(The WHY Behind) The Night I was Rescued by a Real-life... BLACK PANTHER
”JESUS, thank YOU for ALWAYS being there for each one of us!”
There’s a line in one of our original songs entitled "Take My Life" that sums up the true story you are about to read. The line goes like this, "Looking back on time, I can plainly see, all of the things You had done for me... even though I was walking so far away from You." How about you? Looking back over your life, how many times has The Holy Trinity swooped in and rescued, or redeemed, you from potentially terrible situations, even though you may have been walking so far away from Jesus Christ at the time?
If you recall the beginning of our story, written in last month's blog post also in our mail-out to our subscribers, Keith reflects on the deeper purposes behind a series of hardships he faced during his time at Ferrum College. Years later, through The Holy Spirit’s help, Keith realized these events were spiritual tests designed to strengthen and increase his character and faith, in God. Continuing now, to additionally encourage friends and acquaintances to reflect on and recognize God’s redemptive power and faithfulness in their own lives, Keith tells of the escalated attacks and deliberate attempts to tarnish his reputation that collided with a spiritual awakening—all connected to “the why” behind what happened when teammate Rufus Murphy saved Keith when he unexpectedly needed “Rescued by a Real-life Super Hero (click here to read PART ONE)”.
Trying to put together what had happened so unexpectedly, on an otherwise normal weekday evening as I was leaving my girlfriend’s dorm just before curfew, I was baffled. Immediately after the incident had taken place, my mind became flooded with questions, the first being, "Why would two fully-grown men in their mid-thirties, whom neither Rufus nor I had seen on campus before that night, want to attack me? And, as both Rufus and I wondered, was the attack something that someone had pre-planned?" Though puzzling, the answers would slowly begin to reveal themselves over the next few weeks, as I would find myself on the receiving end of further unprovoked attacks.
Now, I was so filled with gratitude for “the divine timing and presence” of my friend and teammate Rufus Murphy because, if not for his showing up to intercept such a threat against me, and in the nick of time, it could have been really bad for me! All I could think of was how bad things turned out to be for my attackers. Themes of faith and redemption would soon become tied to the serene yet symbolic scene. Even now, looking back on it all, I can tell you that, just as my eyes slowly adjusted so I could see “what was happening” in the dark that night, my spiritual eyes began opening so “the why” BEHIND “what had happened" would come into view in the weeks to come.
About three weeks after the foiled attack in the dark of night, a group of us were walking back to the locker room after finishing on the football practice field when, all of a sudden, one of my teammates came running from behind me, at a full sprint, where none of the coaches could see what was happening. He speared me with his helmet in the middle of my back, then raced ahead to the locker room before I could even begin to get back up from the ground. I couldn’t believe what just happened but, as much as I wanted to retaliate, and as angry as my teammates were in telling me I had every right to go after the guy for doing this, I didn’t want to risk being called to the coaches’ offices for fighting, especially with one of my teammates! At this point, yet again, I was confronted with the question, “Why would that happen?” I would never put my own reputation at risk, or risk the reputation of my team, for anything, especially some stupid fight I can choose to avoid by walking away, which I did.
I worked extremely hard to make it through all of the cuts, competing hard for a position on the Ferrum College Football roster, to become a full-time student-athlete, and it was extremely difficult. Even before try-outs that year, I had set in my mind that I would press through anything, no matter how difficult, because I so wanted to play football under the stellar, legendary, Head Coach Hank Norton... also widely known for being an almost Gestapo-type disciplinarian. Fast forward to this point of both the night-time attack and the "spearing" incident, I was more willing to take painful assaults from a teammate with apparent emotional problems than to retaliate and get what would assuredly be Coach Norton’s immediate dismissal from the team. And, at this point, I would have to put those incidents behind me, and keep pressing on, putting my best foot forward.
As bad and unfair as things were that I went through, they would prove to be priceless to me at the end of my stealthy search for answers for why these things were happening to me. I could not let the attacks consume me. I kept my primary focus on my class studies, football practices, travel games, study halls, and regular everyday life I was experiencing at that time. I kept doing all that I could, keeping my ear to the tracks and my eyes open for clues, especially during football practices.
One of my biggest breaks came when a trusted teammate approached me in the locker room after practice one afternoon. This teammate said, “Keith, keep your eyes open because I overheard ‘a defensive back’ and the team’s senior physical trainer talking about you. For some reason, those guys have it in for you.”
It was less than a week after my teammate’s warning, on a Sunday morning, that my roommate (who was a team linebacker) and I woke up to find that someone had poured a 50-gallon barrel full of water under our dorm room door. We suddenly had a solid inch of water across the entire floor of our room. So, when I got out of bed and put my feet on the flooded floor without looking, being that it was a cold November morning in the mountains of Virginia, I found myself standing in water that was extremely cold! And, just as I did following each of the other incidents, I visited my student advisor’s office to fill her in on it as well. It just so happened that her husband was a part of the football team's coaching staff.
