WINSDAY WISDOM
Pat Tilley wrote my name on a piece of paper that changed the entire course of my life, family, and ministry. In truth, it changed the lives of thousands of people for the better.
God’s ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind and as the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby while it is yet in its mother’s womb (Ecclesiastes 11:5).
William Cowper penned these lyrics:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sov’reign will.
I treasure and share the same truth with these words:
GOD ALWAYS KNOWS…WHERE YOU ARE…WHERE YOU NEED TO BE…HOW… AND WHEN…TO GET YOU THERE.
So, trust God, be happy, and stay faithful where you are now.
I was happy where I was. God had moved our family to the Oklahoma Panhandle. Several well-known ministers warned me that it was professional suicide, similar to Moses being banished to the wilderness.
I loved the people in our Guymon church. I was content and blessed. The church allowed me to build an awesome staff whom I worked with most of my life. Jeff Segner, Derek Cox, Big John Flanagan, and Steve Sharp. I met college cowboy Mike Fanning, and a young Tim Gibson who is now my pastor. These men and their wonderful wives continue to impact the Kingdom.
Pat Tilley was an All-Pro wide receiver for the NFL St. Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals. His reception of God’s direction in leading me to where God wanted me to be ranks among the most important of all his spectacular pass catches throughout his career.
I was teaching the morning Bible study at the national Fellowship of Christian Athletes summer conference in Estes Park, Colorado. My main points roared through the Rocky Mountains in the reverberating shouts of hundreds of high school and college athletes. They continued to resonate through the subsequent years.
SIN NEVER WINS. FAITH NEVER FAILS. CHRIST CROWNS THE CHAMPIONS.
Pat Tilley was one of the evening speakers. My friendship with him began when his little girl fell and bumped her head on a rock.
Later that summer, Pat met some old high school friends at a Shreveport softball game. Bill Johnson had been a prep basketball teammate. Cliff Roberts mentioned his church was looking for a new pastor. Pat did not attend that church, but he recommended me.
Pat was told that the pastoral search committee chaired by Vernon Adams was searching through many resumes and would not consider any prospective pastor without one being submitted.
Later that next week, Pat went out of his way, stopped by the office of Sunset Acres Baptist Church, picked up a scrap sheet of paper, and wrote on it…Rex Blankenship…Guymon, Oklahoma.
That was it. One simple act of writing a name on a scratch sheet of paper changed everything in my life and in hundreds, if not thousands, of other lives.
God uses little things and flawed people like Pat and me to accomplish His purposes which are beyond our comprehension and control.
Rindy Stovall, Grady Luttrell, Cliff, and Pat Snipe flew to Guymon to listen to a sermon. Somehow, they convinced the others on the search committee to invite me to visit Shreveport. Their interest ended when I told the group I thought the church was divided.
I was right. They agreed. Even the pastoral search committee was divided. Once a thriving Shreveport church, Sunset Acres was now a transitional neighborhood in a racially charged town. The church had been without a pastor for over two years. Now they struggled to find a new direction and purpose.
Following our mutual closure of any future partnership, I continued to enjoy my ministry time in the Oklahoma wastelands. The Shreveport church offered their pastorate to a Louisiana man.
My next year would be filled with some surprising unsought opportunities (and no resume submissions).
A growing church in Oklahoma City asked me to serve as their pastor. The search committee was made up of five men my age and younger who were all successful millionaires. (I was not.) They had a vision for a great future work.
One of the largest churches in Georgia offered me a senior pastor position to preach to several thousand each week. The position included free education for my children. This was the church which later became known world-wide for its Christian themed movie productions.
In the same month, the national denomination recruited me to pastor a new church in one of the more upscale Houston suburbs. These all appeared to be awesome opportunities.
However, I just could not get a sense of peace about God’s direction. I went for a week to a summer church camp with the promise to my wife that I would spend much time in prayer and God’s Word for a clear understanding of God’s will.
I came home discouraged. I sensed God closing the doors to all those wonderful opportunities. I told my wife that I was no longer sure I even could hear God’s voice or figure out His plan for our lives. I think she agreed with that assessment.
Vicki asked about the Shreveport church. I replied it was divided over past leadership and would be a nightmare for an outsider. The location was in a very difficult area for ministry. The salary was much less than where we were. Most importantly, they already had a new pastor.
Vicki responded, “Well, if Shreveport ever calls again, we need to go there.”
The very next morning while we were still in bed, the phone rang. (I kid you not about the very next morning and this body’s location in the bed.) It was a call from Shreveport. We were asked if we would still consider moving there. The man they asked to be their next pastor turned them down “because there was such a dark cloud over the church.”
I hung up the phone and buried my head in the pillow. God always knows where you are, where you need to be, how and when to get you there. God’s ways are mysterious; His timing is perfect.
It was time to go charge the gates of hell. The obstacles before and after were monumental, each worthy of its own story of God’s mysterious ways.
