My Mamaw. Hero of the Faith.

I could start this quote from Hebrews 11 from the beginning of the chapter, but I’ll link it here so you go back and read it if you like.  For space sake, I’ll start in verse 13 and go through 16:

¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

My Mamaw died before she saw me come to faith in Christ, but I know she knows even as she celebrates with God.  Here is just a part of my story…

I was just a kid living in rural Oregon.  We lived about 4 miles outside of the little town of Canby, which lies on the Mollala and Willamette rivers about 22 miles south of Portland.  We were not a church going family but we had a good life on our 2 acres there in the Great Pacific Northwest.

When I was about 9 years old, Mamaw came to visit from Mississippi.  Mamaw was Southern Baptist and the sweetest woman you would ever want to meet.  Even sweeter than her famous caramel cake!  My heart was always so full of love for her, probably because her heart was always so full of love for me, and all of her grandchildren.

Sunday came and we all got dressed up for church.  Mamaw and all of us headed into town to the First Conservative Baptist Church of Canby.  I still remember parts of the service.  Mostly the warm feeling I had there.  After Mamaw went back to Mississippi, I decided that I wanted to keep going to church there.  They had a bus that went around picking kids up and so I started riding the bus.  It’s possible that I may have ridden with the next door neighbors some weeks, but I’m not sure.

I really enjoyed Sunday school and I remember the Sunday school teacher showing me a scripture that talked about springs in the ocean and how scientists were only starting to discover that that was true.  I loved science even as a little kid.  I realized that if the Bible was right about science it was probably right about a lot of other things… like Jesus!  I prayed to receive Jesus into my heart.

I remember that as I prayed, in my minds eye I saw light bursting from my heart.  I felt like a scoop scooping out the gunk.  I felt such joy!  It was wonderful!

However, over time, I stopped going to church.  I was the only one in the family going and I guess I just sorta stopped.  I can’t remember why or if there was really a reason.

Fast forward a few years to my 12th birthday (I think it was my 12th birthday).  I remember Mamaw got me the lamest gift.  It was an album of “Songs from Calvary” or something like that.  So lame.  I remember putting it on the top shelf in my closet never to be seen again.  (I wish I had it now.  Not for the music so much, but for what that present represents.)

Fast forward to my teenage and young adult years.  I don’t want to get into great detail, but slowly my life was spiraling downward.  I quit football my Junior year so I could party more with my friends.  I got kicked off the track team my Junior year for skipping school.  I was the first (and probably still only) Student Body President at Canby High School to resign, again, for skipping school.  A promising student and student leader, I dropped out of school my senior year and took my GED.  I was drinking, smoking pot, and partaking in other drugs.  I guess I was trying to escape and at the same time I was killing myself.

I eventually got my life together somewhat and moved to Roswell, NM to start my career in broadcasting.  By the time Mamaw died, I was a weatherman on the local news.  She was always so proud of me.  I remember how sad she was after Papaw died.  Mamaw and I could always talk about such things.  I remember asking her on the phone one time what it was like getting old.  After she said, “Bless your heart,” she told me that it’s like your mind wants to do something, but your body can’t anymore.  I am realizing more and more that she was right :-)

So yes, Mamaw died.  I drove to Mississippi from Roswell for the funeral.  There are many things I remember from that visit, but for time sake I’ll just mention that during the funeral they played her favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

So about 7 years later, I was living and working in Lubbock, Texas.  I was divorced.  My son and daughter lived 350 miles away near Dallas.  I was still drinking a LOT and other things were going on in my life, (someday I’ll share the entire story) but God was drawing me back to Him.  I remember driving to Dallas scanning the radio during that 5 hour trip and listening to part of a sermon and actually being interested in it.  God had placed some godly people in my life, including my now good friend Don Webster who managed a Christian radio station in Lubbock.  God also brought a wonderful (and beautiful) woman into my life.  She was having some medical problems and I was concerned for her.  Then I did something that I hadn’t done since I was a little kid.  I said a sincere prayer.

It was probably the fall of 1999.  I was all alone in my house.  It around 10:30 or 11 at night.  As I prayed, God gave me that same feeling in my heart that He gave me when I first prayed to accept Him into my heart all those years ago.  Joy was bursting from my heart!  but this time it didn’t stop!  Soon I was laughing and I knew.  Jesus IS real!  He IS the answer to all of the questions ever asked.  I was a Christian again (still?)!

So I asked my friend a day or two later, “what do I do now.”
She said, “You go to church!”  Then she said something very interesting.  “God’s gonna wow you.”
“What?” I asked.
“God’s gonna wow you,” she repeated.

I had no idea what she was talking about.

The next Sunday I put on my suit and went over to Trinity Church.  It was only a mile or so from my house and of course it was packed.  I sat up in the balcony and actually saw a couple of people I knew.  I felt very welcome.

Then it happened.  At the end of the service they had us all stand for one more song.  Yes, it was “Amazing Grace.”  I started singing and I closed my eyes and it hit me.  It was Mamaw’s prayers that were being answered that day!  I knew in my heart that she had never given up in her prayers for her precious grandson.  The tears were streaming down my checks and I just said to God, “Tell her I said thank you.”

He told me, “She knows.”

More tears.  My heart full of joy.

I got baptized that Summer at Trinity Church.  I started volunteering at that Christian radio station with my new friend Don and my life has been so different in so many ways ever since.  Of course those are stories for other blog entries.

Back to Hebrews 11:12.  Mamaw’s had Faith.  Even though she died before her prayers concerning me were answered, she didn’t give up.

Mamaw is one of my heroes of the faith!  You probably have some of your own, whether you know it or not.

And while I don’t want to leave this Earth before I accomplish whatever it is that God has me to accomplish, I am so looking forward to hugging Mamaw’s neck as we celebrate in God’s presence together forever!