*This is the eighth installment in a series of articles that are designed to help unpack the practical implications of the We Have a Dream declaration that has been entrusted to us as a family of Friends here in Mid-America. Using Acts 2:17 as a holy compass, We Have a Dream seeks to discern and describe the specific directions that God is currently calling the people of EFC-MAYM to take so that the “dream of the gospel is lived out … in our local churches, in the communities where our churches serve, and in the family of churches called Evangelical Friends Church-Mid America Yearly Meeting.”
The final score was embarrassing. The stat line was pitiful. It was yet another lop-sided defeat at the hands of a beatable foe. It felt like the 1979-80 high school basketball season would never end, and we were only half way through the schedule.
No loss is easy to swallow, but I was taking this one particularly hard. I felt personally responsible. I was supposed to be the game changer, after all. I was the big city kid who had transferred to this little town on the prairie, supposedly bringing with me a peach basket full of street smarts, smooth moves and other enviable skills that would magically transport my adopted team to a new level of athletic glory. At least that was what I told myself. Now I was sitting in the passenger seat of my dad’s ‘79 Olds Cutlass, riding home from yet another devastating loss in complete despair.
It was going to be a very long drive.
After enduring several miles of awkward silence, my dad’s voice finally broke the stalemate:
“Do you want to quit?”
It sounded like a purely rhetorical question at that point. Of course I wanted to quit. A couple of other players had already done so, and it was hard to find a good reason not to join them. But there was no way I was going to attempt to offer a verbal response to the question. I was so upset that I knew if I tried to talk I would probably just burst into tears, adding even more insult to injury.
Again, it was my dad’s voice that gently waded into the void:
“Well, David, I just want you to know that whether you quit or not, your mom and I will always love you the same.”
More powerful and life-giving words have never been spoken. In one of my weakest moments, a moment ripe with potential for judgment and condemnation, I was the beneficiary of pure, undiluted grace. And in the blink of an eye, I was suddenly jolted out of my suffocating self-pity.
I was loved.
I always had been, and I always would be. And this was based not in my fleeting performance, but in an enduring relationship with one who knew me, warts and all, and loved me anyway. I had nothing to fear, nothing to prove, and nothing to lose. To borrow from Brennan Manning, I found myself “dazed, dumbstruck … and suddenly seized by the power of a great affection.”
I don’t remember anything about the conversation after that. As far as I know, neither one of us spoke another word on the drive home that night. All I can tell you is this:
My father’s unconditional love empowered me to persevere.
I not only finished out the season, but according to those who knew me at the time, I was enabled to do so with an unusual level of Christ-like courage and compassion. Much to my surprise, some 20 years later I received an email from one of my former teammates telling me that he had decided to follow Jesus based primarily upon the power of Christ that he witnessed at work in my life during our time together on and off the court that year as high school seniors. To God be the glory!
I tell you all of this for one reason, and one reason only. To testify to the transformational power of God’s passionate, relentless, unconditional love, and to urge you to join me in relentless pursuit of the good and beautiful dream that has been entrusted to each one of us by the Lover of our souls:
We have a dream that all of the small churches in EFC-MAYM felt truly loved, that big churches felt loved, that medium churches felt loved … what if every church knew their significance … what if we served the world around us with no concern about our growth, our reputation, or our benefit, accepting whatever fruit God gives us? (cf. John 13:35; 1 John 4:12)
When taken seriously, a dream like this has the potential to serve as the ultimate game changer.
– David O. Williams, General Superintendent
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