Life-changers…#7

(this is a recurring weekly series on the fifty events that shaped the course of my life and the person i’ve become along the way.  welcome to my therapy.)

my life has changed dramatically  a number of times, due to simple conversations i’ve had with people.  words that spoke deep inside of me.  some of those conversations were anticipated.  others came alive in the moment.  they will probably represent five or six of the “life-changer moments” i will write about this year.

here’s one of them:

when wanda and i were 21 years old, we had been married less than a year.  we were playing house in a little apartment in my home town.  i was starting my fifth year of college (well on my way to my seven-and-a-half year undergraduate degree!).

wanda worked full-time as the head secretary for a low-income, multi-ethnic elementary school…and i worked part-time as a playground and gym director at the local boy’s club that i grew up going to as a kid.  we both loved what we were doing, but there was a restlessness about our lives.

we were being influenced by people (authors, speakers, artists, pastor/teachers, church leaders) who were challenging us to use our lives for the good of the kingdom as of first importance.  it was new thinking for us.  we were church attenders and had even adopted a life of serving and leading.  we were both involved in youth ministry…long before we realized it was a lifestyle we were assuming.

but doing something outside-the-box with our lives was another story!  we were both pursuing careers in areas we loved.  wanda was (and has always been) an amazing people person…with skills that were way above her age and experience.  her role in this inner-city, cross-cultural school was an incredible fit.

i was studying recreation administration and outdoor education as an intentional career choice.  i loved kids.  i especially loved disadvantaged kids and working at my home town boys club was fulfilling beyond words.  i absolutely loved it and saw myself doing this for life.

but then i had a conversation.

we had saturday workshop on how to be a better sunday school teacher (or something like that) and since we were leading the youth group at that time, wanda and i attended.  it was led by the president of a bible college about two hours north of where we lived.    his name was medford jones and i’ll never forget him…or the words he said.

at the pot-luck lunch we had following his presentation, we just happened to be sitting near president jones.  i listened as he told about some changes the school had been forced to make in it’s athletic department…budget, naia violations, the firing of a bad athletic director, etc…and the lack of a plan they had for moving forward.

so i told him what i thought they should do.

he listened intently to my 21-year-old, arrogant, know-it-all suggestions…and somehow overlooked my youth and saw something in me.  and then he asked me if i would like to come up to the college and talk with the vice-president of student development and give him some of my ideas for a brand new school recreation program.

before i knew what i was stepping into, i said “sure”…and the next week we were on our way to the school.  and on our way to the beginning of a life-journey that was bigger and scarier and more defining that anything we had ever thought about.

medford jones went on to his eternal reward many years ago.  i’m sure i said “thanks” back then, but he had no idea what his words were going to mean to two wide-eyed kids…and how that simple conversation was going wreck our lives and give god the opportunity to build something much more profound than what we would have ever done on our own.

i’m looking forward to saying “thanks” again.

and it all began with a conversation.

#conversation #medfordjones #career #marriage #pcc