Plum Tuckered out

(As an added bonus, there will be a little surprise at the end of this post for he who perseveres to the end…)

The only thing that can make a visit to a Disney theme park even more fun is to take someone who hasn’t been. And if those someones played a key role in the most significant event in your life, then even better.

Recently, Johnny and Judy Tucker (or Bro. Johnny and Mrs. Judy if you’re an old Southern Baptist boy like me) visited Central Florida and gave me the chance to spend time with them and host them as my guests at some of the theme parks of the Walt Disney World^® Resort. Bro. Johnny’s father pastored the church in which I grew up in North Alabama, so the Tuckers and I have a long history. Bro. Johnny is a full-time evangelist and Judy helps manage the daily working of his ministry, whether traveling with him domestically or abroad on mission trips to the Philippines or Guatemala.

They started their week in Orlando by joining me for church on Sunday morning, after which we made short shrift of Ling’s Buffet, a local favorite for Asian cuisine. From conversations we’ve had since, both were hits: starting with my pastor for presenting God’s word with his usual veracity and ending with Ling’s.

Biblical truth and fried rice make a great combination.

In addition to the abundant selection of sushi and stir fried delicacies at Ling’s, we also played “spot the white beard”. You’d be surprised at how many we saw in one lunch period. (I got the impression Bro. Johnny would love to sport a face full of whiskers but his mama won’t let him.)

The next morning, I used my entrance pass to get them into the Magic Kingdom^® Park for the day, after which I went on in to work. (There’s something so wrong about the end of that sentence…) They had been to the Magic Kingdom before, but I still left them with a few suggestions of some things I thought they would enjoy. They also hopped on the monorail and traveled the highway in the sky to Epcot^® for part of the day. From what I understand (as I, of course, was toiling away at work while they played and wasn’t actually there to witness it) they had a great time.

A Day at Disney

Wednesday I met them at their resort in nearby Kissimmee. After a quick breakfast, we started the morning at Disney’s Animal Kingdom^® Theme Park. Our first stop was to see Festival of the Lion King in the Camp Minnie-Mickey section of the park. This colorful and energetic production features a quartet of human singers who perform most of the songs from the movie The Lion King along with a huge cast of dancers, acrobats, and stilt-walkers dressed in stylized animal costumes. As is typical with anyone I take to Animal Kingdom, the show was a highlight of the day.

The rest of our day in the park was spent watching the various species of animals, eating ribs and barbecued chicken, and enjoying Finding Nemo – The Musical.

A couple of events tend to stand out, though…

While taking one of the self-guided animal tours in the park, Judy and I both got a little present in the bird enclosure from one of its feathered denizens. Either he couldn’t make it to the little bird’s room in time or it was just his way of saying “howdy”, but out of the blue something warm and sticky hit my shoulder and then ricocheted off and landed on Judy’s foot. From the looks of things, it appeared as though the bird had eaten biscuits and gravy with asparagus shortly before we arrived. And, of course, I was wearing a black shirt.

I managed to tidy up in one of the nearby water fountains, but I’m sure I heard some birds giggling behind their wings afterward.

Later, we had to drag Bro. Johnny out of the gorilla house. He and one of the gorillas seemed to make some sort of male-bonding connection – or maybe he just wanted to share the leaves he was munching on (the gorilla, not Bro. Johnny).

Although the day was hot and we ended up “plum Tuckered out”, we still found the energy to have a long and deep philosophical discussion back at their condo (one of my favorite things to do). It was a great day and we had a most delightful visit.

This was actually the second year we were able to spend some time together at Disney. A little history on that…

On the Road – the Wrong One

Just a skosh over a year ago in June of 2010, I was hurtling hard and fast down the “path that evil men have trod”, as Job so poetically described it. Even though I was a nice guy and may not have seemed as evil as, say, Mr. Osama Bin Laden, I was every bit as lost and bound for hell. During the preceding four or five months, God, in His unfathomable love, eternal patience, and amazing grace, had begun to make me keenly aware just how lost and hell-bound I was. You see, I had been pinning my hopes for eternity on an experience I had when I was nine years old, an experience that, as it turns out, had pretty much been exposed as null and void based on the life I had led since then.

