04: uncle dave (friday flashback edition)

I love doing the Friday Flashbacks because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on where I have come from and how God has been so intricately involved in every little detail of my life. {Isn’t He beautiful?} And today, as I considered how to combine my flashback with something I am thankful for… I kept landing on memories of Uncle Dave and Aunt Marge. There have been so many people who God has placed along my path… guideposts along the road toward Him… but in Uncle Dave and Aunt Marge I see how such a simple act can have a profound impact.

When I was about three years old, my family rented a house in Bicknell, Indiana that was owned by Dave and Marge Morwood. Lucky for us, they also lived right next door. My family was poor, and we certainly had our problems, but they met us right where we were. My  mom tells me that as we moved from Cincinnati, the one promise she made to my Mamaw was that she would get me into a church. I suspect that Mamaw spent a lot of time in her knees talking to God about this, because within a couple of weeks of moving into that little gray house on Cedar Street, the man who I had already come to know as Uncle Dave asked mom if I could go to church with him.

At just over three years old, I stepped foot for the first time in First Baptist Church of Bicknell. Thirty-two years later, that is still the place I call home. In the decades in between, I have seen my baby brothers dedicated, my daddy accept Christ, my husband step into the waters of baptism, my children come to know Jesus… I have made some of the best friends I could ever imagine, and I have seen other friends get on fire for the Lord.

And to think, it all started when my next door neighbor invited me to church.

It doesn’t always take grand mission trips or enormous steps of faith to impact the world for Christ. Sometimes it’s as simple as looking around you, seeing who God has placed there, and meeting them where they are at.  I think of Uncle Dave often. I am so thankful for the guidepost he was in my life… and I believe that Christ is calling all of us to be along the path of other seekers…  pointing the way to Him. Who has He placed in your life? Who is looking to you for direction? Whose testimony would you find your name in?  

Praying you hear the voice of the Lord directing you to action today… and that you do something about it!