People should be priority, Torbor shares at Hoover prayer breakfast

Climbing the corporate ladder and earning accolades and big money don’t bring true happiness, former NFL and Auburn football standout Reggie Torbor told a crowd at the Hoover Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast this morning.

The real value in life comes from investing in people and relationships, Torbor told the crowd of more than 200 people at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel.

He had made a list as a boy of all the things he wanted to accomplish in life, and by age 27, he had checked off everything on the list, he said. He graduated from college, was drafted to play in the NFL, was married with kids and was making more money than he ever dreamed he would, he said.

But “I wasn’t happy. I was scared,” Torbor said. “My list had run out, and I didn’t know what to do next.”

God had let him have everything he thought he wanted, and he still wasn’t happy, he said. Thankfully, God gave him the gift of realizing what was really important while he was still young and had time left to adjust, he said.

“That is where I believe we have been commanded to invest — in people that are around us, the people we can reach out and touch. Not just the people we like, not just the people that think like we think and walk like we walk and talk like we talk,” Torbor said.

But the world is the way it is today because this kind of thinking has become optional, he said. “We’re not doing what we’re supposed to do.”

Torbor, a Hoover resident who just opened a restaurant called Taproot Cafe at The Shoppes at Hwy 150 Crossings, also talked about how iron sharpens iron. Many people think about that in terms of people sitting around and discussing things to help one another, but the iron sharpening process actually is an unpleasant experience, he said.

There’s a lot of shrieking noises and heat involved, where each piece of iron gives up a part of itself to become sharper, Torbor said.

He challenged those in attendance not to be distracted by so many things in this world, but to go to dark, uncomfortable places and engage with people they may not normally engage in order to become a better person and allow those experiences to rip off the parts of themselves that keep them from being as sharp as they can be.

“If we are unwilling to do that, then we’ll all be less for it, and we have to do that together because it’s very difficult,” Torbor said. “At some point, we have to stop talking and complaining, and we have to start doing. We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Buddy Gray, the pastor at Hunter Street Baptist Church, thanked Torbor for that reminder. Gray noted that Jesus, when asked to identify the greatest commandment, said “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

“Let’s love God and love each other,” Gray said. “Let’s look at each other as human beings. Regardless of who you are or where you’re from or even what your religion is, you are a person created in the image of God, and we are going to do everything we can to show the love of God to each other.”

Other pastors who prayed at the prayer breakfast included Father Mugagga Epah, the associate pastor at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, and Rabbi David Schneier of the Beth Hallel Messianic Jewish congregation in Hoover.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said it’s comforting to come together to pray together at an annual prayer breakfast, but he encouraged those in attendance to pray daily for peace, prosperity and unity in Hoover and the welfare of others.

Each person in attendance was provided a list of groups of people for which they can pray, including elected officials, school officials, first responders, church leaders, health care workers, business owners and employees, neighbors and friends.

“We’ve all experienced a great deal of challenges over the past 12 to 14 months,” Brocato said. “Never before has prayer been as important. … Let’s watch the really positive changes that prayer can have in our community. There’s power in prayer. We all know that. We all have this power, so let’s use it to prosper this city.”