Time Travel
Recently, I received a letter from myself. It wasn’t because it was “returned to sender.” The letter was written over 15 years ago. You’re going to need the backstory for this one!
The year was 2010, and the Rush family was experiencing a major transition. Our first child, Elliott, was born in the summer of that year, and later that fall, I would make the leap into full-time ministry. I wasn’t the kid who grew up aiming for the pastorate. Ask any of my high school friends, and they will still tell you, “Rush in the pulpit? You’re kidding me. Maybe in prison!”
Looking back on the years prior to 2010, God was developing me, I just wasn’t aware of it. That was a season of graduating from college, transitioning out of a fraternity house, and into married life. Talk about a shock to the system! I was a scared and confused boy making the major life decisions of manhood. Those years could have resulted in many different outcomes, but for the grace of God.
But for the grace of God! Think about that for a moment. When I look back on pivotal seasons, I see the grace of God most evident in the providential relationships He supplies in due time. People that God brought into my life who were a little bit further (or a whole lot further) on the road ahead, and willing to be a guide.
During those pivotal years of 2005-2010, God brought a man into my life who instilled in me the confidence and calling I still have today. The context was a furniture store, and Mr. Bodie was quick to say he wasn’t any Sunday School teacher. He was (and is) a man true to God and himself and didn’t put much stock in what others thought. During those years, he demonstrated the value of people, listening, opportunity, and learning even through failure. He affirmed qualities in me I couldn’t see for myself and placed me in positions of responsibility beyond my perceived limits. In short, Mr. Bodie ran me through Leadership 101 without ever setting foot in a classroom. Shucks! I would even say he put me through Discipleship 101.
I can’t recall the exact day, but the details of the moment are forever etched in my mind. The elders of the church Bethany and I had attended in those early years began to see some of the qualities that Mr. Bodie had seen and cultivated. To compress the story, I was presented with an opportunity to join our church’s staff full time to work with college students. I was excited and eager for the opportunity, yet saddened by the thought of leaving a career and place that had forged me into the man I’d become.
I’ll never forget the moment that Mr. Bodie and I sat down in two swivel club chairs in an obscure corner of the furniture store so that I could share what God was doing in Bethany and me. As my heart began to pound and my neck began to redden, I stumbled my way through trying to articulate the deep things embedded in my heart. Mr. Bodie was gracious and genuinely excited to hear what God was doing, but I recall how evasive the words seemed to express how much this man meant to me.
So, what did 26-year-old Craig do? Something not unlike what 41-year-old Craig would do. I sat down and wrote Mr. Bodie a multi-page letter. I told him how much he meant to me and how God had used him in my life. I told him how scared I was regarding the uncertainties of the future, but affirmed a faith in the goodness of God. And I told him thank you repeatedly.
Mr. Bodie must have appreciated the letter because he placed it in his nightstand. A few years later, Mr. Bodie and his wife would move to a new home, and in the process, they changed out the nightstands. As a furniture man, he put the old nightstands in a warehouse in the event they were needed again.
Recently, Mr. Bodie had some water damage in his home and needed to bring out those old nightstands. He had cleaned out the drawers prior to placing them in storage, but somehow the letter I’d written 15 years ago had gotten caught between the drawer and the back of the nightstand. When he pulled out the drawer, out came the letter.
Mr. Bodie called me to share what he’d found and wanted to send me the letter. He was adamant about making a copy for himself but sending me the original. Why? Because the letter captured my heart in a pivotal season that was swirling in uncertainty. God used my love for Mr. Bodie to be a catalytic declaration of the goodness of God, no matter what the future held. Fifteen years later, God used Mr. Bodie to send that letter back to remind me of just how good God has been!
Some days the goodness of God is harder to see than others. God is always good, but it doesn’t negate the hardships of life. And yet, we can look back on these windows of time and see the providential hand of God that carries us through! What a gift to receive that letter and be reminded of this valuable truth.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever. Psalm 118:29