Over the past several years there have been a great number of people who simply can’t understand my faith in Jesus Christ. When I inventory my entire life, I can’t ever understand why at times I simply couldn’t see the obvious. I am human in every way.
I was for the most part raised up until a teenager in Iowa. I was always blessed with talents of every kind, but could never really see it as a blessing. In fourth grade during the year of our Bicentennial I won a contest for short story writing. I actually took a ribbon for first place and somehow was also awarded fourth place as well. The chess club was also wanting me badly as I was able to easily defeat anyone, and I probably read half of the library books as well.
Gym class was different than it is today. You were required to participate and run. I missed the day everyone had to run the 880, which is a long run. So, I had to stay after school one day and make it up. The gym teacher blew the whistle and I took off running around the track not really paying attention because it was only me. As I was coming in for the finish, I could see the gym teacher excited and waving his arms as to say, “Hurry up!” So I stepped on it as I got closer. I was panting as I finished and heard him say, “You just shattered the school record!!”
I was enrolled at Madison Elementary in Davenport, Iowa. It really didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. All I did was run. The school was the avenue that was provided for me to collect up some memories and ribbons. Soon I was wanted in football and other sports. However, I shied away. I was just that way.
Not too long ago I went on this ultra long bicycle ride. Before it began, I have to admit that I was being a little down in the dumps about turning 60 years old. When I began, it hurt like hell to pedal a bicycle up and down all the hills of Tennessee and Georgia. My knees were hurting before I even left. Every day I would endure the pain knowing that Jesus blew the whistle and this was the pathway he chose for me to get over the mental and the physical problems I was letting overtake me.
I never really knew my destination. I just went everyday as far as I could and then pitched a tent for the night. Highway 231 was my route south. The highway ends in Panama Beach, Fla. From there I continued further south, eventually staying along the Gulf of Mexico. I made my way through the Everglades and then crossed over to Key Largo, Fla. When I crossed Seven Mile Bridge, I remembered the Wheaties commercial from decades ago where a man was riding his bike in a race to the victory. Jesus was waiving me into the finish line that last 125 miles of the race. On Christmas Day, I ended the race in Key West. This is the U.S. Hwy #1. It ends on a street with my same last name, “Whitehead.” I was blown away by the crowds of people. A merchant had a snow machine blowing snow. I could only smile inside as I understood that Whitehead was still #1 and being 60 years old wouldn’t stop me from doing anything at all!!!! The avenue was the bike ride and all I had to do was pay attention to the whistle and go.
Not too long after this event I was told by a person at The Contributor office that my name had come up for an apartment. I had gotten to the point where I really no longer cared. The thought of anything different than the way I was living had really slipped away. The name of the apartments that my name had come up at ironically was the Madison Towers in Madison, Tenn.
Irony is that 50 years after my first Madison Elementary finish line, here come the next one. I actually had a conversation with a man while on the bike about something called the Year of Jubilee in the Bible. This is a year of new beginning as the old things pass away in a person’s life and the next beginning unfolds. When I went to Madison Towers let there be no doubt that the right person was there to greet me. She was probably the only one that really had the ability to wave me into the finish line. We both knew that this had a divine thing involved. There was no favor as far as protocol, that would be wrong to do.
I asked for the help of a particular person at The Contributor office as well. Serious mistakes were made in the past by a person working there. This is why we all should fully understand that an entity is only that. It’s just like a store or anything else. Without the people it’s just a worthless building. So, to the people only I say, “Thank you.” That however is no slap in the face to the entity. They provide the avenue.
I witnessed this for years on the streets of Nashville. People falsely think the organization is to thank. The opposite is actually true. It’s only the avenue that can hand the right person a whistle and the ability to wave that one personal a time into the finish line. I am really happy about the place of my jubilee and finish line. Only Jesus Christ could provide a one hundred percent true story that has this kind of flare. There is no other explanation, especially given the fact that I could probably share hundreds of stories like this that have an actual template. Just as a cookie cutter provides a perfect shape for a Christmas cookie, my story matches up precisely to the King James Version.
Carlie Tharp is the agent at The Contributor that agreed to help me get across the finish line at Madison. I am not an easy person to help at all. Things happen on the streets and you get to the point of not having trust. This is actually earned the hard way. Eventually the sentiment of us against them can actually set in and this becomes a bad place to be.
I am very grateful the avenue was provided and that everything went great. Now the next whistle has already blown and what lies ahead would be for a book that I have been working on to get a blue ribbon. Time will tell if the one who has the Jubilee cookie cutter had that incorporated into it or not. When you are blessed to see that which was, that which now actually is, you can’t help but marvel and wonder what in the world is yet to come. I really don’t like getting a hand out. The hand up is what I believe in. The task before me is to honor every American by demonstrating the investment they have made in my future. They, just as I once also did, pay taxes to provide opportunity to the vast number of people. God Bless.