DEVOTION

On the morning of August 3, 2020, as I was about to post something inspirational on the Community Center’s Facebook page, I saw a post from a former camper of mine from back in the early 90s. His post read: “LaMorris Crawford is in Bethany, Oklahoma. Working On My Potentially First Published Devotional. Look At God!”

I was excited for him because he was working on this project, but I then had a second look at the post to see that it read that he was just fifteen minutes up the road in Bethany, Oklahoma. I quickly messaged him to find out that he was at Southern Nazarene University to share the Gospel with faculty and campus life students to prepare to receive the student body back on campus for the start of classes. That afternoon, I got to spend some time with him and got caught up.

Now, LaMorris Crawford was about eight years old when I first met him. LaMorris, his brother, and his cousin were campers at a camp in Michigan where I worked from 1988 until 1993. I last saw these young men in 1993. It was so great to catch up and to share our life stories with one another.

There were so many deep and awe-inspiring things I didn’t know about LaMorris and his family from a time when we were just kids trying to stay out of trouble while living in Chicagoland. When he was only ten months old, living in a housing project in a Chicago suburb, LaMorris and his two-year-old brother lost their mother to a violent act and then had to be raised by their grandmother. Over the next few years, seven of his cousins soon came to live with and be raised by his grandmother due to unfortunate situations of living in really tough places.

As I mentioned earlier, LaMorris started attending this youth camp when he was eight years old. During our talk, he shared that he had his first encounter with God at the age of thirteen. While he was at camp, laying out in a big open grassy field as he gazed up at the stars, he realized only God could have created all of this. It was then that he began to believe in God’s existence.

During these summers at camp, he started learning leadership skills that were not always put to good use (gang leader and other things), but by the time he turned fourteen, he became a junior camp staff member and continued to grow in his leadership skills. At the age of nineteen, he had his next life-changing encounter with the Lord and gave his life to Christ.

Ever since he was a young man, LaMorris has been a mover-and-shaker and a leader. Since giving his life to Christ, he has been doing some amazing things and is being a blessing to so many despite his traumatic upbringing. He was the very first person in his family to go to college, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degree at Olivet Nazarene University. He has been in ministry for seventeen years with the last eight years as the chaplain for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals. His current job is to shepherd these young men of little character—now with multi-million dollar contracts—to try to help them discover who they are through Christ.

For all of his hard work, God has blessed him with a beautiful family, an exciting job, an awesome ministry, and his first book. Talk about slaying giants, no pun intended! If God can take this boy through the adversities that he experienced in his life and raise him up to be a mighty man of God, preacher of the Gospel, national speaker, a great husband and father of four, and go do battle with giants on Sundays in the NFL, what can’t he do with you and me?

He will fulfill his purpose for us, he won’t forsake us, he will be with us. If God is with us, then who can be against us?

PRAYER

Lord,

We know that you are with us no matter what we have said or done. We ask that you will continue to let us walk in your shadow as we mature in our faith and that you use us to be salt and light in this world. All of our stories are stories that glorify you, Lord. We thank you for all that you do.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen.

Demetrius Bell

Community Center Director

Looking for weekly encouragement? Sign up to receive each devotion via email.