More From Richard Benson

I don’t know how the Lord works, but I’m not supposed to. Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (KJV). So I just follow God, even to destinations I never expected.

My journey began in Palm Beach, Florida, when I left a school where I had taught for 17 years. I had grown vain, rich, and drunk before the “small still voice” struck and called me to the road at 57. He stopped me at a sermon in a small Ocala church house when, during the sermon, there was a knocking at the door. No one stirred, the pastor continued, and the knock came louder. I was too ignorant to answer.

Now we sing in my church, “He loved me e’re I knew him, and all my love is due him.”  Yes, God still loves me. It’s not as dramatic as the knock, but I finally hear that small still voice.

The Lord was there in the ICU as I prayed for my granddaughter Riley while she battled for life and won. He was there while I placed a tiny sapling into the soil to become the tall red maple that stands in my backyard. And he was there when I pushed aside my previous publications of the world to serve the Lord with devotionals, Bible studies, and food drives.

One day, I sat with my granddaughter Adeline Joy—and that she is—and told her that I couldn’t wait to see her first day of school, first boyfriend, and graduation. But she said, “Grandpa, you won’t be there.”  You can’t stop the joy, Addie. “Yes, I will,” I answered. “When I enter heaven, the first thing I’ll ask God is to be your guardian angel.” I pray I’m right about that one, Father God.