Six Significant Conversations

A brief conversation.

One sentence in the middle of a broader conversation.

Yet, for some reason that comment stuck with you. It may have even changed the entire direction of your life.

Or, your eternal destiny.

I have been thinking about the most significant conversations I have had thus far in my life. Here are six:

Guy Owen February 1973: I attended a YoungLife meeting in February of 1973. My motive for attending was to see a girl I was interested in. So interested that I was willing to attend a "religious" event like YoungLife. What a surprise! Entertaining, upbeat, and fun. And a very clear presentation of the gospel. I realized that like all people I was a sinner, separated from God, and that no amount of good works could reconcile me to God. But Guy shared the good news with me that Christ had paid the penalty for me and that I simply needed to receive the free gift of salvation by inviting Jesus into my life.

Laura Marsh, June 15, 1973: For a couple of years I had been hearing about a girl that went to Lamar High School who was "crazy about me." Well, I finally met her after one of our baseball games. June 15, 1973 to be exact. We began "going steady" and had to rely on our parents (and Laura's sister Ellen) to shuttle us because we were both still in Driver's Ed with learning permits only.

By the way, 1973 was very good year!

Coach Howington, 1977-78ish: Sometime during my college years I was trying to decide whether to go to Law School or to become a teacher. Coach Howington had a one question response: "Where can you best serve the Lord?"

Lee Van Zant, 1978 (Professor of Economics at Austin College): I had gone to summer school every summer after my freshman year at Austin College. I had enough credits to graduate early, but was considering staying for one more semester to take some additional courses. Lee told me, "J.Lee I think you've gotten all you can get out of Austin College and its time to move on." Sometimes we need a nudge to leave the nest.

Jim Schierling, 1990/91: Jim was the pastor at Mid-Cities Bible Church. I met with him every Friday morning for almost a year as he invested in me. The "career question" was stirring again as I was thinking of going back to school to get my PhD. Jim said, "I think it would be best if you can align your job with your gifts."

 Jim Quick/Jim Lewis, 1993: I link these two conversations together because they were so similar it was like we were reading from a script. The conversations happened one week apart during a lunch at the same restaurant. Quick had been my management professor during my MBA; Lewis was my mentor in the business world. I was teaching full-time at UTA (4 courses per semester during my lunch and at night) and working full-time at Air-Dreco. But, I was becoming increasingly unhappy with the Air-Dreco culture.

Both Jims knew I was unhappy and asked me what I would really like to do. To each of them I responded, "I would really like to go back to school and get my PhD so I could make a living doing what I love: teaching." Each of them then asked me why I didn't do that. I gave the same response to each: "I can't afford to. We have 4 children and Laura doesn't work outside the home."

The first Jim responded,"We need to find you a benefactor." I thought that would be nice, but I had no idea how that would happen.

The next week, the same script played out with precision ... right down to the second Jim asking "Why don't you do that?" and my exact response, "I can't afford to..."  Then, the script changed. The second Jim's response was, "What if I provided the financial support you need to do that."

I almost fell out of my chair. He loaned us the money that provided the initial funding for me to pursue my PhD.

Six significant conversations that changed my life.

What are the significant conversations that impacted your life?