Author: DwightClough

Whew!

A lot going on here…

Steve Freitag’s CrossCounsel Podcast

First of all, a BIG THANK YOU to Steve Freitage of CrossCounsel International Ministries for inviting me onto his podcast. We had a great conversation about the connection between personal transformation and ending the toxic polarization in our culture. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I listened to it this morning, and it was great. (Thanks, John, for editing out all my long pauses 🙂 )

If you’d like to listen, you’ll want the November 21, 2022 episode: End the Divide. Here are the links:

Google Podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

By the way, if you don’t already know—it’s a great podcast; I think you’ll enjoy other episodes as well.

 

Imagine heaven

As you may know, Pastor Bill Wineke graciously invited me to share a message at his church in Evansville on November 13. My topic was “Imagining Heaven,” and I have links to that presentation as well. You can watch it here on Facebook or it’s also available on Google Drive.

 

Family update

Many thanks for your prayers. Mom is home from the hospital and mending nicely. Kim pivoted and decided (with Mom’s approval) to host Thanksgiving there so she can continue to provide care for Mom and we can also have family in for the holidays. I’m grateful for those of you who have volunteered to help with Mom; we may take you up on that at some point.

 

And finally… guinea pigs wanted

Have you ever wanted help hearing the voice of God, forgiving someone who is difficult to forgive, overcoming bad habits, making sense of the Bible, or just getting more out of your relationship with God? If so, I have two things for you:

(1) a free gift (How to hear the voice of God), and
(2) a coaching service.

You can find the details here.

I’m doing things a little different. I’m providing email coaching. Since this is a brand new thing, I need some guinea pigs to try it out. The price for the first session is super cheap. Once we get it all figured out, the cheap price goes away, and I’ll charge a regular coaching fee.

Why do I charge? Two reasons. (1) People don’t value what they don’t pay for. (2) Nobody pays me a salary to this; money from book sales, coaching and other fees is how I make a living.

Good enough. If you’d like to be one of those guinea pigs, check out this page, or ping me in reply.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Much love!

Dwight

I wanted to let you know I was recently interviewed by Dr. Timothy Blake and will be featured along with 19 other Christian leaders in an online summit Becoming a Godly Man of Freedom, available 11/28/22 to 12/12/22. In my recorded conversation with Dr. Blake, we discussed the difference between freedom and try hard religion, why so many men can’t get free of life controlling issues, experiencing God for yourself, and, of course, I told a few of my crazy stories. It sounds like the other speakers will be covering everything from sexual health to near death experiences. If you’re interested, access is free (although there is an optional up charge if you want the workbook and ongoing access). Here’s the link: https://www.becominggodlyman.com/

For those of you who have been asking about my Imagining Heaven message that I shared in Evansville last weekend, it was recorded, and I’m hoping to get a link from the church in the next few days.

And a big thank you to those of you who have been praying for my mom and my wife. In case you don’t know, Mom fell and broke her hip and wrist on Sunday. She was released from the hospital on Wednesday and will need 24/7 care for a while. Kim is staying with her at her home in Madison. Kim’s cancer surgery in August appears to have been 100% successful as far as they can tell. She’s recovered nicely, although she did put her back out a couple weeks ago, but is feeling much better now. If you’d care to pray for Kim and Mom, I know they’d appreciate it. My mom’s name is Jeanette.

Many thanks. I have much more to share, but I don’t want to overload this. I’ll try to catch you again here in a few days.

Dwight

(I posted something like this on Facebook; I wanted to share it here.)

Today, here in the US, we vote.

I’m not going to tell you who I’m voting for or try to convince you to support my candidates.

But I am going to tell you about a decision I made.

I’ve decided not to demonize our candidates or our leaders. I won’t badmouth current or former presidents. Or any of our other elected officials. Not in public. Not on social media. Not in my private conversations. Not at all.

No, I don’t always agree with their actions, their words, their policies. But I won’t apply derogatory labels to them as people.

