A BeLoved Story about Delaney and her dad: Part Two
(Part One apeared on this site on May 7, feel free to click this link now to read Part One)
…I prayed again and asked God, “While awareness about T-18 is great, I feel like there’s something missing, as if you want me to do something with all this awareness. Please come to me in a dream or send someone in your stead to deliver a message.” I’ve always heard of witnesses claiming He came to them in a dream, so I figured why not ask? The least He could do was say no. That very night, I would receive my answer in the form of a dream… so vivid that it could easily have been mistaken for real life.
I was walking down a corridor and when it came into view, I was in a market bizarre. Vendors were selling and customers were everywhere. Yet, the customers wandered with no attention to the pitches of the vendor’s items for sale. They wandered as if they were lost. I was the only one amongst them who seemed to know where I was going. I stopped by a table where the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen stood. She had fiery, curly, auburn red hair and she almost seemed to glow and she was so happy with a radiant smile. I picked up a pair of gloves of what I think were football receiver gloves from her table (the type of gloves when you put your hands together and they form a picture in your palms) and these gloves formed the American flag when joined together. I asked her, “How much are these?” She replied, “It doesn’t matter how much they are because America is cheapening by the day.” Puzzled by her response, I looked back down at the gloves and watched them burst into flames in my hands and burn to ash.
A dream, as you know, plays out like a movie or soap opera, bouncing around from scene to scene. This woman seemed to break the loop and lunged forward and grabbed me by the wrists, looked me square in the eyes with such compassion and spoke with such urgency and said, “Tell my people that time is almost up. Time is at its very near end.” She then let go as fast as she lunged and went back to what she was doing as if it had never happened. She then invited me to sit with her. We began to talk of God. She confessed to me she didn’t believe in God and had no reason to believe a living God existed. I listened with intent and then shared the story I’ve just shared with you. Suddenly I realized it was all a dream and felt myself slipping awake and back into reality. I was drifting away from her as I said, “Go unto Jesus.” My last sight of her was her lifting her hands to the sky and thanking God. She now knew Jesus as Lord.
I awoke with so much clarity. I realized that my prayer had been answered! Then driving myself to the brink of insanity, trying to decipher the dream and it’s meaning, I came to this conclusion… I was meant to go out among the people and lead lost souls to Christ in a country full of temptation that is very soon going to fall.
As the months have rolled by, with every race I’ve run as Superman, I’ve prayed with people before the race, and complete strangers have become inspired. They’ve been inspired to start running and to be known by God as His BeLoved. Soldiers and heroes of war have come up to me and confessed that I am their hero. I’m still in unbelief of this. Runners have dubbed me “The Pensacola Running Superman” and cheered me into victory as I’ve crossed finish lines.
My wife and I have recently found out, almost one year to the day that we lost our Delaney, God has shown us mercy and blessed us with another little girl!
With what you’ve just read, do you doubt the existence of God and His mercy? I’ve learned that sometimes you can pray your hardest, pray your heart out really and sometimes the answer is still “No.” Because it is not in your will that it should or should not happen. It’s in God’s will. Even though tragedy may strike, the end will justify the means if you just cling to Him because He never leaves your side. Even in darkness, He is your light.
I’ve also learned that no matter how bad you think the hand you’re dealt is, there is always someone who has it worse than you. Would I have gone out and started helping those who are lost if Delaney were still alive? Probably not. Would I be stuck in my ways not fulfilling the charge set upon me by God? Probably so.
God took Delaney not out of anger but rather He knew that she would have had zero quality of life in her condition and in doing so, knew it would change my life around and potentially save countless others because of the change in me.
Someone reading this may be in darkness like I was. Maybe even clinging to the very gun I was clinging to when He reached down and plucked it from my hands. I was given a gift, a charge to fulfill. I was given a sign of hope to bear across my chest in the form of an “S” and become the messenger of hope who spreads the message of HIS hope. So, I leave you, the reader, with this…Jesus loves you. No matter what you did, have done or ever will do.
Even if you’re filled with anger and fury today, JESUS LOVES YOU! You ARE His BeLoved!
Pick up his banner and run as I am, praising Him with every stride until I cross the finish line; only in your own way. There is so much darkness in this world: murder, rape, beheadings, radicals killing in the name of religion. Be the beacon of light who points the way home. Let Christ shine through you. I can only pass on the message that I know God placed on my heart.
Time is almost up.
Time is at its very near end.
We don’t know what hour will be our last.
Run to Him while you still have a chance…Run like you see Jesus at the finish line…