Those who know me (Bill Heffner) know I also love bowling and have done many things in my life to try and promote it in a positive light.
Well years ago myself and a friend of mine (Tom Relich) a police officer, owner and operator of a Bowling Pro Shop, decided to start a professional style bowling league in the suburbs of Detroit. The community in which we both lived and worked.
We wanted to showboat the excitement of head to head competition in a format that included bowling 6 games a night with bowlers rotating lanes and opponents after each game. Each bowler was required to get a sponsor, wear a shirt advertising who he represented and not drink or smoke during competition. We recruited 12 of the best bowlers in the area who could comply with these rules, got local media attention and local cable television to cover our top five step ladder finals at the end of the season. We were also able to pay $1,000 for first place and the league was a real success.
Now how can God use someone putting together a bowling league?
Well I did a lot of the leg work getting local merchants involved in sponsorship and I did run into a problem along the way with one of the bowlers who was black. This community was pre-dominantly white and I wasn’t sure which business would want to be represented by a black man. I am not prejudice, Tom was not prejudice and I know that neither is God. While on patrol I prayed about this and felt God’s leading to a particular business.
I went in and talked with the owner, told him about the bowling league myself and Tom Relich were putting together and asked if he would be interested in sponsoring one of the bowlers. (Now I didn’t tell him that he would be sponsoring our black member.) I also told him that the media would be present on our inaugural night and he would have the opportunity to meet his representative then.
Tom and I had everything in order for the kick off of our league, the local newspaper was there and all the sponsors and what a joy it was to see a plan come together.
Those who didn’t know their sponsors were introduced and all went well.
At the end of the night I was approached by the sponsor of our black member. This sponsor said, “you don’t remember me, do you?” (Right then God refreshed my memory of which I have a good one and I couldn’t believe that I had no recall of past contact with this sponsor at the time I asked him to get involved.) All the sponsor said was “thanks for everything and thanks for making me a part of this league.”
What I remembered was two years prior, I responded to a domestic problem. It was the home of this sponsor and he had just come home and caught his wife in bed with another man, a black man. He was out of control, had cut himself and had racial slurs written on the walls in blood. His wife and her lover had fled the house and he was obviously a danger to himself and others. I took him to the psychiatric intervention center where he was held and observed for 72 hours. While enroute to P.I.C. I explained to him that this black man does not represent all black men, he represents all sinners. You are justified with your anger, just don’t sin, God will heal your wounds as only He can, you and your family will be in my prayers.
God did heal his wounds and used me in a way beyond what I could ever have imagined. If I would have remembered who this sponsor was, I would have never approched him and asked him to be a part of this league. There is no doubt in my mind that God caused me to have no recollection, because the recall was instant according to His perfect time.
So if God can use me, He can use anybody, so Trust In The Lord and keep the faith for your best days are ahead of you.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 - In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
http://www.authorsden.com/williamfheffner