The fourth and final attempt at damaging my character came as we finished playing our last game of the season, when I was falsely accused of stealing my home football jersey. I was told that the accusation came against me from those same two guys that my trusted teammate alerted me to just weeks earlier. I was left with the most horrible feeling I had ever felt in my life up to that point.
Why did this attack against me hit me so hard? Even though it was my jersey to wear for our home games, it was not mine to keep. Like the helmets and shoulder pads we were issued, the jersey was the property of the College's Athletic Department. Therefore the theft of the jersey would be an offense committed against the school. Far worse, however, was the deliberate attempt by two of my own teammates to kill, steal, and destroy the good reputation that I had worked for years to achieve.
Though I was not mature enough concerning spiritual matters at the time, in the coming years The Holy Spirit would reveal to me that this season of attacks on my character took place just after my precious grandmother had sent me my first Bible. Not only that but, enclosed in the Bible was Grandmother’s hand-written letter telling me about a vision that she had received. She saw me preaching God's Word to large crowds. Wow! I was surprised and excited to read her letter and vision I held on to from then on. It took years of growing in Jesus Christ before I realized that this fourth incident at Ferrum was perhaps my first substantial spiritual attack, one where unclean spirits of false accusation came to try and steal the Word of God that my grandmother had spoken over my life.
Here is where the story behind my being falsely accused of stealing my home jersey becomes most important. On the day after our final game of the year, all of us on the team reported to the campus training facility, cleaned out our lockers and turned in all of our gear. The next day I was called on to report to Coach Norton's office. When I got there, I was told that a member of the team had reported that he saw me steal my home jersey. I felt as if a horse just came out of nowhere and kicked me in the stomach. I explained to the coaching staff that I returned my jersey to the team trainers, along with all of the rest of my equipment. I was there for about an hour before the coaching staff let me go.
I will never forget the heaviness and frustration that consumed me for weeks afterward! Of course I knew I did not keep the jersey that was not mine to keep, but I could see the coaching staff questioning my innocence, or at least I felt that way. All I could think about during the whole event was how, suddenly, everything was changed with one big lie! Everything that I had worked for, everything I did to respect and win the favor of my coaches, especially Head Coach Hank Norton who I greatly admired, I was losing it all because of one big lie.
I remember quietly making my way around the team, asking certain teammates if they heard anything, or saw any sign, of my missing jersey. A few days later, our defensive team captain came to me and told me that he just got word about who had my jersey, and that he had taken it because he was angry at me. I asked who it was and what he was angry at me about. It turned out to involve a very attractive young lady I had been spending time with during the semester, an issue I had no idea was an issue at all. You see, I was about to learn about a crush one of our team members had on my girlfriend... an extreme crush. This would turn out to be a problem that would become difficult!
Why did things have to get so difficult? The jealous teammate and the team’s senior physical trainer had become best friends early in the season. According to our entire coaching staff, the trainers for our team were off limits to the players, much like diplomats visiting America from foreign countries are off limits; They get complete immunity from all of the members on the team. None of the football players could touch them, physically or with any kind of accusations or observations of any kind. Everyone was award of the strict rules and the guarantee that rule-breakers got immediate dismissal from the team or, at the least, harsh penalties. As my mom would have said, "The two guys had me over a barrel and they knew it.” In fact, they had been hoping all along, and still hoped at the end of the season, that a lack of self-control would lead me to retaliate for their attacks!
I would like to be able to tell you that the matter was resolved diplomatically and in short order but, sadly, it was not. The teammate and senior trainer had conspired to get me removed from the team by destroying my good name and reputation, even hiring the two guys to attack me the first time at night, dumping 50 gallons of water under the door into my room, spearing me in the back after a practice, and, finally, stealing my home jersey I turned in to them. Neither one of them were about to come forward, and there was no way that I was going to file a complaint- which I later discovered was exactly what they were working so hard to get me to do. I simply washed my hands of it all and continued on my way. I had to convince myself and several of my teammates that we had to resist all temptation to do otherwise.
Do you see how much damage one false accusation can cause? In my case, it could have cost me my hard-earned reputation as a football player and my place on the college team, both of which were tremendously important to me and took some of the most difficult work I have ever done to earn. Playing at Ferrum at that time, training under such a remarkable mentor, father-figure, and best-ever Coach Hank Norton was a dream come true and a life-changing season for me.
You might enjoy knowing that, a few years later, I was on tour with a band that was scheduled to perform in the city of Roanoke, Virginia, about fifty miles from my college campus. One morning while we were in town, a band mate and I drove out to the campus at Ferrum. We just walked around the football stadium and visited the awards room. Before we left the campus that day, I thought about heading to see if, by some long shot, head coach Hank Norton might be at his home.
I decided to drive up to Coach Norton’s house, knocked on the door, and, much to my surprise, he came to answer it. When he saw me, he smiled and invited me in, and we must have talked for over an hour about all of the things that happened the year we won our division's national championship. It was a season that I’m sure none of us will ever forget.