The phone lines became disconnected by a fire. There was an important note lost in the mail for three months. The mouths of lions intent on firing me were closed by God in a business meeting. There was racial tension and a stolen truck. We dealt with gangs and their guns. There was a Sunday morning walk-out protest. Then came the smashed cake in my hand.
The threats. The turnover. The transformation.
Let me be crystal clear about this. This is not about my name and my story. This is about the hundreds of names in the mind of God associated with that one piece of paper.
Everything is directed by and connected to God and His strange ways. God uses little things to make big waves.
God sent a whirlwind of revival…genuine revival. God’s Word transformed all of us.
In my twenty-three-year pastorate, I served with the most wonderful people I have ever known. Women took their love to higher levels. A book was written about their faith. Men did not quit on their families or their God. These are only a few of the countless stories of grace.
My daughter met her lifelong best friend at that church. My older son met his lovely wife in that same city where he has been a successful college coach for more than a decade. My younger son won the school’s first state championship and discovered his creative talent for songwriting.
Many young preachers who trained in that environment now make their mark throughout the world. Teachers in seminary. Pastors throughout seven states. Missionaries spanning the globe. Former members have been scattered by God to other places where they have been used to energize churches and support new missions.
Some precious people remain in that church where an outside observer might write off as dying. Oh my, No! The torch still blazes with love and light as God’s Word continues to be preached and practiced.
Lives continue to be changed.
The third generation of those first Monday Night Club kids know about the love shared by that church. And when the last chapter is written, be assured that fathers will be coming down those streets carrying children on their shoulders, defying the gates of hell and marching into the glorious praises of the redeemed!
What happened? Pat Tilley hurriedly wrote a name on a scratch sheet of paper.
God often works in unexpected and inexplicable ways. Mysterious ways. Strange ways.
YOU ARE PART OF GOD’S LOVE STORY. EVERY EVENT IN YOUR LIFE, NO MATTER HOW SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT, HAS A PERSONAL AND ETERNAL PURPOSE.
THAT IS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE, MUCH LESS BELIEVE.
You are a link in a divine chain. God has you on a mission assignment which connects to that of others. You might even be unaware of your role in the project. Sickness, sorrow, or suffering never change your purpose. They only serve to enhance God’s orchestrated plan to do good to others through your life.
Mysterious? Unexplainable? Look at a sample of Biblical history. Genesis tells of the rejected, abandoned, sold-out slave, and prisoner in a foreign land whose God-written last chapter story declared Joseph as a save-the-world leader. The ups and downs and outs of Joseph’s life showcased an example of what others intended as evil, God used for good.
The unconquerable city of Jericho saw its walls crumble from the soundwaves of trumpets. The book of Joshua records Rahab as a prostitute. However, in Matthew Rahab is listed as the great-grandmother of David and a family member of Jesus.
Abraham could not see the hand in front of his face and somehow found the Promised Land.
More than once, a woman gave a strange man a drink of water. Miracles followed in mysterious ways. Mary and Martha suffered premature grief. God used their loved one’s death to enlarge the faith of others for centuries.
At the peak of their missionary usefulness, Paul and Silas were imprisoned. Why? Mysterious miracles expanded the missionary efforts beyond their expectations.
Important letters of inspired Scripture were penned.
Just notes on scratch sheets of paper…millions of souls freed from the darkened prisons of hell.
IN GOD’S UNIVERSE, THE UNLIKELY, THE UNBELIEVABLE, AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPEN.
Every person then and now, including you, has a story. It is a wild, sometimes almost unbelievable story where God always writes the last chapter.
The everlasting postscript of your last chapter is marked with a divine seal, “Planned by God before the foundation of the world to give you hope for today and a future of never-ending goodness.”
Every leaf falling to the ground ends up where it was intended to be. Every spray of water from the tidal wave smashing against the shoreline rocks finds its prepared place. Every voice of the redeemed from every tribe, language, people, and nation sings its song of glory to God.
Every breath. Every step. Every encounter. Every word on a scrap piece of paper.
How? God writes on an invisible note, “Let it be.”
Then every page of His #1 Textbook states, “It is done.”
I encourage you to take some time to reflect in awe and wonder at God’s story written in your life. His great eternal plan plays out in earthly moments of flawed human beings.
Write your name on a scratch sheet of paper. Just do it.
God loves that person. God is using that person in mysterious ways still hidden from human view. Your story is still being written in unexpected and inexplicable colors of ink on the parchment paper of the skies.
Read your name out loud. I dare you not to be amazed. It might even cause you to smile.
GOD ALWAYS KNOWS…WHERE YOU ARE…WHERE YOU NEED TO BE…HOW… AND WHEN…TO GET YOU THERE.
The journey is not over. Your life is linked to someone who needs you to trust God, be happy, and stay faithful where you are now.
BTW-God wrote your name on the palm of His hand! (Isaiah 49:16). That is all the resume you need to get to heaven!
God’s ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind.
LOVE FIRST...LOVE MOST 