One of my best friends T.K. Wetherell received a touching letter from someone from his distant past, Jack Shinholser, a former football great that he played college ball with at FSU. Jack’s proudest achievement was being elected into FSU’s Football Hall of Fame in 2007. Surprisingly this macho football player, who was drafted by the Washington Redskins (injury shortened his career) and would strike terror in everyone’s heart who dared to line up against him, had been dabbling with writing poetry and sent T.K. a book of his poems. T.K. was undergoing chemo treatment and decided to modify one of the poems slightly to break the monotony and it now reads as follows:
REDEEMED BY GRACE
Out of my irresponsible thoughts comes
the mire of my daily struggle;
Out of my arrogant mouth comes
the acknowledgement of my limitations;
Out of my inconsiderate acts comes
my humiliation;
Out of my belief in JESUS CHRIST MY SAVIOR comes
my forgiveness;
Out of my SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST comes
my place in God’s House for Eternity.
T.K. sent it to Jack in its modified format and received the following communication back:
“TK, I’m very glad you liked the book. I put my heart and soul into it, and several of the pieces probably took your mind off some of the discomfort and pain of the treatment, for better or worse. Many of the thoughts that dominated my writing, and your insertion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the poem, Redeemed By Grace, reflects my 26 years in AA where all allusions to a person’s “higher power”, if they chose their “higher power” to be God, and not some inanimate object or the group as a whole, was always referred to as God and never Jesus, not that they couldn’t have used Jesus if they had been of a mind to. The conventional wisdom in AA seems to be that to speak to God is spiritual whereas using Jesus’s name is less objective. I think, especially in the beginning that a person has more freedom to understand their “higher power ” connection, and there is not a multiplicity of denominations to deal with, or something like that, not an easy subject to deal with in this short space.
For the last several weeks Jesus has been prodding me, first slowly, but of late, big jabs. I mean He was in the middle of everything I was trying to do. My wife would watch me go from one screw up to another. Things happening that I couldn’t figure out what was going on, like having a poltergeist knocking over everything. My wife kept saying “You know that’s the Lord telling you you’re doing the wrong thing”. I wouldn’t listen until I was about to pop my cork. Then I stopped and really took a look.
I saw it. I just needed some help. Now I have a confession to make to you. I thought of you retired, relaxed just enjoying your wonderful retirement, and I thought: if TK would he could give me the information and direction I need to make my little enterprise fly. That’s when I sent You a message. That’s when I found out how wrong I was about my estimation of your life, and I was so shocked, but It immediately opened my eyes, like a big slap in the face. I saw quickly how all these years of beseeching God to save my own butt I had forgot that Jesus loved each of us so much that he died for us nailed to a cross.
I then saw how He was shaking me to wake up, that he needed me. He made me see that I might be so spiritual, but he and an army of others were out spreading the Word. So, after watching yours’ and Bob Williamson’s testimony I was really waking up, and I’ve started talking to people about Jesus. Like Jesus says in Matthew, “anyone who will acknowledge me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father In heaven”.
Monday morning I woke up and all the prodding from Jesus had been translated in my head and I felt sure of what I needed to do. That day I started spreading the word, and I decided to give the business a rest for now. I have what I need today, and Jesus and I will take that up when it’s time, if it’s a week or a month or six months from now.”
One of the things we are trying to accomplish in the Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministries is to convince people to tell others what Jesus Christ has done in their life. And I’m not talking about some obscure higher authority; I’m talking about Jesus Christ the Son of God who died on a cross for our sins.
Since TK spoke in the church and his testimony has been posted on the website, he gets numerous letters each week thanking him. It was obvious that he touched many lives the day he spoke and it is obvious that he is still touching lives far and wide. Further he is influencing others to pick up the sword and join us in combat.
Remember our testimony belongs to God and not to us. We should proudly tell others what God has done in our lives . . . If you aren’t telling others how God saved you, then I can think of no better time to begin than today . . .
Mark 5:19
“Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”