I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
“Who is one of the most influential men in your life?”
That was the icebreaker at a men’s meeting I went to.
Most men said that their father was the most influential man in their life, and that makes sense, but after your dad, who?
One of the most influential men in my life was Dr. James Dobson, and here’s the story.
In 1985 I was a rock and roll DJ, and I had a growing conviction that if I could do what I do full time for the Lord, then I should. I began pursuing the idea of working full time in Christian radio, but how should I go about it?
I didn’t want to view it as a career trajectory, making decisions based on what was best to climb the career ladder. I also didn’t want to make my decisions based on who would pay me the most.
What I really wanted was God’s perfect will. So I sent out resumes to Christian radio stations with one prayer, “God, please just open one door, just one, because if there is more than one, I won’t know how to choose the right one.”
So I sent out the resumes with a pretty clear idea who would hire me. But, as you might imagine, that’s not how it went. Yes, just one radio station offered me a job, and it was a smaller station in a smaller market…definitely not what you would choose if you were trying to climb the career ladder.
But that was my prayer and that was my heart, to do God’s will and follow His path for my life, and I believe He answered my prayer with this one radio station.
So I went to work there and often asked myself, “Why here, of all places?”
Meanwhile I was playing and hearing a particular radio program every day. I was a newlywed and soaking up this program’s marriage information. We started having children, and there I was, soaking up this program’s parenting information.
Day in and day out I was being molded and shaped by the wisdom of Dr. James Dobson and his program Focus on the Family.
It is not a program I would have naturally been drawn to, but since I was at this small radio station, wearing many hats, including handling the Focus on the Family program, I was exposed to the family teachings of Dr. Dobson year in and year out.
I picked up priceless information for strengthening my marriage and family, for raising children, for being a Christian in the marketplace…on and on.
Here is one example. Dr. Dobson talked about raising kids using the illustration of rafting down a river with your family. At first, it’s peaceful as you glide along in the river. That’s when your kids are young. But then the teenage years hit, and that’s when the raft hits the whitewater rapids. Everyone is tossed about. Everyone is getting wet. You’re going to lose some things from the boat…but the most important thing is…keep everyone in the boat. In other words, keep your relationship going with your teenage kids. Even when the water gets rough, keep them in the boat, because after a while they will grow out of it and you will be back in smoother waters and what will you still have from the whitewater rapids? Hopefully your kids will still be in the boat, in other words, you still have a relationship with them.
As I write this, Dr. Dobson has just passed away, and I’m thinking of one of the most important messages he ever shared. It was after he played a pickup basketball game with one of the greatest players of all time, Pete Maravich. Dobson was going to interview Maravich that day, but the interview never happened. Maravich had a heart attack and died there on the court at just 40 years old.
That night Dr. Dobson went home and talked to his 17-year-old son Ryan. He said, “Ryan, what happened to Pete Maravich today was not an isolated tragedy. This is the human condition. Sooner or later somebody is going to tell you that I am gone. My message to you is BE THERE. Be there to meet your mother and me in heaven. We will be looking for you. BE THERE, because that’s the one thing that matters.”
Yes, Dr. Dobson taught me the importance of being there for my wife and kids, and he taught the importance of being there with them in eternity.
I can picture him having a grand reunion with his parents and many others who have gone before. And one day we, too, will face the end of this life and the door to the next. As Dr. Dobson said, the important thing is to be there, in heaven.
How does that happen? The Christian teaching is simple. Sin separates us from God, but Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross to pay the penalty for us and open the door for us to come back to God. So we say, “God, I’m sorry. I repent of my sins. I trust Jesus as my Savior. Please come into my life and save me so I can walk with You now, and be with You forever.”
Amen.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