I just won’t.

Let me tell you why.

When someone assumes or aspires to public office, they don’t lose their humanity. They’re still someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, sister or brother. They’re still created in the image of God, sent here to earth for a purpose, much loved by God Himself.

It’s not okay for me to deface the image of God.

If my life—or yours—were held up to the same public scrutiny that a president’s life is, what would would people be saying about us? How would those remarks feel?

And how well do we really know these people we judge? I don’t know any of them personally. I have no idea who they really are. I don’t have access to the same information they do. I don’t know the pressures they face.

All I have is the carefully constructed narrative that my favorite media outlet tries to spoon feed me about this person. And I have no idea if that narrative is reliable.

Jesus said, “Judge not lest you be judged.” I don’t think He’s saying that we can’t have political opinions—because we can and we should. I think He’s saying when we take the limited information we have and use it to condemn or devalue another human being, we have sinned, and we’re inviting others to do the same toward us.

The early Christian writer James wrote, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.” (James 2:13 NLT)

I’m not saying that all our leaders have good motives. I’m just saying I don’t know what their motives are. And I’m not saying they’re all good; only God can say whether someone is good. I just won’t demonize them as people.

Neither will I hero worship. Leaders are just people, sent here to do a job, ultimately answering to God for the job they do, just like you and I are.

While I won’t demonize or hero worship our leaders, I will pray for them. I will pray that God grants them the wisdom, courage, and motivation to make righteous decisions, even in the face of bullies. I will pray that truth triumphs over deception, that justice and mercy triumph over injustice, and that understanding, respect, trust, and love triumph over polarization.

Dwight

(I posted this on Facebook, but thought I would share it here also.)

A good friend told me he avoids social media because it just makes him feel down on himself. Other people get the opportunities that passed him by. They have the big houses, the nice cars, the fancy vacations, and, by comparison, his life seems drab.

I get it. And, if that’s you, this post is for you.

Let me tell you about me.

The car I drive was made in the last century and it has 418,000 miles on it. The cottage I live in is the size of a modest two-bedroom apartment. I always wanted to travel, but I’ve never been on a fancy vacation. Never.

You’re probably younger than I am. You’re almost certainly prettier than I am. I cut my own hair; I looked at this photo and laughed. My teeth have problems. There are issues with my body that I don’t even want to discuss.

Most nights—and days—every week my wife is caring for my mom 45 minutes away. I would love to put all three of us together on one property, but I don’t have the money to do it.

I’m not famous. Most people can get away with not being famous, and they’ll be just fine. I’m an author. I need to be famous in order to make a decent living. But I’m not.

While I’ve had some successes, I’ve also fallen flat on my face time after time.

Please understand why I’m telling you this. I’m not complaining. I love my life. I am content and happy. I’m just writing this so if you feel tempted to compare yourself with someone, compare yourself with me. You can say, “At least I’m not as bad as Dwight Clough.”

It’s okay. I won’t mind.

In fact, I’m happy whenever you win. That’s a win for me. If you get to go on a fancy vacation or drive a nice car or live in a big house or capture the spotlight or whatever, I’m happy for you.

But I also know down deep inside underneath all the trimmings of this life, you and I are the same. We both want to be loved. We both want to be respected. Hopefully, we both want to leave our world a little better place than it was when we got here.

And I’ll tell you a little secret: God likes me. It took me decades to discover that, but once I did, all these other things stopped mattering so much. God likes me. And I think He likes you too.

Years ago some famous actress or model published a picture of herself in her underwear in a magazine. No make up. No glitz. Hair a mess. She did it because she wanted to send a message. Underneath all the glamour, she was just like everyone else.

Be at peace, my friend. You are okay.

You really are okay.

