Twenty two years ago to this date I found myself alone in 10x10 room with 4 sides brick walls and a linoleum floor. I was only 18 years old and I was 900 miles away from home. I had only been there 3 months but I still had 57 months left. Where was I? What did I do to be there on Thanksgiving break? Did you commit a crime? No! I was a college freshman stuck in a dorm room in Winfield, KS.
Thanksgiving can be an emotional time for me. Not because of a tragic event, but because I wanted to do better than what I saw. As an 80’s baby we were told to “GTC” go to college. What you do there was onon you because you had no guide. You just had to go! Our parents had no direction for us because they had not been there.
So there I sit 6’3, black, hungry, and scared in a dark room on a twin size bed. Winfield has a population of 12,095 in 2001 with only 4.1% of them being black. Just three months earlier I was in my hometown of Columbus, GA with a population of 200,000 people (43% black). It was my graduation day and there were many smiling faces. The memories of those smiles quickly faded as my stomach rumbled like a freight train speeding down the Underground Railroad. The entire campus was empty and the cafeteria was closed. All I had to eat was a bologna sandwich that my friend Katherine Potter brought to me the night before. I had to ration out that sandwich for work could be an entire week. I had no money, I had no car, I had no way home. I had to grow up in that moment, I didn’t know what to do. Where was my family? Where is my teammates? Where was the coach that brought me all the way from Georgia? Where was my God? I had so many questions but little answers.
Thanksgiving morning I got on MSN messenger and I shared it with my friend Lynn Dauber (Phillips). When she found out, I was still on campus her mom immediately came and got me. As I stood outside Wallingford dorm cold, hungry, and, I didn’t know what to expect. When the car pulled up I saw a brown haired white lady with a low haircut and a Jayhawk sticker in the window. The door opened and I smelled a strong scent of cigarette smoke and alcohol. This was my first time being in the car with white people and I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that it was better than starving in a dorm.
The Daubers took me in like I was part of the family. There was Sarah who thought she was a model, a teenager Becky who didn’t say much, Lynn, and the dad Dan. If you can imagine the Roseanne show, that was about the vibe of the situation.
At the end of the day Lynn dropped me off at the dorm room. Every day for the rest of the week I looked forward to that blue Neon pull up with a plate. By the Grace of God the Daubers saw me for what I was to be and not for what I was. At that time I wasn’t a coach of the year, I wasn’t a graphic designer, teacher, Pastor, or anything of that nature. I was just Mac from Georgia.
Why is this testimony important? Well you may find yourself lost on the path to where God showed you. You may be lonely, hungry, & ready to quit, BUT GOD sees you right where you are. There is a Ram in the bush with your name on it. You just have to be obedient and stay in position. Yes I had family, and yes they did love me. My parents were proud of me, my cousins knew I was in college, however they didn’t know what I was going through. You never know who’s going through what. In this holiday season I ask you one request, check on your people. Everyone is not ok. Sometimes you need the Ram but in other moments God called you to BE THE RAM.