Coincidentally though, the Tuckers gave me a call right about that time (after not being in touch with me for several years) to tell me that, coincidentally, they were going to be in Central Florida and, coincidentally, would like to have breakfast with me.

The date of their visit coincided – coincidentally – with my nearing the breaking point on that colossal internal tug-o’-war I was having between continuing on in my current lost and lonely life or doing a total about-face and surrendering all that I had – heart, soul, and mind – to God. (You know, saying it like that makes it seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? However, the tug-o’-war side rooting for lost and lonely had somehow managed to make a compelling case for suppressing that conviction for change for a lot of years.)

Hopefully you’ve figured out the ending by now; events that line up so beautifully that only a sovereign God could orchestrate them are no coincidence.

Although, as the old hymn goes, “I Love To Tell the Story” because it speaks to the depths to which God will go to keep someone from being cut off from Him for eternity, I’ll cut to the chase (especially since that morning in June was months and years in the making). Suffice it to say that my (now) Heavenly Father arranged for me to have a breakfast date with Johnny and Judy Tucker, two of His kind, compassionate servants, at the moment of my greatest need; folks who, after that breakfast, sat under a shady arbor at one of the Disney resorts and held my hand; supplied me with tissues, answers, words of encouragement, and prayer; and became salt and light for me, leading me to accept Jesus as my Savior that morning.

God could have sent anyone to be His ambassadors that day; but, in His sovereign wisdom, He chose to send Bro. Johnny and Mrs. Judy Tucker, people I trusted and respected. And the cool thing was, they had no idea they had arranged a date to guide me to salvation. They were just planning to have breakfast.

They will always be special and precious to me because of that morning, and I count them among my greatest friends and as extended family members.

Free to All

Even though the who, what, when, and where of my personal salvation experience are unique to me, the gift of salvation by God’s grace is not – anyone can have it. Plus, there are no pre-conditions you have to meet. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been through tremendous and amazing change since I became a Christian, but God didn’t ask me to make those changes before He would consider saving me; He took me right where I was.

No doubt you’re familiar with verse 16 in the third chapter of the Gospel of John in the Bible. (Even if you’re not familiar with the verse, you’ve probably seen someone holding up a sign at a sporting event with “John 3:16″ written on it in big letters.) In that verse, John tells us that God loves us so much – all of us, whether we’re nice girls who love puppies and kittens or bad guys who do their best to destroy others (like the now deceased Mr. Osama Bin Ladin) – that He provided a way for us to escape an eternity in the torment of hell paying for our sinful nature. He sent someone to die in our place, as our proxy; and not just any someone, but His son, the only one who could possibly manage to live a sinless, perfect life here on Earth.

That act of dying as me and as you was a gift – there were not strings attached. John tells us that anyone who believes that Jesus died for them and accepts that free gift will live for eternity in God’s presence. It doesn’t say that anyone who first gives up drinking, or cheating on his taxes, or gossiping about her co-workers, or sleeping around and then believes that Jesus died for them will spend eternity with God. In John’s own (inspired) words, he simply says:

“…anyone who believes in Him will not die but have eternal life.” (NIRV)

There are no other conditions listed. That’s grace, pure and simple.

If you haven’t received that gift, leave a comment and let me know – I’ll be glad to share what I know and help you find the resources for the rest.

Bonus

As promised, here is your bonus for reading to the end. As we were making our way through the Africa section of Animal Kingdom, we stopped to watch a group of musicians and dancers perform. To encourage a little audience participation, one of the guys circulated through the audience grabbing poor souls who were unable to protest enough to avoid public humiliation. Unlike me, Judy was able to elude capture, but she didn’t waste any time kicking her camera into video mode.

Although my performance went on for what seemed like hours, fortunately her camera only had enough memory to capture these few seconds of me shaking my groove thang:

What can I say? When the big guy grabs your wrist and says “dance!”, you dance…

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