Looking Back at a Crossroads Decision

I didn’t post any last week, as it was a difficult week of tragedy for our family.  My first cousin, Brandon Daniels lost his wife in a tragic car accident on the way to Horizons camp at FHU.  Brandon and I grew up together and went to Freed-Hardeman together back in 1994.  They have two young children ages 10 and 6.  We spent much of our week in the Spring Hill/Columbia, Tennessee area with the family and funeral process.  Please keep them in your prayers.

While we were there we drove by this sign and church building.

It stirred thoughts and a conversation with my wife Amanda.  You see the sign was surprisingly ironic because it represented two aspects of events that lead us to Mayfield, Kentucky almost 12 years ago. Allow me to reminiscence a bit, if you will.

The year was 2003, the stress level was high and family morale low.  We had been working for several years on the dream of mission work in Asuncion, Paraguay with a team of friends from FHU.  But things changed over the course of our training for this work in Abilene, Texas and Jackson, Tennessee.  We began to doubt our family’s ability to be successful in long-term mission work.  Company that with the worry and stress of my dad having a massive heart attack in June, which he thankfully survived.  We made the decision to not go to Asuncion, which was very difficult because of our commitments to teammates, church supporters, and family.  This also meant we were out of a job.  So in September, we returned to Missouri and lived with my parents helping dad on the farm.  We spent weekends “trying out” for preaching jobs.

We were blessed to have some options with job offers.  Our desire was to find a place in November.  We had two primary churches that made similar offers.  We liked both of these works.  They were the 7th and College Church of Christ in Mayfield and the Northview Church of Christ in Columbia.  We had many friends in the Columbia area, but it was much farther from our families in Missouri.  We considered both works heavily and prayed about our choice.  But in what was only a couple of days we chose to work with the 7th and College Church in Mayfield.

What was also interesting about this sign was who was speaking at their Summer Series event.  Ted Burleson, whom I appreciate and admire for his work and reputation, was also very close to taking the job at 7th and College in Mayfield.  It very nearly worked out for him to come to Mayfield, but choices were made and he ended up not taking the position.

We did and I started preaching in Mayfield on November 16, 2003.

As we passed this sign and thought about what might have been, we can only wonder how life would be different.  We both are thankful we made the decision to come to Mayfield and feel like the Lord has used us in this community and with this good church which became known as the Seven Oaks Church of Christ in 2006.

I am sure the Northview congregation is a great church.  I don’t even know who became their preacher or if he is still there.  Looking back on these events and thinking about crossroads we all come to in life I have a few thoughts I want to share.

• I believe God doesn’t have one precise path for us to follow.  I agree with Dr. Everett Huffard who taught us one summer that God’s providence works by opening up multiple doors for us to choose from and our responsibility is to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” with the choice we make.  We believe that God would have used us in Columbia if we would have kept our priorities straight.  It is fruitless, though somewhat interesting wondering, imagining how things would have been different if we had lived in Columbia these last 12 years.
• We are thankful we made the choice to come to Mayfield.  We don’t have any regrets about the choice.  We believe God has providentially blessed the choice and used us in Mayfield for HIs glory and honor.  We are thankful that the door opened up.  We came to Mayfield because it was closer to Missouri, had the opportunity to help start a hispanic church plant, and was a church with lots of potential including a new building plan.  Some 12 years later through the blessings of God we have seen many of these things take place.  It has been a blessing, especially with children to be only 2 hours from home.  The hispanic church celebrated their 10 year anniversary this past weekend. They are a vibrant congregation with their own building, a developing leadership group, and lots of children.  The Seven Oaks church has continued to grow over the last five years and now is blessed with having completed two building projects and has a great facility. We have tremendous potential and lots of great people.  Personally, we have developed many close friends and love this area.  Amanda’s sister even moved to the area and we are putting down more roots with our farm and new home.  We are thankful!