Dwight

In a few days I turn 65. As I think back over the last six decades, I’ve been blessed with a good life, but it hasn’t been without challenges. We’ve been homeless. We were hungry. We went bankrupt. Businesses failed. People I love experienced cancer, addictions, overdoses, violent crimes—and some of the people I love died. I’ve been slandered, excluded, marginalized, and my reputation has been trashed. I know what it is to spend hours yelling at God because, at times, my life made no sense.

Over the years, the book that has brought me more comfort and perspective than any other has probably been the book of Job from the Bible. It’s an ancient book, a beautiful book, and a much misunderstood book. I’ve seen Bible teachers and Bible critics alike completely miss the point the book was trying to make.

Since I’ve found it to be so rich and so meaningful, I thought I’d pull you aside for a few minutes and attempt to explain it.

The book of Job answers the question: What kind of love do good people have for God? Is it a hired love, like that of a prostitute for a client? Are God’s friends “fair weather” friends who abandon Him at the first sign of trouble? Or is our love for God real? Is it genuine?

Is our righteousness just a show to get a prize? Or is it who we really are?

Is God bribing people to love Him? Or do people love God because something has happened inside to transform them into genuinely good people?

The only way to find out is to take away the prize and see what happens. When God’s “blessings” are removed, we show our true colors, don’t we?

That’s what happened to Job. His wealth was taken away. His children were killed in a tornado. The respect he had in his community vanished, and he became the butt of jokes. And his health was ruined. All he had left was his wife who urged him to “curse God and die.”

Then Job’s friends came to “comfort” him. But their “comfort” took the form of kicking him while he was down with their armchair theology. God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, they reasoned. You’re not being rewarded. You’re being punished. Put 2 and 2 together. Come on, Job. ‘Fess up. What did you do? What sin did you commit to land you in this mess? If you would just admit that you’re a rotten sinner, God would rescue you from your mess.

Job’s friends remind me of so many Christians I’ve talked to over the years.

Throughout this exchange, heaven, eternal life, the afterlife—none of this appeared on the radar except for a brief mention by Job that he expected some kind of resurrection someday. Other than that, the focus was squarely on what happens in this life.

We don’t know how long his friends badgered him, but it may have been weeks. Long days, sleepless nights, unrelenting pain. Through it all, Job refused to confess to crimes he didn’t commit. He refused to admit he had sinned because he hadn’t sinned. And he refused to allow his pain to become an excuse for doing evil.

It wasn’t because he was wrong that this happened to him. It was because he was right. He was good. One of the best men who ever lived.

Going through this, Job tried to make sense of what was happening to him. What happened to the friendship I had with God? Where did God go? Why is God allowing this to happen to me? Can’t God see how unjust and unfair this is?

In the end, God shows up—speaking to Job, ironically, from another tornado—the same kind of storm that took the lives of Job’s children.

I’ve heard Bible teachers and Bible critics alike say that God yelled at Job. But I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think that’s fair.

Instead, God was saying, in effect, “Okay, if you want to understand Me, here’s what it takes to understand Me. If you want to play in the same league I play in, here’s what it takes. Do you have what it takes?”

And Job answered, “No, I don’t.”

In the process God took Job’s eyes off his painful sores and put them on the stars. He gave Job a gift, a peek into God’s perspective. In the process, He showed Job (and us) that even when our lives make no sense to us, there is a God in heaven who knows what He’s doing, and we can trust Him to do what is good.

After speaking to Job, God confronted Job’s friends. “Job in his pain understood Me better than you did in your comfort. If anyone here deserves to be punished, it’s you. But my servant Job will pray for you, and I won’t deal with you according to your folly.”

After Job prayed for his friends, he was restored. He was healed. He took seed money from caring relatives and rebuilt his fortune. And God gave him a new family—seven sons and three daughters. We don’t know anything about his sons, but we know the names of his daughters, and we are told that they were the most beautiful in the land.

A beautiful ending to a powerful book.

Later in the Bible we read about a faith that overcomes the world. What is that faith? I believe it’s the deep, deep knowledge that God is good, even when everything and everyone in our lives says that He is not.

