, he's so great.

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. So it was just very like a selfish, you know, me, me kind of life. And I knew that just all of it, like I knew it wasn't good for me, but I loved it so much. My heart loved it so much that I couldn't like give it up. I couldn't give up sports. I, I didn't want to give up my friend group, even if they weren't the best for me.

not that they're, you know, all, all bad people, but just some of the stuff that we started doing, I knew like it wasn't great. For me. And, so I didn't wanna give up them obviously. Like I felt like I was a slave to my sin with, you know, pornography. So there was just like things that I, yeah, again, I knew weren't good for me, but I almost needed, like, I almost needed to get caught.

Stevo Thompson: You know, I almost needed to have everything come to a screeching halt where I was just like, okay, you know, I'm not able to hide this anymore. Like my parents know about this, my family knows about this. 

And am I wanting to, you know, like go the way that I'm going and stay in all these like, things that are probably not good for me and destructive mm-hmm or am I wanting to. Receive this freedom that I know that God like has for me and wants to offer me, but I just haven't wanted it at this point in time.

Like my heart has been too hard and closed off to it. Mm-hmm so yeah, I just didn't want it up, leading up to that point. Yeah. But I think when everything came to a screeching halt, I think I remember, you know, doing, doing some soul searching, like those few weeks leading up to high school, after that all like went down and I remember like, actually like, ha I don't know.

Like, I kind of wanted to like open up the Bible again. I wanted to like, pray to God. Like I just, like, I was just kinda like evaluating, like whether I really wanted to live for myself or live for God really. And, you know, and I knew that like my heart wanted to live for myself. But I knew that like what God had, like there was freedom, you know, like there was a lot more peace.

There was a lot more joy. There was a lot more satisfaction. I, I think I knew that deep down inside, that there was more satisfaction in like surrendering to God and living the life that he has for me. Yeah. The other thing that I realized was, even in all of my, you know, rebellion in trying to do things my way and just enjoy my life, I think I recognized that I actually wasn't, I genuinely wasn't happy. Like, you know, there was, it never felt like I had enough of whatever I was like trying to get from the world.

Like whether that was people liking me, whether that was some kind of, , struggles with like lust. Like it never made, it never filled me up. It never, like, I just knew that it just, wasn't making me happy. Yeah. And, and I just knew that I just kept going, going to it, going to these different things that weren't, satisfying me.

I was going to them, but they weren't making me happy and I just needed to stop. I needed, I recognized that I like, I could keep on trying these things. And I think I knew that I was just gonna keep on being more and more, unhappy more and more, tied up in all that and, and not feeling like I really had peace.

Stevo Thompson: Because I got to that point, I was just ready to try something different. I think. Yeah, I really was. It was kind of like a step of faith. That I took at that point in time. Mm-hmm where, again, I think I had mentioned by, I did start like reading my Bible more. I had started praying again.

and I was kind of like turning to God being like, Hey, like I know we haven't talked in a little bit, but yeah, here I am. Like, I'm I think I just started like talking to him for my heart. And I was like, Hey, I'm like, sorry, how I've been living. I know like my heart has been wandering from you.

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. I've just been living for myself and I don't really know how it's all gonna work out, but I know whatever you have for me is better than what I have for myself and how I've been living. I know that there's a lot more peace and freedom in, what you have for me. I don't wanna live with these secrets and these lies and this deception anymore.

I just wanna be free, be free of all that. And. Like give you my life and start living the way that you want me to. Wow. I think it was really that simple, like for me, yeah. Like I just kind of took that step towards him and that's when I start that's when I started seeing him, really start to change me.

Stevo Thompson: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. On the inside, you know, my heart. Yeah. My heart started to change at that point. 

Ryan Henry: It reminds me of the verse, that talks about if we draw near to God, , he draws near to us. Ah yeah. You know, yeah. It's just powerful. Mm-hmm that the change started to happen when you said yes. Yeah. And, and you allowed him to do that. Could you, if I understand correctly, there was a, as you went into high school, there was kind of a significant event that happened.

Yeah. 

Stevo Thompson: could you talk to us about that? Yeah, so like I was saying, like, I think as soon as I like, like that verse, you said like draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So, I mean, God was drawing. I mean, obviously my whole life, my whole story. And even throughout my rebellion, God was drawing me to him.

