God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
Psalm 68:6
In the last entry talking about God’s remarkable providence and His ability to do the unexpected in the lives of His people in order to keep them and protect them we looked at events in 1988-1989. With this next entry we consider 1976-1977 when I was still yet what today we call “a teenager.” Interesting thing about the word “teenager” is that is didn’t even exist before 1950. Sometime in the 1950s the word and idea was created in order to market to another niche of people with the purpose of capturing more of their disposable income.
Anyway, I had just turned 17 when, because of my own sullenness and rebelliousness I had managed to find myself without a living situation. I still had a year of high school to complete and even though I was promised by my Father that he would allow me to finish my last year at the school system I had been in my entire life that promise had been suddenly pulled. He eventually cast me out of his home because “I was a troubled adolescent.” I tried living with my Mother for while and even began my Senior year in that school system but I was not a happy camper in that new school environment and due to my own fault I had worn out my welcome in that context.
Instability was the theme of the day at that time. I had lived almost my whole first 16 years at one address in one home. From that time forward, over the course of the next year I bopped around living in eight different locations – most of them house trailers – usually, but not always, with one of my parents.
On a Sunday during October of 1976 we were back in Sturgis and I was attending the evening service. Most of my friends were in this church and being around them was a refuge. I wish I could say I was in Church because I was such a righteous and holy teenager but that would be a unrighteous lie.
I was supposed to meet my Mother after the evening service in order to go 2 hours north to her new living situation. However, the chap who worked with the youth group choir (we had a large one) decided that he needed to counsel me and strongly insisted that I come to his house after the service so he could counsel me. Even though I did not ask for any “counseling” he apparently was compelled to “help” me. I’m sure his intentions were good.
His house was just a short walk behind the Church and as my ride had not yet arrived I decided to yield to his insistence. I remember nothing of that counseling time except the odd white spittle that, for some reason, seemed to collect at the corner of his mouth while talking. I remember wondering, “how is that possible?” Remember, I said I was a rebellious and sullen kid.
Long story short …. I missed my ride. Folks were still milling around the church, once I had made the short walk back, and one family, noticing I was all dressed up with no place to go, offered to take me home that evening. That is where I stayed for several days but it was not a permanent solution as that young couple with young children were having their own marriage problems.
The ministers at the Church got more involved serving as liaisons with my folks. I have no idea what those discussions involved, but soon enough I found yet another family from the church I knew offering to let me live with them for my final year of High School. This was God’s remarkable providence. I was not an easy lad. Indeed, I was damaged goods. This family who took me in was young with a baby, a toddler and two young daughters. Yet, out of the largesse of kindness in their hearts and out of a sense of Christian responsibility John and Roseann took me in for my Senior of High school.
It was remarkable providence also because the court system at that time felt they had been cheated by not being involved in the decision making process as to where I was going to live. I remember a visit with the “Friend of the Court” at the new home I was now a member of (interestingly enough that home was right across the street from the county courthouse) and during that meeting the “Friend of the Court” said directly to me, “The court does not think that a 17 year old should be the one making the decision about where he should live.” It was not the first time I had engaged this surly “Friend of the Court,” and I curtly responded that “I was not aware that the court spent much time in the practice of thinking.” Anyway, it was God’s remarkable providence again that found the court leaving me alone for the next 12 months.
It was only years and years later that it registered with me what a remarkable providence all of this was. I desperately needed stability and stability meant being in the familiar context of church and school. I honestly do not think I would have graduated High School if the Davis family had not, in God’s remarkable providence, opened their home to me.
I was still a messed up kid. When the following September rolled around I was miles away from being ready for college – but I was more ready for that than I would have been if it was not for John & Roseann. I floundered terribly in my first two years of college (that’s another story for another time) but if not for God’s remarkable providence I would not have even made it to University at all.
When I look back and realize all that they had to sacrifice in order to take me in I am amazed by their generosity but I am even more amazed at God’s remarkable providence. What makes all this even more amazing is that today if a young family like the Davis family came to me and asked my counsel about taking in a troubled youth for his Senior year in High school for one year I know without a shadow of doubt, I would say, “Don’t do it.”
I am an older man now and as I look back I am astonished over and over again at all the occasions where God’s remarkable providence demonstrated itself in vibrant living colors.