Dwight

I am an ambassador of heaven.

I was sent here to earth to bring eternal good into many lives. Every step I take carries the presence of Jesus with me to the place of need. There we heal what is injured, fix what is broken, and show our world a higher path.

When I speak, I speak words of healing, of help, of hope. My name means “light in the valley,” and I have been sent here to earth to bring light to dark places.

Am I perfect at all of this?

No. Of course not. But the work of God in me is so much stronger than all my limitations, and the work of God will ultimately triumph.

This is who I am. This is my identity. This is my mission. This is my why.

How about you? When you ask God who you are, what does He tell you?

Dwight

 

PS. Book deal and a favor: How would you like a free copy of any two of my books? Be happy to send them to you; I just need you and a few friends to leave an honest and hopefully positive review on Amazon for End the Divide. Someone left a mixed/negative review, and it looks like she only read part of the book and didn’t really understand it. So I don’t want her comments to keep people from reading a book that could be life changing for them.

Pastor Warren Heckman emailed me regarding this book and said, “I just finished reading your book [End the Divide]. It is provocative, insightful, biblical and challenging. I wish the whole world could read it, especially leaders & politicians.”

Ping me back if you’re planning to leave a review, and I’ll watch for your review, and be happy to send you the books you want.
Wondering what to say? Obviously, be honest, but this recent review might give you some ideas. Or here’s another one.

Here’s a counter-culture thought for your weekend:

“Is someone treating you unfairly? Wish them well. Pray for everyone’s well being, and don’t wish harm on anyone. If someone is happy, be happy with them. If someone is sad, feel their pain. Be at peace with those around you.

Don’t be stuck up. Be friends with the people the world throws away. Don’t be arrogant.

If someone wrongs you, don’t try to get even. Always take the high road. As much as you can, live at peace with everyone. Don’t plot revenge. Turn that over to God. God knows what He’s doing. If someone deserves to ‘get it,’ God will take care of that. Rather, when those who hate you are hungry, feed them; when they’re thirsty, give them a glass of water. By doing this, even your enemies will see you are living life at a much higher level.

Don’t let evil get the best of you. Instead, overcome evil with good.”

—Romans 12:14-21 paraphrased by Dwight Clough

 

This passage, more than any other, inspired me to write my latest book, End the Divide.

If you, like me, think it’s not okay for good people to hate each other, I would love to share a few thoughts with you.

Have a super weekend!

Dwight

Sometimes life makes no sense. If that’s your reality right now, then this post is for you.

Have you ever had the experience where something in your life should be okay, but it isn’t? And you want God to fix it, but He doesn’t?

I’m guessing most of us go through seasons when life doesn’t make any sense.

I certainly have.

This post is longer than usual, but I want to share a condensed version of my story, and then share some thoughts that have helped me, and just might help you.

BTW, if you prefer the YouTube version of this post, here’s the link…

My story: After I finished school, I got a job and got married. We were happy at first, but I soon became convinced that my wife didn’t want to be married, or, if she did, she didn’t want to be married to me. We got counseling, but my job didn’t pay enough to get the kind of counseling we wanted. So I quit, we moved 500 miles away, and I went into business for myself. That business failed. My wife kept us alive cleaning houses for $4 an hour.

Meanwhile, the elders of the church we were attending called me in time after time and threatened to excommunicate me for embracing secular psychotherapy. In the years that followed, another business failed. We were hungry. We were homeless. We were forced into bankruptcy. Someone in my family struggled with an addiction. We had a child born with birth defects. We had medical bills we couldn’t pay. Someone in my family was the victim of a violent crime. One of my children nearly died. My wife ended up with cancer.

It was bewildering. I was trying hard to please God, and everything was going wrong.

Maybe you’ve been there.
Maybe you are there right now.

