Remember the Name of the Lord

Not a word was spoken.

Father and his son in an old farm truck...driving down a road in Omaha, Nebraska. The fields are full of wheat on both sides of the highway. It’s harvest time. Suitcases in the back of the truck. The father is taking his son to the train station to send him to New York City to attend Columbia University. All the way to the train station the father is thinking of all the advice he wants to give his young boy, but not a word was spoken. They arrived at the train station and the father simply said these words, “Son, never forget who you are!”

When I want to remember who I am, George DeTellis, Jr., I take my memory and my imagination back to 135 Belmont Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, where my father was the pastor of Calvary Evangelistic Center, a church in the middle of the inner city. I grew up in that church. I lived in that church building for five years. Have you ever lived in a church? We lived in this large, wood-frame, three-story church that was built in the 1800s by the Salvation Army. My bedroom was on the third floor behind the sanctuary. The church was built on the side of Belmont Hill. From my bedroom, you could look out and see the largest hospital in the city and the downtown business district.

There was once a shepherd boy named David, and his father gave him some bread and cheese. He said to David, “Take these to your brothers, and when you come home tell me how the battle against the Philistines is going.” When 15-year-old David arrived, the Israelites had not yet gone into battle. They were in a valley; the Israelites on one side and the Philistines on the other side. The Philistines had a soldier named Goliath who was blaspheming their God. Goliath said, “Send one man to come and fight, and whoever wins the fight will win the war. If I lose, we will become your servants and if your fighter loses, you will become our servants.” David said, “What will be done for the man that will fight and win against Goliath?” And they answered, “The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” (I Samuel 17:25) Then, David went to King Saul and he volunteered to fight against Goliath.

They said to David, “You’re too young. You are just a boy and Goliath is an experienced man of war.” David remembered how God had protected him when he fought against a lion and a bear to protect his flock of sheep. He used his memory of what God had done. David remembered God protected him from the lion and the bear. And then, David used his imagination. He said, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will feed the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” (I Samuel 17:46) Young David remembered God’s providence and then he used his imagination of God’s greatness. Just like David, we can use our memories of what God has done and along with our faith to imagine what God will do through us. ~George DeTellis, Jr.