Power of One Podcast with Tony Medlin - A Special Announcement

This podcast deals with the simplicity and beauty of prayer and an example of God's work in my life in the form of a very special announcement

Transcript

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Welcome to this week's edition of the Power of One podcast with Tony Medling. This is a very special podcast for me, as it is not only exciting, but it is deeply personal. And I wanted to share with you, my listeners, a very important announcement, which I will get to in just a moment. C.S. Lewis said, the secret to seeing God in all things is to become a child again. Now, I read this quote in a book called A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller, and it has been transformational for me to be reminded of the very basic elements of prayer that go beyond saying a blessing at a meal or even the pastoral prayer in church, but a deeply personal relationship with God that allows us to pray without ceasing, as scripture says, and to allow us that allows us to pray with an intimacy that brings us even closer to God. So some of the principles in this book include praying like a child, i.e., the quote that I just shared with you by C.S. Lewis. One of the chapters is talking to the Father. Now, for those who may have experienced abuse from a parent, this may not be an image that brings comfort. However, when we talk about God our Father, we can be assured that we're talking about someone who loves us and cares for us individually, intensely and very intimately. I love that song that said, When he was on the cross, he knew my name. He knew what was on my mind. He, I, was on his mind. One person asked me long ago, how big is God? And my answer was, he's big enough to use to rule this mighty universe, and he's small enough to live within my heart. And of course, that wasn't original with me. It was a song as well. So I've been thinking a lot about a praying life. And prayer became very instrumental to me last Wednesday morning. Now, a little bit about my journey before I tell you about that prayer. Many of you know that as a result of what I considered a lack of competence and even a lack of ethics, I knew in my last vocational journey that it was time for me to commit to ministry full time. I was a little bit afraid. What about financial security, insurance, all of those things that we think about in this world? And I am very fortunate to be the pastor of Grace Global Methodist Church, a church plant that God has blessed over the last year and a half tremendously. And I would love for you to visit us, by the way. And I'm going to go ahead and tell you 155 Thrift Avenue in Seneca, South Carolina, 10 o'clock Sunday mornings. You will have an opportunity to worship with some of the most gracious, generous disciples that you will ever meet. We would love for you to be a part of our journey. But back to the story. And with a real leap of faith, probably more significant than any I've ever taken, I decided to follow that leading. And so I opened Power of One, which is the basis for this podcast. But honestly, it's been very difficult since that time over the last two or three months. The business has not taken off as I anticipated. I also had an opportunity to be a PRN chaplain for a new hospice that was being opened by Your Health. Well, Your Health, which is a physical, um physician's practice organization. And so I was hoping that that would help the journey a little bit. Well, after two or three weeks, I still had not seen any patients. The church being very generous and gracious increased my time and opportunity to lead them. That has been very helpful, particularly in terms of uh 401k and some of the financial things that I was concerned about. But things were a little bit frightening, and I needed to become my own life coach and my own spiritual advisor. And so last Wednesday morning, I found myself somewhat anxious. And I simply prayed, as Paul Miller suggests. God, I need to be a child today. I need to be able to see you in all things. And Lord, I'm not asking for riches, I'm not asking for all of the answers right now. If you could just today, and I prayed very specifically, as Paul Miller suggests, if you could just today give me another tiny assurance at some point that you have a plan for what I know was my following, the leading of your Holy Spirit in my life. And so here I was. I prayed that prayer and went on with my day. A couple of good things happened. One, I had a tremendous meeting with one of our church leaders, and uh a couple of blessings and and just moments of assurance that we were touching people for Christ. That made me feel really good. But then something else happened. Remember, I was just talking about your health. Well, the owner and CEO of your health gave me a call that day. I was already a PRN chaplain, but he said to me, Tony, I want to talk about something with you. I don't want you to be a PRN chaplain anymore. And I said, Okay, I'm listening. And he said, We are adding to our program chaplains. Now I need to share with you a little bit about your health's organization. I did that some on a previous podcast. They serve over 60,000 patients in South Carolina and parts of Georgia. And your Health has care groups, which have probably eight or nine hundred patients in each group. And below the group, there is a care team, which probably has 250, 300 patients. And I'm learning all of this still. But in the care group, there's a physician, there are nurse practitioners, uh, physicians assistants, there are nurses, there are CNAs, there are social workers, they have great specialty groups in terms of physical therapy and occupational therapy, behavioral therapy. And Scott Middleton, the owner of the company, said we want to add a chaplain, not just for the hospice aspect of our caring for patients, but for the entire group and team experience across our company. And there are like 32 care groups within the company. And I said, Well, Scott, that sounds good. And what specifically are you asking me? And he said, I would like for you to be the director of chaplain services for your health. Tears almost immediately came to my eyes as I was now remembering the prayer that I had prayed that morning. And I said, Scott, what does that look like? And he says, Well, I'd like for you to hire, train, and supervise the chaplains across the company. Now I began, I began to think about my commitment to the Lord when I left the long-term care industry, wanting to do ministry full-time, that whatever I did, knowing that I needed to do something in addition to the church, but whatever I did, the church would be my focus, and it would have to be ministry related. I talked to a few leaders within the church, and everybody is thinking together, what could be more ministry-related than having a chance to train chaplains all over the state and in parts of Georgia, teaching them how to meet spiritual needs of these thousands of patients whose lives will be touched and affected. And folks, I want to tell you, by the end of the day and in the days since, I have realized that God answered my childlike prayer that Wednesday morning very specifically. Now, that doesn't mean, of course, that he's going to answer every prayer exactly the way we want. And sometimes it may be completely different than the way we want, because I had been praying for the business, by the way, which I still think he is going to use to be very successful, as I want to continue to offer life coaching and spiritual renewal to those who want to set up an appointment and meet with me. But now I can do that in a relaxed way and in his way, not having to worry so much about the money aspect of things. But what God will do through our prayers is that he will lead us and that he will guide us and that he will ultimately show us the way. Okay, this podcast clearly has been a little bit different, but I wanted to share with you, my listeners, what God has done for me and to make the announcement that, in fact, I will be the director of chaplain services for your health. And that will begin officially on July the 6th, which as I record this, is this coming Monday. I hope that you will focus on being specific in your relationship with God about your prayer needs and about what he's doing in your journey and ask him in a childlike way, in a simple way, in a very real way. Can I just assure me? Just show me what plan you have and how I can execute that plan most faithfully. So glad that you have joined me today. This has been special to be able to share this with you. I want you to feel free to visit my website, Power of One Spiritual Renewal.com, and I'm still going to be doing and setting up life coaching sessions. I'm going to be focusing on the individual sessions now, $65 a session. And I hope that you will contact me either on the website or you can call Power of One at 864-430-4498, or the email is anthonymed26 at outlook.com. I pray God's blessings upon each of you. And again, if you're in the local area, we would love to have you visit Grace Global Methodist Church Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, 155 Thrift Avenue in Seneca, South Carolina. If you live somewhere else and are listening to this, you can join us online. You can go to my Facebook, Friend of Me, and you can watch on my Facebook, The Church's Facebook, or you can go to YouTube and see the service. Just search Grace Methodist Church, Seneca, South Carolina. We would love to have you. Well, until next week on the Power of One podcast with Tony Medlin. Again, I pray God's blessings upon each of you and hope you have a great week. And we'll see you next week right here on the Power of One podcast with Tony Medlin. God bless.