Yeah. But when I took that step, in response to him, mm-hmm and I started drawing near to him, and giving him my life. That's when he really came in and. Started started doing some crazy stuff. There's one thing in particular, like you were mentioning Ryan, an event that happened in my life that really changed the trajectory of my life in a lot of ways.

And that was,football game. Cuz I had mentioned, you know, I was, I was,I was a three sport athlete. I was still doing sports going into high school. I had earned the starting quarterback position at the high school that I was at and I was so proud of that. And I was, you know, I had just like, you know, I had just given my life to God, like right before the right before high school started, I gave my life to God.

That was also right before our first high school football game. So I was all like juiced up, like ready to. You know, I I've still, you know, had ambitions obviously as an athlete at that point in time, but I think God had other things for me. And on the very first play, the very first play, of my high school sports career, the first play of the, the football game.

it, yeah, it was kind of funny. It wasn't even a play from the line of scrimmage cause I played quarterback, but I also happened to be a really good kicker. So I literally kicked off as the kicker and just waited to go let everyone tackle the dude. you know, on the kickoff, the dude made some incredible return and broke to the sideline.

Stevo Thompson: And if, and if I didn't tackle this kid, he was gonna score and I don't know how to tackle cuz I'm an offensive dude. I'm a skinny kid, I'm a quarterback and I have to try to make a tackle as a kicker. Oh, which he's very unde anyway. Yeah. So I did, I, I ran to the sideline. I grabbed him and I like made this tackle, but like when he fell down.

he landed on my wrist and my whole, like the back of my hand, like touched down to it just snapped back. I won't go into the details. So my wrist broke and, and I was out for the season after the very first play of my high school football game. Oh my gosh. Yeah. First play of my high school sports career is kind of how I look at it.

Stevo Thompson: right. So anyway, I was out for the season and I was not expecting or ready for that at all. You know, like there's no way I could have planned that or anticipated that. And so all of a sudden I'm sitting here with like my athletic career gone and I have a giant green cast on my arm instead. And I have this new relationship that I've started with.

Jesus recently. And basically I had a lot of time on my hands right, right. So I just started like praying a lot more. I started like, I needed God at that point because everything else felt like it was taken from me. Yeah. So, so I really just, you know, started growing in my relationship, with God at that point in time, because like, I, I didn't have anyone else to turn to, you know, even, even my old friends that I, was close with since, you know, I had moved into this new house, this new neighborhood, you know, these friends that I had had since I was like fifth or sixth grade, we, you know, we went into high school together, but as high school started progressing, I started growing more and more in my relationship with Christ and I was still friends with them, but we just weren't as close.

We weren't as tight. I wasn't seeing them on the weekends. I wasn't, you know, my world didn't revolve around them anymore. Yeah. Yeah. So they started to, you know, become more distant. 

Ryan Henry: So you had already come to Jesus as a kid, made some bad decisions and basically you came back to him and you know, this is not necessarily a,uncommon thing.

Yeah. And it does not negate your story, you know? And, and at the, at 180 we have a name for this, we call it the reckoning, you know, where it's, it's like, yeah. It's like, , it's coming back. Like you said, you were mentioning like, all right, Hey 

Stevo Thompson: God, we haven't talked in a while. yeah. coming 

Ryan Henry: back to you.

so, so what happened, after you came to Christ, you said you kind of pulled away from some of those friend groups, maybe not as close anymore. Yeah. yeah. What started 

Stevo Thompson: to change? Yeah. I had that freedom and that peace at that point in time that I was previously lacking.

Like, I really started to experience the holy Spirit's work and my heart and my life at the beginning of high school. Like I remember I was just sitting in math class. I was just oddly like happy, like having weird memories of just being like super joyful, super like, wow. Like I think this is what it's like to like have the holy spirit in me, like have, have, have this relationship with God, this true relationship with God for the first time.

That is a 

Ryan Henry: test. I mean, happy in math class. Yeah. that? That is the work of the holy spirit there. That's awesome. Yeah, man. I, I need to get there. I don't know. Yeah. I dunno if today I was thrown in the math class. I'd be so happy, but that's okay. Yeah. , 

Stevo Thompson: but I think other than that, sports in particular, like, which had previously been an idol in my life, something that, I, wanted to use to glorify myself instead of God, like God started taking away sports.

They just weren't working out. I like, I recovered from that injury, but I was never quite the same. I had bad experiences with coaches in high school sports just weren't like my passion anymore. , so halfway through high school, I stopped playing sports altogether, which is also something that I never would.