Something isn’t right.
Something that should be okay isn’t okay.
And it hurts.
You want God to fix it.
You’ve asked Him to fix it.
Maybe you’ve begged Him to fix it.
But He’s not fixing it, and you can’t understand why.
So you’re trying to fix it yourself
but everything you do
instead of making it better
just makes it worse.
And you’re like:
“God, I’m doing my best,
but nothing I do is ever good enough.”
And deep inside you’re wondering:
Why doesn’t God care?
Can’t He see what I’m going through?

If that’s you, then I’d like to share a few things that have helped me, and I’ll wrap up with something you can do right now that I think could be a game changer for you.

#1 I know it might feel like God doesn’t care…
But He does.
I know it may feel like you’ve been singled out for some cosmic experiment.
But you haven’t.
God is not a sadist. He is not aloof.
When you hurt, God hurts.
Your pain is not something that God ignores, that God minimizes, that God doesn’t care about.
He cares deeply.
I know it may take a long time before you know deep inside that He does care,
but I can tell you from the other side: He does.

#2 This doesn’t make you a bad person…
In fact, you’re in very good company.
In the Bible, many people
including Job and John the Baptist—
two of the best people who ever lived—
went through the same thing—
maybe not the exact same circumstances
but the same kind of pain.

#3 Here’s the bad news…
I don’t know of a quick fix.
If you’re looking for a microwave miracle, and instant solution, I don’t think you’re going to find it.
If you want this all gone by tomorrow, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

#4 Here’s the good news…
Your Christian faith offers many spiritual tools—
tools that work in the real world—
that can help you.
For a long time, I felt like Christianity had nothing to offer
because I wasn’t aware of these tools.
Most people aren’t aware of these tools.
Most people only have platitudes,
and I don’t know about you,
but I hate platitudes.
If it doesn’t work in the real world, I’m not interested.
There are tools that work in the real world,
and they are available to you,
but first, you need to understand what’s going on.

#5 Understand the process…
Several years ago I was 60 days behind on my mortgage. I was getting nasty phone calls from the bank, I had no money coming in at all, so I had no way of negotiating a deal with the bank. Visions of being out on the street with a wife and four little children flooded my mind. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know what to do. I was gripped with this paralyzing fear. It was a mess.

I knew God could provide, but for some reason, I thought He wouldn’t. I had done something wrong. I didn’t know what, but I had done something wrong, and now God was going to rub my nose in it.

I started processing all of this with God, and I ended up in a memory when I was about eight years old. My dad was away for a year, deployed by the military, and I was borrowing his tools because I wanted to pretend that I could build things like my dad. The only problem was this: My dad was persnickety about how his tools were to be put away, and I didn’t understand his system. Now he was coming home, and I was going to be in trouble. Instead of being excited to see my dad, I was terrified.

That fear I felt as a child matched up with that fear I felt as an adult behind on my mortgage. Then God spoke to me:

“Dwight, your dad did the best he could with the parenting tools that were in his parenting toolbox. But I’m a different kind of Father, and I have different parenting tools. When you mess up, I don’t leave you to figure it out on your own. I come beside you and help you figure out how to make it right.”

Wow.

That changed everything for me. I was no longer afraid. Instead, I was excited. God was going to help me. I calmed way down. I could sleep at night. I was fine.

My circumstances didn’t change for a couple of weeks, but my experience changed completely. I was at peace even though we were still behind on our mortgage. Then the money came in—I don’t remember exactly how—I got a new client or something happened—and I got caught up on my mortgage and all my other bills.

I tell this story because it illustrates a process God takes us through as His children.

Step one: We suffer. Bad things happen.
We don’t suffer because God doesn’t like us; He does.
We don’t suffer—as a rule—because God is punishing us.
We don’t suffer because God is mean.
But when you turn up the heat, the impurities rise to the surface.

Step two: Painful lies surface as we suffer.
In this case, I believed God was going to punish me even though I didn’t know what I did wrong. I viewed God the same way the eight year old me viewed my dad.

