the rowboat story
You've heard the story before, but I'll briefly tell it again. There's a flood and a guy gets up on his roof and is waiting for God to rescue him. Guy in a rowboat comes by. Nope, I'm waiting for God. Guy in a speed boat comes by. Nope, I'm waiting for God. Coast Guard in a helicopter comes. Nope, I'm waiting for God. Guy drowns, goes to heaven and sees God. Asks him why He didn't save him. God says: "I sent a rowboat, a speed boat, and a helicopter...."
Sometimes God sends what we don't want or aren't expecting. I so get that. And sometimes that thing we are called to do by God may not turn out so well, but in the process we grow and mature in our faith. I'm firmly in belief that trying to reconcile my marriage for as long as I did was the right and godly thing to do and a blessing because I would not be the man I am today.
God is opening doors in ways I never dreamed of. Me attending a meeting I had no business being in last February was no accident. It was providence and I have two amazing stories of what God did at that conference. The first involves a friend of mine from the Guard. He attends the church where we had the event and was on the parking lot team. It was great to see him in a social setting. I see him at work occasionally. I work where he does, but we're in different departments and on different shifts.
One of the speakers, J.D. Hill, played football for the Buffalo Bills. He has quite the story to tell and amazing way of telling it. For his scripture verse, he chose the story of the paraplegic that is lowered through a roof to be healed by Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. In the story Jesus is teaching at a house and it's crowded. Four men are carrying another man on his sleeping mat and when they can't get in through the door, they get the man to the roof of this house, make a hole in it, and lower the man in front of Jesus.
But Jesus doesn't heal the man. Not right away. First and foremost in Jesus' mind is not the man's physical well being, but his eternal salvation. Clearly, salvation is more important than physical problems. It was to Jesus. So the Savior says to the man that his sins are forgiven. This causes a stir in the crowd; they start asking "Who does this man think he is, that he can forgive sins?" So Jesus shows them by healing the man.
"How's your back?" the man asked me. That man was JD Hill. He tells me what we're going to do and then we meet in a hallway to the side of the auditorium so we can walk through it once. Four of us are going to struggle to carry a man through the hall and onto the stage. The man we're going to carry is my good friend from the Guard.
The point of JD Hill's testimony was that he was in a crack house. He'd sunk that low. But that didn't stop God. He reached out to God at the bottom and God was already a step ahead of him. A man showed up and carried him out of that house. That man, like the four men in the Bible story didn't leave a man behind.
I took that in but it was lost in a day of joy! In the audience was another of my Guard brothers. I've known this man for my whole adult life and think the world of him. After we carried my first friend up the stairs and onto the stage, I was needed to help serve ice cream. I missed seeing what happened next but there was an altar call. My other friend went forward and gave his life to Christ. Not only have I known this man my whole adult life, I will know him now forever. That's so cool!
I asked for prayers during our church service on Sunday. There is something on my heart and either God put it there or He didn't. If He did, I gotta do something! If he didn't and I do something, it's gonna be a disaster. I'm smart enough to know that. So I asked for prayers. And then I got the sermon. My pastor and I are friends and he is my mentor. We talk a lot. But he was on his way to Colorado and our associate pastor gave the sermon. He talked about when we do things, we need to make sure we do them for God and that we're not trying to manipulate something we want into something we tell ourselves God wants. I'm glad we were on the very same page.
Back to the story. That story plays into what's on my heart and I gotta do something. But I can't do it unless it's really God sending me to do it. I'm pretty sure it is because something else happened yesterday out of the blue.
Someone else I know is in trouble and God sent me to help. We're to the helicopter stage, this person and I, but nonetheless, a cry for help is a cry for help. God gave me the heart of a Warrior. He didn't do it and expect me to not use it.
I have to learn to redefine victory. I fought a fight for three and a half years. I said no to a life that I would have loved to live. I said no to a woman I loveD because of the promises I made to the one I was legally married to. I made a choice to love the ex more than her and made a choice to be obedient to God and love Him most of all. The victory is there. It's in who I am today. It's not who I'm with.
The victory comes in who I am.