Anticipated. but that was also partly because God was bringing new passions, into my life, particularly with music. So I had started, writing songs in the studio, more started making beats. I love producing. and I had started doing that more and more. So I was like, wow, like I find a lot of joy in this and not only do I really like making music in the studio, but I can write songs about my life, my testimony, my story, I can, I can write songs, that have meaning, and I could share these with my friends and help them to hear my story and hopefully like help them encounter and come to know God too,

yeah. Yeah. So that became my passion and, you know, a certain kind of, thing that I started doing, like the second half of high school, I started, coming out with mix tapes and I would sell my CDs in the hallways and these songs that I had made where I was, Trying to make Christian rap music and yes, give it to my friends and perform at, these open mics or events or talent shows or whatever.

I started doing that more and more, and that was kind of something that God brought into my life. And I think as a way of changing me too, like you were saying, yeah. 

Now did you start to see some fruit from this? What did people get back to you about your music or give you feedback? And, yeah, I mean, I think looking back now, , I kind of cringe a little bit cause you know, it was my first time like releasing music.

I was super like just trying to hype myself up and sell my CDs to anyone in my high school and, you know, perform and do everything. Maybe that's the artist. side of me speaking,

so I had a lot of room for growth as an artist, but, and I think God used it for sure. and he, works through, all kinds of different people at all kinds of different stages in life. So I think even, through my music, I was definitely seeing people, whether that was conversations or people who had listened to my music and tell me, Hey, that really had an impact on me.

I had one, one of my friends was like suicidal. I remember. And I, I think one of my first songs that I wrote was about like, some like dark concepts and, about how. Essentially like the urgent need for the gospel to be heard and accepted by people, the, you know, the desperate need for people to have a relationship with Jesus.

And, and that song like really spoke to this kid in my English class, who, you know, was like struggling with like really dark thoughts and really dark stuff and suicide. And he like told me, and he would just like, listen to my music all the time. Wow. And so while I was sitting there saying like, well, you know, I can be a better musician.

I definitely need to grow as a artist I can do better. My music was still, even at that point, I think making an impact on people and, you know, wow. 

Ryan Henry: How cool is that? Wow, man. That's amazing. could you, would you just for our listeners who are, who are out there,could you. Speak to the person who might hear about, sports, you said kind of being stripped from you, And, and the fear that someone might have of like, oh gosh, coming to God equals I'm gonna have something taken from me.

Yeah. Do you view it that way or, or what's the bigger picture behind that? 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah, I don't, I don't view it that way at all. I don't think it's about God wanting to ruin your life and take away the things that you love. I think that, you know, he knows what's best for us and, I think it's, yeah, I think when something just becomes too much in our life, he knows that, okay, you know, this is becoming something that's not good.

You know, it's too much. Like for me, sports in a lot of ways were a way for me to., puff myself up and look at me and I'm so cool. And people like me, I'm a great athlete. I'm a three sport athlete, you know? It's a matter of the heart, you know, like is your heart really in it to, honor God and everything that you do, whether that's sports, whether that's music, whether that's, relationships, life, anything, you know, it's, about the heart, I think.

And I think that, if your heart is, in it to, honor God with it, sports can be a great thing. You know, there's a lot of great athletes who are. Just their walks and how they're living out their faith. Yeah. Boldly on the field or on the court.

And I, I think that's a super cool thing. Just maybe not what God had for me. Yeah. In particular. Yeah. It was just 

Ryan Henry: discovering yeah. Discovering that, you know? Yeah. and yeah, and that's cool. I like what you said that, , you don't think that it's just got like taking from you, but rather just replacing something right.

That was becoming maybe unhealthy. 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. And I, I I'll even add, I, I think for, in my story, I think I could have been a good athlete. I think that my heart, was at, at a spot at the beginning of high school. Like It was just, it was more of like, Hey, I have a new passion, I have something even better.

And so I continue to do sports for the next couple years, but by the time the second half of high school had come around, it was time for like, I mean, I wanted to do music full time, so still love sports, still think they're great. And I think that anyone who, has a passion like that, and wants to honor God with it, you know?

Yeah. Do you, 

Yeah, another huge way that God freed me was, that pornography addiction started to just like go away. It was, it didn't happen overnight. but it just started to become smaller and smaller and less and less because my desires for Jesus and for the things of God just started growing more and more.