Step three: We take those lies to God.
The only way we’re going to get better is to invite God into the hurting places in our lives.
We need to show Him our tangled up thoughts and invite Him to tell us the truth.

Step four: God shows us His perspective. The painful lie is replaced with soothing truth.
In my case in this story, God showed me what kind of Father He is.
I needed to know that.

Step five: Our peace and joy are restored regardless of our circumstances.
On the surface it looked like the problem was not having enough money to pay the mortgage.
But that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that I believed a lie about God.
When the real problem got solved, then I returned to peace and joy.

Step six: God fixes our circumstances.
We want God to start here, but He usually doesn’t.
This is usually the last thing He does.
And, as we learn from Hebrews 11,
sometimes fixing our circumstances doesn’t happen until this life is over.

I used to always pray, “God, give me maximum mileage out of my misery.”
I don’t like to suffer any more than you do.
Once you understand this process,
you can suffer less
and get to your breakthrough a whole lot faster.
I’m not saying that painful things won’t happen in your life;
I’m just saying you’ll have a plan when they do.

#6 Find the tools that work in the real world…
For a while, my wife was experiencing panic attacks.
And being a loving husband,
I wanted to help her.
So I recommended she memorize and quote Bible verses on fear.
She tried to explain to me how that didn’t work,
but I didn’t get it
until God graciously allowed me
to experience a panic attack of my own.
Then I realized
my “solution” was inept, anemic, and it just didn’t work.

And that’s the problem sometimes with our Christian faith.
When life caves in all around us
we discover that our so called “solutions,”
are nothing but platitudes—
platitudes that don’t work in real life.

So I went on a quest to find the things that do work in real life.
And I’ve devoted much of the last 20 years
to creating books and courses and other resources
filled with the tools that actually work in real life.

In a minute, I’ll share one of those tools with you.
It’s a place to start, it’s your best next step.
It will be very clear, and it will be something you can do right now,
and I believe you will start to see a difference in your life in a short period of time.
It won’t take all your troubles away,
but I believe it will help you.

Before I do that, let me tell you about some of the resources I have for you.

I’ve had many people tell me how much my book The Gift of Transformation resonated with them.
It’s my story.
I was trying to fix a messed up marriage,
and I was trying to sort out a painful past,
but I didn’t have the tools to fix any of it.
Then I made a discovery that changed everything.
And that’s what The Gift of Transformation is all about.

As I mentioned above, I tried to get my wife to quote Bible verses when she was having panic attacks.
I discovered that doesn’t work,
but for a long time I didn’t understand why it didn’t work.
Then I learned the wall in your mind.
There’s a wall in your mind that governs what’s going to work
and what isn’t going to work.
And if you don’t understand that wall,
you’ll keep on trying solutions that don’t work.
This is a concept most people—most Christians don’t understand.
And because they don’t get it
the tools they use to fix things
don’t work.
My book Spiritual Self Defense picks up where The Gift of Transformation leaves off
and it explains this wall in your mind.
And it gives you many other tools.
For example, on page 64 I explain why the tactics most Christians use to fight sin
simply don’t work
because most people don’t understand what gives sin its power.
Once you get this, you’ll start to get traction against those life controlling issues
that we all wrestle with at some time or another.

The gospel is good news.
But for many years,
I had a very narrow understanding of the gospel.
I thought it was all about having my sins forgiven
and getting a free ticket to heaven.
I didn’t understand that the gospel
also fixes the damage done to us
when others sin against us.
I didn’t understand how healing and how transformational the gospel can be.
That’s why I wrote What It Means to Follow Jesus.

There’s a lot more in the book that I don’t have time to get into here, like:
What do you do when Christian leaders disappoint?
How do you get answers to life’s most difficult questions?
This book has been translated into Spanish,
and I’m told that it’s helping many Spanish-speaking people.

