Turn the Page
I’ve been attending our church’s “First Conference” this week. Gateway Church believes in giving the first of the year to the Lord and that means filling yourself with great teaching and also fasting from something you love. Let’s just say I’d really like a cookie right now.
I was going to watch last night’s service on-line but something pulled me to the church. The speaker, Derwin Gray, was a former NFL football player with the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers and as he got up to present his message I thought, He looks really familiar. I’ve reported on a lot of NFL football players in my day, and he was active during the time I was working as a sportscaster, but that wasn’t it.
Then he announced he was from San Antonio, Texas, where I am also from, and where I worked as a sportscaster for twelve years. Gray played football at Judson High School, one of the powerhouse high school teams in the eighties. That’s when I realized I’d probably interviewed Derwin Gray in high school. I most likely said his name on our high school football highlights show. On national signing day, I’m sure I was at his signing when he inked his letter of intent with Brigham Young University.
Little did I know then that this young man would be a powerful preacher and a man of God. Little did I know that he grew up in a similar environment to what I did, fatherless, with a mentally ill mother—and raised by his grandparents. Little did I know that he would be the pastor of a dynamic church outside Charlotte, North Carolina.
As I sat there, amazed at how God transforms our lives, I reflected on Gray’s message, “Will You Let Jesus rewrite Your story?” His was rewritten. Mine was rewritten. Perhaps yours has also been rewritten. God is a Master Editor. He loves to take our tragic testimonies and do the ultimate makeover, so there is joy instead of sorrow, trust instead of fear, and faith instead of uncertainty .
This morning, I was reading in the Psalms and I came across this passage: “Your mercy, O LORD, is in the Heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, you preserve man and beast” (Psalm 36:5–6).
It is out of God’s mercy and love for us that He re-writes our stories. That’s why, once we finally stop running from our past, we turn around and realize God is right there and has been pursuing all along. With pen in hand, our Abba Father is ready to hand us a heavenly “letter of intent” saying “If you sign up for my game plan, I promise your life won’t be anything like it was before.” From experience, I know this is true.
Do you need God to write a new chapter in your life? Are you ready to start out with a blank piece of paper and allow Him to re-create your story? Then today, give God the lordship of your life. It’s time to turn the page.
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If you grew up with a father wound, you’ll want to read Lisa’s new book, “The Only Father I Ever Knew: How a Fatherless Child Finally Found True Love.” The book features Lisa’s own fatherless testimony, along with sixteen other testimonies that demonstrate the fatherlike attributes of God. It’s available on Amazon.