Just before I was about to leave, I asked Coach, "You do know that I did not take that home-game jersey, don't you?" He replied, "Shealy, I knew your heart, son, and I knew you could never have taken the jersey, or any thing.” I had such a peace and relief hearing him say that. Then he smiled real big and said, “Besides that, you earned something that no amount of money in the world could buy, and something no man can ever take away from you; You walked away as a National Champion of Ferrum and you walked away with a Championship ring with your name on it!"
As I stood up and made my way to the door, Coach Norton reached out and gave me a big hug. Then he said, "You know, you still have another year of eligibility left." At that, I smiled real big, hugged his tree-stump-of-a-neck again, went out to my car, and drove off.
The ride back to our band’s hotel that day was perhaps the lightest I had felt in years. I had finally felt a release from the weighty chains of having been misrepresented and falsely accused in the eyes of the one person that I loved and respected the most, the one person that was most like a dad at that time in my life, the legendary Coach Hank Norton.
Yet again, as the lyrics explain in our song, it's nothing short of miraculous to see all of the ways God is able to display Jesus Christ's redemption in our lives, personally... "Looking back on time, I can plainly see, all of the things You had done for me... even though I was walking so far away from You."
All of us in the Toward The Mark Family pray that this testimony serves to encourage you to take inventory of your life, to call on The Holy Spirit, and to, the two of you, look back in a review of all of the things that God has done for you... even though you may have not been walking very close with Jesus Christ.
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If you have yet to invite Jesus Christ into your heart to be your Lord and Savior, or if you have allowed something or someone to come between you and God, now is your time to get right with God. Right there where you are, pray this prayer to God, then REST-ASSURED and watch what God does...
"Dear Father God, in the precious Name of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and The LORD of all lords, I lay my life at Your Feet. I come before You, confessing that I am a sinner, and I ask for You to forgive me of all my sins - those that I know I have committed, as well as those that I am not even aware of. I ask that You come into my heart and be my Lord. I lay my life, and everything in it, at Your Feet, and ask that You please take me and begin to change me to be like YOU. I ask that You redeem the time that has passed, and allow me the opportunity to become exactly what You have predestined me to be, from before the foundation of the earth. I commit my life to You now, and thank You for receiving me as Your own. In the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, I pray, Amen." And AMEN (So be it)!
WELCOME HOME!
If you have just prayed this prayer, we want to congratulate you for making the greatest decision that you'll ever make! By accepting Jesus Christ, or rededicating your life to Him, as your personal Lord and Savior, you have begun the wonder-full process of being grafted into the family of God, and we welcome you "Home" to God's Family. We would also like to invite you to contact us so that we can send you information that will help you begin growing in your relationship and daily walk with God. We would encourage you to begin attending a Holy-Spirit-filled, full-Bible focused church right away.
We advise you to begin reading The Holy Bible daily, whether you understand it or not. Always remember, God's written Word in The Holy Bible is LIKE NO OTHER BOOK that has ever been written! When we rendezvous with The Person of The Holy Spirit as we read what God has written there, it becomes stored in our heart for The Holy Spirit to access it to bring to our remembrance. You will find that the Scriptures will become applicable to whatever you are going through, at any given time!
There are wonderful Bible teachers that can, especially early in your walk with God, help you to receive good teaching and encouragement right away. Though informative, those Bible-teaching programs are never to be a substitute for close relationships with people who love and serve God. At times, the transformation process that you have now begun will be difficult, and you will be tempted to go back to your old ways of living your old life. It will be during times like these that hanging out with strong Christian friends and mentors will be crucially important. There really IS strength in numbers! (Selah)
And remember... growing in Christ-likeness requires us to keep purity of focus, and remain steadfast, immovable, and uncompromising in the faith of Jesus Christ... and, now more than ever, no matter what, Keep PRESSIN' IN! You might consider using our book OVERCOMING INTIMIDATION, the special life-changing keys to defeating hindrances that have kept many of God's servants from walking with the confidence and authority that Jesus Christ died to provide for us! Ten chapters include:
To help you further your fight to victory through the battles that confront every one of us in these turbulent times we live in, get your copy of our book, "OVERCOMING INTIMIDATION." In this 10-chapter book of keys for overcoming fear and intimidation, Keith lays out practical ways by which you can emerge victorious in your pursuit of fulfilling your calling and opportunities God intended for you. Accomplish your God-given dreams and become triumphant over seemingly impossible hindrances keeping you from reaching God's full potential for your life, in God!
"OVERCOMING INTIMIDATION"
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To Show GOD BIG in the eyes of those who see Him small…
sums up the reason Keith stepped out in faith to focus on reaching the lost and strengthening believers everywhere, through Toward The Mark, Inc. Keith and Brenda's prayer is that you will be encouraged and edified by the Secrets from God's Word that Keith recounts in our written and recorded products.
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