The resources page on DwightClough.com is filled with resources that can help you.
Some of those resources are free, most are inexpensive, a couple of them cost a little more.
Let me point out one item:
Scroll through the page, and you’ll find the Inner Wealth Archive
which gives you access dozens of videos,
a couple of courses,
books, posts, and other resources
all for under $100.

I want to help you, and I have lots of material that I think will help you.

Finally,
#7 Here’s something you can do right now…
As a first step,
I want to encourage you
to give yourself permission
to be honest with God.
Pour it all out.
If your feelings could talk, what would they say?
God already knows
but He needs you to give Him access to what’s going on inside.
So share your anger, your hurt, your fear, your shame, whatever—
all your feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Let Him know what’s going on inside.
And don’t do that just once,
but do it every day,
and then, every time you do, at the end,
just pause and ask Him,
“Is there anything You want me to know?”
And give Him space to respond
if He wants to.

This really helped me, and I believe it will help you.
In the process of pouring out all my hurt and frustration to God,
I discovered something.
God likes me.
He actually likes me.
He likes hanging out with me.
I never knew that before.
I knew God loved me.
I mean, He had to.
It was part of His job description.
He didn’t have a choice.
He was stuck loving me whether He wanted to or not.
But I never knew He liked me.
I was like, Wow!
It took me a whole year just to take that in.

Okay, anyway, the best thing you can do for your world
is let yourself be loved by God.
Bring God into your hurts, and let Him bring His soothing, comforting, healing, transformational presence into your life.

God wants to be experienced by you.
Open the door and let Him in.

Dwight

PS. If this has been helpful to you, please share it with others.

Hi

Could you do me a HUGE FAVOR?

Could you visit https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/end-the-divide-dwight-clough#review and upvote my latest book? Should be one click, nothing more.

If I get enough upvotes, my book gets placed in Reedsy’s newsletter which puts it in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of potential readers. (Maybe you could ask a few friends to upvote it as well.) 🙂

Thanks so much!!

Dwight

PS. If you want to go ABOVE AND BEYOND and leave a review on Amazon or Facebook, I’ll send you a copy of the book. Details are in this video: https://youtu.be/ELfeilCHZWs

About a week ago I was driving in heavy traffic along University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin when something caught my eye. A young man walking on the sidewalk appeared to stumble. He righted himself, took another step, and then faltered again. Traffic was pushing me forward, but as I drove by, I saw him sink to the ground.

I pulled into the next parking lot, ran back, found him sitting cross legged at the edge of a parking lot near a stone wall.

“Are you okay?”

His words came back in little chunks separated by long pauses. “I’m having trouble … breathing … I need … to call … my mom.”

I pulled out my phone. “I’m calling 911.”

The paramedics arrived; I was no longer needed, so I went on my way. But as I left, I got thinking to myself: If I hadn’t pulled over, would anybody have pulled over? A young man was sitting on the ground looking at his phone. Nothing unusual about that. He would have become part of the landscape.

I may have saved his life.

I don’t know of course. But maybe I did.

You never know when God is going to position you to save someone’s life. Not just medically, but in other ways.

I graduated from high school in 1975. Late that summer, just before I left for college, my youth pastor took me aside and said to me, “God is going to use you for something great someday.”

Wow. It only took a few seconds for him to say that, but those words came back to me many, many times throughout my life. I was homeless with a wife and a little baby. I was hungry. My business failed. I was forced into bankruptcy. So many times I felt like giving up, but I couldn’t give up.

Why?

Because God was going to use me for something great someday. I knew I had to keep going. Those words compelled me to persevere.

Likewise, you never know what lasting power your simple act of kindness may have in someone else’s life.

Dwight

PS. As an author, I depend on you to help spread the word on my books. If you like reading and if you’re open to leaving a review on Amazon or mentioning the book on Facebook or wherever, here’s a very short video introducing my latest book, End the Divide, and information about how you can get a free copy. https://youtu.be/ELfeilCHZWs