Saved & Sanctified

To acknowledge God’s hand of direction and goodness goes beyond the scope of our own individual lives. When I think of what God has done for me in my own life, it actually begins with the lives of my parents. My dad, as a 12-year-old boy, realized what it meant to be a sinner and asked God to forgive him of his wrong doing and to be the ever faithful Guide of his life. As my dad grew to be 6’10” tall, he also grew in the Lord.

To say my dad loved sports is an understatement. Because of his height, his left-handedness, and his athletic ability, he accomplished feats even at the college level that rivaled guys that went on to play NBA Basketball. In 2017, the Battle Creek Enquirer still listed “Sticks” Bolton as the No. 2 player in Lakeview basketball. He still held several records after all those years. When I look at where fame and fortune takes not only the sports icon but those closely related to them, I am very thankful that sports wasn’t the most important thing in my dad’s life. He loved his Lord and Savior.

My mom was encouraged to attend church as a young girl and did so through high school. She knew what it meant to be a good wholesome person, and her salvation was not even questioned since she was so sincere, but it was not until after my parents were married and sitting under evangelistic services in their church that the pieces came together for her and she realized it needed to be something personal.

My parents, by the time I was old enough to remember, were always in church when the doors were open. This allowed me to sit faithfully under a Sunday school teacher that taught the Bible. When she started teaching on what sin was, I was old enough to know I was a sinner, and it bothered me. So much so, that I bothered my mom on a Sunday afternoon when I was supposed to be napping. You know those thoughts that won’t leave you alone until you do something about them? I am so glad my mom did not put me off but got up from where she was resting to kneel with me by my bed as I asked God to forgive my sins and be my Savior. I am glad that so many years ago she realized the importance of accepting God’s gift of salvation being something we have to each accept personally. It had to be personal for me.

Trust me, once you have asked God to forgive your sins and asked Him to be your source of direction for life, you do not ever or automatically become perfect. There are so many times even in my young life that I saw God’s gracious and merciful hand pointing out sin and giving directions.

The summer I was in sixth grade, we attended a basketball camp in Tennessee where my dad helped coach and instruct for a few weeks. Sitting under the preaching time at camp, the Lord impressed on me to surrender my life to serve Him no matter what it looked like and no matter where it took me. So I did. As a teenager, I felt a desire to really grow in the Lord- a real thirst- but I struggled with consistency in my devotions and prayer life, and that was no end of frustration to me. Ever been there? I started to beg the Lord to give me something that would teach me the character I needed to be consistent and faithful. He did.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes the middle of my senior year of high school. It took a while to adjust to all the changes of this new adventure-opportunity, but down the road—after there had been enough time to look back and evaluate—it seemed like God had answered my prayer—not in a way that I would have thought or even asked, for I could see His fingerprints all through the story He was writing for my life.

I was diagnosed in the days before the computerized insulin pumps and instant sugar readouts. This was the days of drawing your own insulin into a syringe and giving yourself shots several times a day, eating regularly scheduled meals, and testing blood sugars more than multiple times a day. Gone were the days of random schedules. Hello to the days of a scheduled life—or as scheduled as one could be!

When I look back at that time in my life, it is hard to miss God at work. My doctor refused to check me into the hospital since they still used pork/beef insulin, and instead gave me shots as we dropped by her office before and after school on our way to and from home, until I learned to give myself my own shots. The nutritionist-dietician lived right next door to me. Imagine that! I walked next door after school, and she taught me how to eat the right kind of foods for my new diet, and we practiced giving injections into an orange. The nutritionist-dietician had lived in her house for years before we ever moved to town, but God had her there for when He needed her in my life.

I have had diabetes for years now and God’s hand has not shortened in taking care of me. The road has not always been easy, but He is always there. I am very thankful that this God of details is the Sovereign God that has a purpose for me and has directed my steps from my salvation until now.

Many times when I read in the book of Psalms, I am reminded that God is my Guide (25:4-5, 48:14,139:23-24), my Protector (18:1-2, 139), and the One that graciously gives blessings (Ephesians 1). Sometimes I forget to look up or cry out to Him. British preacher and author Alan Redpath put it this way:

“There is nothing—no circumstance, no trouble, no testing—that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret—for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is! That is the rest of victory!”

The God that placed the 100 billion stars in the universe and keeps them floating exactly right, the God that knows the number of hairs on my head—and I am only one of eight billion!—the God that loves me so much He cares to direct my life and give me what is best for me and then carries me when I feel it is too much for me to bear—how can I not trust a God like that, not only for my salvation, but for my daily direction and for all eternity?