Part of this may be an answer to another prayer. Only time will tell about that, and if I thought I was moving slow the last time, this time, I would lose the race to the turtle.
The thing is though, that I have a great life. It's not what I want it to be right now, but it's getting there and I have stuff to do! What a blessed weekend.
Sometimes God sends what we don't want or aren't expecting. I so get that. And sometimes that thing we are called to do by God may not turn out so well, but in the process we grow and mature in our faith. I'm firmly in belief that trying to reconcile my marriage for as long as I did was the right and godly thing to do and a blessing because I would not be the man I am today.
God is opening doors in ways I never dreamed of. Me attending a meeting I had no business being in last February was no accident. It was providence and I have two amazing stories of what God did at that conference. The first involves a friend of mine from the Guard. He attends the church where we had the event and was on the parking lot team. It was great to see him in a social setting. I see him at work occasionally. I work where he does, but we're in different departments and on different shifts.
One of the speakers, J.D. Hill, played football for the Buffalo Bills. He has quite the story to tell and amazing way of telling it. For his scripture verse, he chose the story of the paraplegic that is lowered through a roof to be healed by Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. In the story Jesus is teaching at a house and it's crowded. Four men are carrying another man on his sleeping mat and when they can't get in through the door, they get the man to the roof of this house, make a hole in it, and lower the man in front of Jesus.
But Jesus doesn't heal the man. Not right away. First and foremost in Jesus' mind is not the man's physical well being, but his eternal salvation. Clearly, salvation is more important than physical problems. It was to Jesus. So the Savior says to the man that his sins are forgiven. This causes a stir in the crowd; they start asking "Who does this man think he is, that he can forgive sins?" So Jesus shows them by healing the man.
"How's your back?" the man asked me. That man was JD Hill. He tells me what we're going to do and then we meet in a hallway to the side of the auditorium so we can walk through it once. Four of us are going to struggle to carry a man through the hall and onto the stage. The man we're going to carry is my good friend from the Guard.
The point of JD Hill's testimony was that he was in a crack house. He'd sunk that low. But that didn't stop God. He reached out to God at the bottom and God was already a step ahead of him. A man showed up and carried him out of that house. That man, like the four men in the Bible story didn't leave a man behind.
I took that in but it was lost in a day of joy! In the audience was another of my Guard brothers. I've known this man for my whole adult life and think the world of him. After we carried my first friend up the stairs and onto the stage, I was needed to help serve ice cream. I missed seeing what happened next but there was an altar call. My other friend went forward and gave his life to Christ. Not only have I known this man my whole adult life, I will know him now forever. That's so cool!
I asked for prayers during our church service on Sunday. There is something on my heart and either God put it there or He didn't. If He did, I gotta do something! If he didn't and I do something, it's gonna be a disaster. I'm smart enough to know that. So I asked for prayers. And then I got the sermon. My pastor and I are friends and he is my mentor. We talk a lot. But he was on his way to Colorado and our associate pastor gave the sermon. He talked about when we do things, we need to make sure we do them for God and that we're not trying to manipulate something we want into something we tell ourselves God wants. I'm glad we were on the very same page.
Back to the story. That story plays into what's on my heart and I gotta do something. But I can't do it unless it's really God sending me to do it. I'm pretty sure it is because something else happened yesterday out of the blue.
Someone else I know is in trouble and God sent me to help. We're to the helicopter stage, this person and I, but nonetheless, a cry for help is a cry for help. God gave me the heart of a Warrior. He didn't do it and expect me to not use it.
I have to learn to redefine victory. I fought a fight for three and a half years. I said no to a life that I would have loved to live. I said no to a woman I loveD because of the promises I made to the one I was legally married to. I made a choice to love the ex more than her and made a choice to be obedient to God and love Him most of all. The victory is there. It's in who I am today. It's not who I'm with.
The victory comes in who I am.
Part of this may be an answer to another prayer. Only time will tell about that, and if I thought I was moving slow the last time, this time, I would lose the race to the turtle.
The thing is though, that I have a great life. It's not what I want it to be right now, but it's getting there and I have stuff to do! What a blessed weekend.
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