Whatever It Takes

“And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God…”
Romans 8:28 (NASB)

Two unusual seemingly unrelated events occurred last weekend that had me suddenly remembering my Daddy who died twenty years ago.

It doesn’t snow often in Birmingham, but it did early last Friday morning. Bruce and I woke up to three inches of snow on the ground. As we settled into two snowbound days at home, I thanked God for a warm house, electricity, a well-stocked refrigerator, and a new 300-piece puzzle to help us pass the time. Sometime Friday morning, I remembered another snowstorm that occurred on New Year’s Day in 1964 when I was 9 years old. Birmingham officially recorded 8 inches of snow in what became known as the New Year’s Day snowstorm.

My Dad was a Great Depression survivor whose family lost their farm when the economy crashed in the 1930s. That event shaped and formed him. For the rest of his life he never took having a job for granted. Daddy’s core principles included working hard and living within one’s means.

Our house was on a steep hill. To guarantee he would be able to get to work during the snowstorm, Daddy parked his truck at the bottom of our hill, worked his shift at the plant, parked at the bottom of our hill on his return, walked home, and never once complained. Steelworkers didn’t have PTO days. If you didn’t work, you didn’t get paid and Daddy had mouths to feed. Whatever it took to get to work, he did.

I remember Daddy coming into my room on my first day of school, waking me up, and telling me, “Baby, this is the first day of the next 16 years of your life. I want you to get paid for what you know, not for what you do.” Whatever it took, Daddy was determined that his children would receive a good education.

The devastating Los Angeles fires also reminded me of another fire, one that happened after Daddy retired from the steel plant in the 1980s. He had always wanted to own his own business. A local furniture store became available and Daddy bought it. Bruce and I were living in another city at the time of the furniture store robbery and fire, but I’ll never forget walking through the rubble and feeling so violated. Daddy’s life savings lay in ashes.

During this period, I had been praying for my Dad’s salvation. He was a good provider and a wonderful father, but I wasn’t confident of his salvation. Daddy had been raised in church and was a good man, but I began praying “Lord, whatever it takes. I can’t imagine heaven if Daddy isn’t there.”

“Whatever it takes” is a hard prayer to pray for a loved one because only God knows what it will take. In Daddy’s case, he lost his beloved business; was falsely accused and arrested for arson (the charges were later dropped for lack of evidence); the insurance company won the civil case and refused to pay any damages; and Daddy had a heart attack in the middle of the stress. Somewhere in there, however, Daddy dreamed he had died and gone to heaven. Dream or not, heaven was real to Daddy. He was a different man from that day forward.

Romans 8:28 promises that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Paul doesn’t say that all things ARE good, but that God can work all things together for our good. We saw that happen in my Dad’s life – first with his salvation and then, miraculously in restoring what “the locusts had eaten” (Joel 2:25). Several years after the fire, Daddy turned out unexpectedly to be the star witness in an asbestos class action lawsuit. Most of the plaintiffs, steelworkers like Daddy, died of black lung disease before the trial, but Daddy identified materials that had been routinely used at the steel plant throughout his 34-year career. Because of his valuable testimony, the case settled and never went to trial.

Regarding Romans 8:28 Charles Spurgeon writes, “Could you ask for a better promise? It is better that all things should work for my good than all things should be as I would wish to have them. All things might work for my pleasure and yet might all work my ruin. If all things do not always please me, they will always benefit me. This is the best promise of this life.”

“Whatever it takes” and “God works all things together for our good” aren’t just great summaries of my Daddy’s life, but also heartfelt prayers for the people and city of Los Angeles.