"ALL THINGS!"

Romans 8:28                      (ESV)
"And we know that for those who love GOD "ALL THINGS" work together for good, for those who are called according to HIS purpose."


In July 1999 I resigned my job at an insurance agency in Hope, AR literally days after securing a huge account in a city in the southern part of Arkansas.  The fact that I was starting my own insurance agency was all that was on my mind, not that I was leaving great clients for my former employer.  In September 1999 I was elected to the local school board.  In 2000 I was elected as the Chairman of a local political party.  In September 2000 I had the opportunity to have mine and my family's photo taken with a candidate for President of the United States on his campaign airplane.  He was elected President of the United States that November.

My new insurance agency was growing rather quickly.  The progress of the agency, I thought, was due to a caring agency attitude and good insurance companies that contracted with our agency.  Being able to recognize where the blessings were coming from was difficult, mainly because there was NO TIME for being thankful.  Keeping up with my schedule had me running as fast as I could, not keeping up with my business nor being thankful for the successes.  The belief that the LORD was providing in spite of my busyness was not founded on anything scriptural, JUST A FEELING inside of me.  

In an effort to satisfy my busy schedule, I had many obligations.  The insurance agency should have been my primary obligation, but my other commitments demanded so much of my time that the agency suffered.  One day in August 2002 a fellow school board member requested that I write a letter to a United States Senator on her employer's (Wadley Regional Medical Center) behalf to attempt to get a Physician to move to our town.  The Physician was in the United States on an O-1 Visa, as he was a Pakistani national who needed a Senator to recommend moving across state lines.   The letter was completed and sent on August 15, 2002 and I never heard, or thought, anything further about it.

The success of our insurance agency began to taper off as the main producer (me) was busy with other demands for my time.   In 2006 a fellow insurance agent, owner of one of the largest agencies in the state, approached me about buying our agency.  He said he wanted to combine our agency with another agency in our city and let me run them both.  I saw it as an opportunity to expand our available markets while expanding our agency footprint.  The promises made didn't materialize after the merger and I very soon became more interested in other things!

On Thursday July 05, 2007 I met with the new owner of the insurance agency I worked for and informed him that I would like to take a leave of absence to begin a Nonprofit called Foundation for Responsible Youth to assist at risk children get through high school and onto college, trade school, or a viable career.  He agreed and even offered to be one of the first contributors for the foundation.  On Friday I cleaned my office and assigned work to different people in the office.  On Monday, I awoke to my brain hemorrhaging.  Fifty two days later I came home from the hospital a totally changed person, although I wouldn't admit that for quite some time!

My wife and I bought the insurance agency back from the new owner on July 01. 2009.   In going through some papers she had taken to our house a couple of years earlier, she came across the letter I had written in August 2002 for my school board friend.  The letter evidently was successful as the doctor the hospital sought was the Neurologist who cared for me when my brain hemorrhaged in 2007!!  When I showed the letter to my Neurologist he was almost in shock.  Today the letter is on every electronic device I have as a testimony of how my GOD works even in the things we think are menial at the time.  When GOD is behind a task, it is never insignificant.

We bought the agency back a little over 7 years ago.   Since then, GOD has grown me in more ways than words can describe.  HE especially has shown me that I don't need to try to DO everything for HIM, I only need constant fellowship with HIM and to obey HIS guidance.  In the end, only the things that we allow GOD to accomplish with our lives will stand the test of time.

GOD works "ALL THINGS" together for good, for those who are called according to HIS purpose!  A key portion of this verse is 'HIS purpose'!  We can say GOD wouldn't do this or that, but HE can USE anything HE allows FOR HIS purposes.  Even the brain hemorrhage I experienced SLOWED DOWN my ability to select words as quickly as I used to, something that GOD has shown me that HE is in control of!  HE was in control of my wife and I founding this agency in 1999, selling it in 2006, the brain hemorrhage in 2007, my MIRACULOUS recovery, us being able to buy the agency back in 2009, and all of the blessings AND TRIALS we have experienced since buying the agency back.  "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for YOU are with me....." (Psalms 23:4).

We are created to glorify HIM.  In Exodus 14:4 GOD says "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I WILL GET GLORY OVER PHARAOH and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD."  GOD can even use what we consider to be total devastation to BRING HIM GLORY.  Whatever comes my way, in "ALL THINGS" I will glory in HIS NAME!!!