Photo by Perri Rosheger
Have you ever watched the ripples in the water?
Each move we make starts a ripple effect.
The ripple effect we have in someones life can
be good or it can be bad. That ripple that is
created can motivate them to move forward with
their service to God or it can cause them to
loose hope.
Once again I ponder on the life of Dale Dozier who
seemed to never waste one opportunity to share
Jesus Christ with others. He would always have
a track he wrote in his pocket and share with others
what his Jesus meant to him. He didn't share what
Christ meant to Billy Graham. He didn't tell what
had happened in Louie Giglio's life. He shared
what was going on in his own life. He wanted
his life to have a ripple effect on the people
he knew; and I am here to tell you that it did.
There were times that Dale said that things were
not going so well. There were times he would
get upset about the decisions people made
with their lives, and there were times his
heart was broken and heavy for things going
on in and around him. He was true to himself
and he was true to His God.
Once we served together in the same church
when a young man came in view of a call
and he was far from being a pastor and I
watched emotion after emotion run through
Dale. We began to pray that God would
take control of the situation as it looked
as if they would call this man to be the
pastor and we felt the outcome could
be one of great turmoil. As things turned
out there was one vote that kept the young
man from serving as the pastor. Another
young man come in view of a call and he
was a leader and you could tell he was a true
man of God. They called him to the church
with I believe 100% vote and he has been
there for ten years and the church
has been healthy. Was Dale wrong for being
angry or upset? No, because he had a
protective spirit for the whole flock
and he could see some would be wounded.
Because of his honesty and truth about life it
caused ripple effects in other people's lives.
I must stop and tell a funny story about
something he once told me in the ministry.
He had a lady in the church that her husband
was coming home drunk and beating her up.
She became so angry and tired of it that one
night he came in and she was ready. He began
to beat on her and she pulled a gun and shot
him in the hip. This changed the man. He began
to treat this woman with more respect for about
ten years and after about ten years he began to
do the same thing. She went to Dale with this
situation for advise. He said, "well seems like a
bullet in the hip worked so well the first time,
and you know the man does have two hips."
Even things like this in Dale's life helped me
to see that we are all human and sometimes
we humans can be selfish, ungodly and flat
out ridiculous at times and sometimes
it takes drastic measures for us to get
shaken back into reality.
I have had many struggles lately myself
and I begin to tell myself that I am not
worthy to be digging a well for people
to drink from because my attitude hasn't
been correct lately. But then I am reminded
that even along the way in Abraham's life
as he dug wells that there were people
that would rise up against him and try to
take his well that he dug away from
him. There were people that came
along and destroyed some of the wells
that he dug. There were many obstacles
that he faced while digging the wells and
if he came up against an obstacle to big
or couldn't conquer the foe that was trying
to rob him of that well, he would just
move along and dig a new well. As people
traveled all throughout the land they found
water to drink because Abraham never stopped
digging wells.
When we are challenged with an obstacle we tend
to just throw in the towel and give up. How very
foolish that would be. So as Dale often reminded
me that it will be a fight to the very last round, keep
digging wells because someone somewhere is
thirsty and needs refreshed. Dale Dozier prayed
for Steve and I every night before he went to sleep
and sometimes I wonder how many other people
do the same thing and they are the very reason
we are able to keep making ripples in the water
of these tiny wells springing up.
For Dale who dug many wells I pray there will be
people who go behind him and do as Isaac did
and dig those wells again that were taken away
by the enemy or covered up. There are some
wells in those past churches he preached at
and there are some wells in his family. There
are some wells in friends lives that the enemy
came along and plugged that we pray
can be opened back up and flowing because
of the way this man lived his life.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water,
which they had digged in the days of Abraham
his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after
the death of Abraham: and he called their names
after the names by which his father had called them.
And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley,
and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s
herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he
called the name of the well Esek; because they
strove with him. And they digged another well,
and strove for that also: and he called the
name of it Sitnah. And he removed from thence,
and digged another well; and for that they
strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth;
and he said, For now the LORD hath made room
for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
And the LORD appeared unto him the same night,
and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not,
for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply
thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.
And he builded an altar there, and called upon the
name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there:
and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.
