Courage

16001 Crosses

by Andy Wood on August 14, 2008

in Enlarging Your Capacity, LV Cycle, LV Stories

Neville Davidson

Neville Davidson

Somewhere, sometime, somebody left a simple, small, cedar cross as an anonymous gift for someone they’d never meet.

Sometime later, on a spiritual retreat, a broken, blind, and deeply depressed man received that cross, and his life was changed.  Now mine has been, too, because of how that man chose to rise from the depths of his pain.  I’d like to share his story; Neville Davidson is a LifeVestor.

If you see the glass as half-empty, Neville has gotten a raw deal.  Born in Warrenton, a small town between Liverpool and Manchester in the UK, his childhood memories are dotted with the sound of German bombs, forced relocation of himself and his siblings for their safety, and unceasing danger during World War II.  Later, at age 26, Neville was told his wife had terminal bronchial pneumonia, and would have to move to a warm, dry climate.  He considered an offer to move to Australia.  But his sister had married an American GI, and moved to Lubbock, Texas.  Neville chose family, and literally had to uproot his own household and start his life over in a place where he knew virtually no one.  A few years later, his marriage dissolved.

Neville married Jenny, his wife today, in 1971.  Just five years later, he developed a disease in one of his eyes, and lost his sight in that eye.  In 1984, he completely lost the sight in his other eye.  Neville’s world literally and figuratively became completely dark. [click to continue…]

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Trailer ThiefKinetic Church was robbed.  I don’t mean by the refs in the church league basketball tournament.  I mean a thief (or thieves) stole a trailer containing 75% of the Charlotte area congregation’s equipment in early March, leaving the portable church with virtually nothing.

What would you do?  How would you respond?  How would you define your life if you discovered that three-fourths of your tangible assets – to say nothing of the hundreds of man-hours invested in labor – were instantly gone?

Can’t relate?  How about the time somebody stole your dreams or your hope?  Or your reputation?  Or your innocence?  Or your marriage?

You won’t believe what these guys did.

They went on the offensive.  They started a billboard campaign with five different messages, as well as a YouTube video aimed directly at the thief.  Check out the video below.


Kinetic Church’s response illustrates some powerful lessons in transforming painful experiences into remarkable opportunities:

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