Clark Beckham, who performed for us at the Falls Family Festival, decided to audition for American Idol in Nashville. He did a great job & received a golden ticket from the judges to go to Hollywood. There he performed again and was selected to move on to the next round. This past week he had to pass one more test to get into the Final 24. He “aced” it & so he will be competing against 23 other contestants to become the next American Idol. You can watch some of his previous performances on You Tube, or just catch him live on American Idol on Wednesdays and Thursdays. After Michael’s sermons for the past two weeks, I thought it was appropriate to run this article that that Rubel Shelly had written in October, 2004.

An Ironic Conversion

A few newspapers carried the story this summer of an interesting thing that happened in Omaha. A local homeless shelter bought a neighboring property to expand its services. More specifically, a bar was purchased & will give way now to a treatment center for people with drug & alcohol problems.

The executive director for the group making the purchase explained that the bar had been an ongoing problem for the shelter operation. Many of the people it was attempting to serve were addicted to alcohol and drugs. So the temptation was always there for them to go next door. The alcohol was legal. And there never seemed to be a problem finding illegal drugs at the tavern either.

A residential treatment center on the very spot where a bar had stood for so long is more than ironic. “It’s really kind of a fun conversion” says the director.

The verb “convert” points to the act of changing something from one state or condition to another. What if unhealthy situations in our lives could be changed to wholesome ones? Conversion is the catalyst for making hardhearted souls into sensitive human beings.

A fellow purchased a dilapidated old warehouse. The agent closing the deal with him asked, “How are you going to make this ugly place useful?” Came the reply, “It’s hope-less! I just wanted the location – & am going to tear down the old place so I can start something from scratch.”

That’s how conversion works. Ugly, overgrown, useless, empty spaces – used now for good purposes. It is the sort of curiosity God takes great delight in doing.

What kind of conversion in your life needs to take place that the Spirit can help you with?

In His Service,
Dick