Now the first epiphany that lead to the second. As Pastor Bob was finishing the sermon, and addressing the first part of Psalm 23:6, he commented that King David could write "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" with confidence because he had seen how God had worked throughout his life. At that moment, I remembered something that my college pastor, Tom Westbrook, told me 25 years ago in response to a question about how do you know that God is working in your life. His response has stuck with me to this day. He told me "I know He will because He has". Only today did I make the connection between that response and Psalm 23:6. I don't know if he was intentionally paraphrasing that verse, or if the verse was just ingrained in him so much that it was a natural response. Knowing him, I suspect both.
Yes, it took me 25 yrs to connect his response to scripture, just phrased so that a semi-clueless college student could understand it. Oh, and another point of clarification, this is not an indication of Tom's teaching either. Like I said, it is me being slow on the uptake. He will probably shake his head if he reads this because he always told us to check everything against scripture. In my defense (jokingly, facetiously, sarcastically... take your pick), he didn't say to do that immediately, but I'm sure he meant quicker than 25 years.
So, yes, I really am slow on the uptake.
