Wise Counsel Remembered

Wise counsel is invaluable, and I was reminded again of some of the best counsel I received while a college music major. Here it is, help yourself and put it to use if these words fit your current situation.

__________________

Jerry Price travelled with the summer touring group I was in for a couple of weeks, this during my second year with the group. I’d found myself “between a rock and a hot plate” the previous week and needed some guidance. As we rode along in the van I asked for his perspective and counsel. He could have given me his opinion, but instead he took me to 1 Samuel 30. David and his troops had been out doing what they believed was the right thing to do also, but when they returned to Ziklag, the place was in smoldering ruin, their wives and children all gone. Then David’s men turn on him too. Jerry pointed to verse eight. “Ask God what to do, Phil. David didn’t turn to his wife, she’d been taken captive (and you don’t have one). 🙂 He didn’t write a new song. Who knows, his instruments may have been stolen. He went straight to the Lord and asked ‘ What shall I do?’ ”

“Listen” he told me, “Ask God straight-out – ‘Shall I do this?’ As soon as He confirms it in your thinking, go after it. Go after it hard.” I can still hear the way he said “go after it hard.” – like he’d coach a point guard on the basketball team; same tone of voice. Then he took me to verse 18. “Look what it says. David recovered it all. Not one thing was lost. If you do what the Lord tells you – it’ll take work, but you can recover everything. Everything.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been back to 1 Samuel 30 in the last three decades!! Good words, Jerry! I had the chance several years later to thank him for his guidance, so if he happens to read this he’ll have already heard my “Thank you!”

Valuable wisdom… take it, use it, pass it on if you’d like.