One of the things that our family has really enjoyed the past few weeks is the Obi-Wan Kenobi series that has been on Disney+. From the casting, to the special effects, to the great writing, this series has been super enjoyable. Now that I’m getting older, Obi-Wan has been one of my favorite characters.
Hypothetically, if Obi-wan had traveled with us on this Saints trip, he probably would have said things like:
“If his ship is as fast as his boasting, we ought to do well”.
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
“I have the high ground!”
And my personal favorite, “Hello there!”
But, there is one line he would have re-used for sure during our trip to Westville CF.
“In my experience, there is no such thing as luck.”
The thing is, we weren’t supposed to be going to Westville CF. In fact, for a day or so, it didn’t look like we would be going anywhere because the prison that we originally had scheduled had to cancel on very short notice. Our Executive Director quickly worked the phones and was able to get Westville to fill our Thursday slot in the schedule. This isn’t easy to do but props to our director for persevering and finding us a place to go.
We might be tempted to say that it was just dumb luck that another prison would take us in on short notice like that but as believers we know better and we know that God is behind every detail of His creation. It is cool how God works through His sovereignty and is in control of each detail of a Saints trip.
Theologian and writer, Wayne Grudem (not to be confused with Obi-wan Kenobi!), defines sovereignty in his Systematic Theology book as: “God’s exercise of power over his creation”.
Grudem continues in chapter 16 of his book:
There Is No Such Thing as “Luck” or “Chance.” All things come to pass by God’s wise providence. This means that we should adopt a much more “personal” understanding of the universe and the events in it. The universe is not governed by impersonal fate or luck, but by a personal God. Nothing “just happens” — we should see God’s hand in events throughout the day, causing all things to work together for good for those who love him. This confidence in God’s wise providence certainly does not equal superstition, for that is a belief in impersonal or demonic control of circumstances, or control by a capricious deity concerned for meaningless ritual rather than obedience and faith. A deepened appreciation for the doctrine of providence will not make us more superstitious; it will make us trust in God more and obey him more fully.
Usually I share numbers at the end of my posts, but we were able to minister to 27 men at Westville and we saw 4 of those men indicate that they made decisions to follow the Lord. God worked through a cancellation and all of the details to book Westville CF on short notice to draw those 4 guys to Himself. We serve an incredible sovereign God!
The day started well. One nice thing about this trip was that we didn’t have any crazy early mornings. We were able to eat breakfast at the hotel and then depart each day at a reasonable 7 am. This was the longest drive of the trip but it was nice to be able to talk to our teammates about prison ministry, life, and how we serve in our churches.
We arrived at the prison and we had an hour wait in the prison gym before our first game started. We played three total games and we won each of them fairly easily. In between games, Jon Isbell shared his testimony about how God has worked in life. Jon is on our Illinois team and I appreciate his heart for the ministry and his willingness to serve. After Jon was done, Andy Solomon shared the Gospel. Andy started in the ministry about the same time I did and he is one of my favorite Saints to hang out with but it is great to see him minister in prison.
After we left the prison, we stopped for a late lunch and then traveled back to the hotel. Once we got cleaned up we met for devotions. I had the privilege of leading devotions on the trip and the topic I picked was “God’s kind of Servant”. The first devotion was on what God looks for in a servant. We spent most of our time in 1 Timothy 3. These are the qualifications for pastors and deacons. We looked at the qualifications and that the common theme was that most everything that God is looking for in a servant has something to do with character. While the passage was speaking about pastors and deacons, we could all relate to it because these are all qualities that we should have as mature Christians.
After devotions, we enjoyed a delightful dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. The highlight of the meal was seeing our rookie, Luke Freeze, serenaded by the restaurant staff with a chorus of Happy Birthday. Of course Luke’s birthday isn’t until September but the Saints tradition of celebrating birthdays is still alive and strong!
Luke most certainly wasn’t expecting to be celebrating his birthday and we most certainly weren’t thinking about Westville CF but it was a joy to experience both!
