Dear Grandkids,
The year was 1979.
– A group called The Bee Gees had the #1 hit at the time
– M*A*S*H*, Dallas, and Three’s Company were 3 of the top TV shows that year
– Jimmy Carter was president
– The Pittsburg Steelers and the Pittsburg Pirates were both World Champions
– A gallon of gas cost 88 cents
– A house that would cost $200k today would have cost $70k then
– Adam Levine, Pink, and Kourtney Kardashian were born that year
– McDonalds introduced the Happy Meal
– There was no such thing as Google or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat or Yahoo or email or the internet.
– No one had a computer in their house or owned a mobile phone.
I had just finished my junior year at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. She had just finished her junior year at UNC-Greensboro. Our parents were living 25 minutes away from each other in NC. (My folks had moved to NC after my high school graduation but I was still living in my home town of Aiken, SC.) But we didn’t meet in either NC or SC. We met half way across the country in Galveston, Texas. Here’s how the Lord orchestrated our meeting way out there…
During my time at Tulane I had been involved with an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ (these days it is just called CRU). They offered projects during the summer all over the country where college students would come together for 2 months to do evangelism and discipleship. Nona had been introduced to CRU by her sister Anne who had been on a CRU project in Panama City, FL during the summer of 1978. Both of us applied to go on the same project – to Myrtle Beach, SC, which was only a few hours from where we both lived. Both of us were turned down. Both of us were offered the opportunity instead to go on a beach project in Galveston, TX. She immediately accepted. I immediately declined.
And we would have never met unless the Lord had intervened in a way that I will never forget. There have been several times in my life where God got my attention in a very unexpected way. This was the second time.
In the Spring of ’79 I was lying on a couch in my dorm room one afternoon after classes and listening to a song by Keith Green when God spoke to me in perhaps the loudest “still small voice” that I have ever heard. He very clearly said to me, “Go to Galveston! I’m not going to tell you why, just GO!” I was stunned because I had already made up my mind NOT to go. I had already told CRU that I wasn’t going. But I wasn’t going for my own selfish reasons. I had not really consulted the Lord on my decision. Now I was being forced to choose obedience to God or follow the waywardness of my fickle heart.
So I went. And it was in Galveston that I met this cute little blond gal who loved God and who wanted to serve Him and was willing to put up with my eccentricities. We were both working day jobs – she was a waitress at a pancake house and I was behind the counter at a McDonalds. After work one day we started chatting while sitting outside of the school house where we were lodging. And so it began.
The Lord took us 1150 miles away from where our parents were living so that we could meet, fall in love, and begin our life together. And here we are almost 37 years later still going strong with lots of memories to look back on and lots more still to be made.
So here are a few takeaways that I hope you will ponder as you grow up and grow older:
- Learn to discern God’s still small voice – He generally speaks quietly. Which means you need to practice a discipline of quietness and solitude to hear Him.
- Don’t make any decision apart from the Lord – I almost didn’t meet your Nona because I thought I knew what was best for me instead of Him.
- Expect the unexpected – God will often drop unexpected blessings in your lap when you are serving Him and following His ways. I did not go to Texas looking for a wife. But that is where God provided for me because I chose obedience.
Never forget that you are very very loved!
Pop Pop
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
> >