And those other previous things just didn't have a hold on me that that was just kind of broken. And the holy spirit was in me and was helping me to say no to things that were, you know, not of him. And of course that's a process and it doesn't, again, it really is a process, especially for like those deep-rooted things, things of addiction and that nature, but, you know, Jesus frees us and provides, freedom and.

Freedom and healing from those things. So I really start to see him working in my life in that way. And that was, that was 

Ryan Henry: awesome. That's amazing. It's amazing. 

and there's, you know, there's always, there's good. And then there's better. Mm-hmm and you found the better. Yep. You know, because you live one life. A week is a week. Your time goes to, different places and you found out what God was calling you to spend your time on. Yeah. And if you haven't listened to Steve O's music, I have to tell you, you gotta go find Steve O Thompson, on Spotify and give him a listen, cuz his music will, it will truly, speak to the heart.

and his stories are just, awesome. So would you, yeah. Would you just tell us a little bit about, maybe some of your music, maybe your first album mm-hmm what inspired that, that would be awesome. 

Stevo Thompson: Yeah. So yeah, I do have some music, out on Spotify right now. I'm currently working through an album that's called take me back.

there's two sides to it. Side a is released on Spotify right now. The first five songs of this full project and side B is what I'm currently still working on in the studio, man. So the first five songs, you know, there's a song, the album is essentially walking through all the stories of my life that put together my life story as a whole and everything that God's done in my life.

Stevo Thompson: So there's a song about childhood. There's a song about moving. Then there's a song called make me change. That's a third song. on the album, it talks about, my rebellious period of my life.

There's another song talking about like soul searching, , coming to terms with like, wow, do I wanna live for myself? Do I wanna live for God? Like, you know, that, that whole wrestle. And then there's a, kind of a, the fifth song is a testimony about me surrendering my life to Jesus and him starting to change me truly for the first time.

Stevo Thompson: So, so 

Ryan Henry: good. Yeah. That's great. It's amazing to see. yeah. I mean, in your music is just like a part of the fruit, one of the things I I've , read about you is that you really care deeply about loving God and loving people.

And how, like, , thinking about your future, your aspirations, even though you love music and you wanna, you know, see where God takes you with that is that, that you just love God and love. You want to just love God, love people mm-hmm, you know, and just do that well, wherever you are, you know, I just think that, , that is the fruit of the Christian lifestyle.

Yeah. the Christian life, the mark of, a changed life is that you desire to just, yeah. Love God love people. It's beautiful. so, Steve, our last question, if you, if you could take us back. Okay. To that again? No, yet again, I'm sorry. I gotta stop you saying that joke, but let's go. So Steve, if you let's just say that your little brother never said, ah, no, Steve's not there. you know, and your mom turned around, went back up the stairs.

You never got caught. Where do you think you would be? 

Stevo Thompson: Oh, that's, it's hard to answer that question. That's a deep theological question. Yeah. I think, I think that if I kept going the way I was going, I know it wouldn't have been good. You know, like I think things just would've progressed, you know, high school college into life, you know, whatever. I just, if I was, if I continued just living for myself and wanting to enjoy life fun to party wanting to whatever, like I just, would've gotten more and more like sad, I think, and empty.

And, I just would've kept chasing that, but feeling that unsatisfaction, I think that I had yeah. Talked about. yeah. Yeah. And so I'm so grateful that, you know, I, I like took that step, I guess, towards God and like experienced the freedom that he gave me when he like came into my life and met me. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah.

It's cool. How getting caught can actually be a good thing. Mm-hmm , and how, you know, it just brings the like, oh, Yeah, maybe this isn't good, Yeah. Slows 

Stevo Thompson: you down a little bit. Absolutely. Yeah. We need, we, we need like, we need someone something or God himself. Yeah. Like we need, we need someone outside of ourself to pull us out of situations sometimes.

Cause we're not strong enough to do it ourselves. Yeah. 

Ryan Henry: Yeah. So thankful for that too. So it's a huge form of grace. Yeah. Well I'm so thankful for your life man, and for your music. and yeah. I'm so thankful that you joined us today too. Cuz you could be in the studio making beats, but you're here talking to me.

Stevo Thompson: this is true. I'm I'm happy to be talking to you, Ryan. Awesome. 

Ryan Henry: Awesome. Thanks man. Thanks for joining us, Steve. 

Stevo Thompson: Thanks for having me.