The Unexpected Blessing Behind a Major Mistake

Doctor Charles Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, passed away. He was 90 years old. He was also the founder of In Touch Ministries, which is a worldwide ministry of his teaching and pastoring and leading Christianity throughout the world. He's been a tremendous influence both in his preaching and in his writing for the last several decades. Today I'm going to tell you a story about how all that started.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rome, author and world renowned public speaker as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rohm.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rome, President of Personality Insights. And I had the opportunity to work on Dr. Stanley's staff for a few years back in the 80s. I realized that was a long time ago and we were all much, much younger. But I found out something that I thought was very interesting and it has been one of the most important stories I ever heard in my life to help me to understand that sometimes really bad things, really rotten things, really unfair things that happen in your life can turn out to be really great things. Dr. Stanley, back in the early 70s, he became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta around 1970, 1971. And he also was on television every Sunday morning for 30 minutes. Back in those days, there were three channels. There were Channel 2, Channel 5 and Channel 11. If my memory serves me correct, Channel 2 was NBC, Channel 5 was CBS and Channel 11 was ABC. That was it. You had three choices and three channels. So there was really no such thing as live church services. So Dr. Stanley once a month would drive downtown to the recording studios and he would give four 30 minute messages. That would be the next four Sunday mornings. He would just be standing in front of a podium and speaking. There was no live church service. There was no live audience. He would just be standing in front of a podium and he would speak for around 26, 27 minutes. They would add the intro and the outro. That would be his four messages for the upcoming four Sundays. So on one particular occasion, Dr. Stanley was all prepared and he was planned and he had his notes and he drove down to the stadium and he drove down to the recording studio. And when he got there, there was just one person at work and he said the guy just looked like he was a little bit out of it and he reeked with the smell of something and didn't look like he was totally present doing his job. But Dr. Stanley didn't have much of a choice since he was in the Recording studio and, and the guy was there with him to do the recording. So Dr. Stanley got behind the podium and he gave his 30 minute message and then another one and another one and another one. So he had poured himself into four messages, again around 26, 27, 28 minutes long. But the program's 30 minutes times four, two full hours of recording with Dr. Stanley giving it his very best, following his notes, his outline and his words of encouragement for people who watched in Touch Ministry. When Doc Shanley was getting ready to leave, he noticed that first of all the, the place smells sort of funny. He made comment that it was like an odor there he was not used to. In other words, it wasn't tobacco. It may have been some other item that the gentleman was smoking. And some of you are a little bit older can remember back in the days where people could smoke anywhere they wanted to, in restaurants, on airplanes. And over the years we've gotten a little more health conscious. So the time that Dr. Stanley was there speaking was before all of that. So the smell of the smoke of whatever it was was pretty thick. So Dr. Stanley finished up, he was ready to go. He was not real happy about the environment. And all of a sudden the guy comes up to him and says, hey man.

I forgot to put film in the camera, can you do it again? Yeah, you heard me right. The guy had forgotten to put film in the camera and Dr. Stanley had given four 30 minute messages and they had not been recorded well, to say the least. He was not happy, he was furious. But what could he do? They still had to have the four recordings, they still had to have the four sessions ready to air over the next four Sundays. So he took a deep breath, took a sigh of relief and drank a little water and did the four recordings all over again. When he finished, he was driving home and I heard him tell the story. He said, I was so mad, I was so furious. I just poured my life into those messages. And he had forgotten to put film in the camera. And then Dr. Stanley started thinking, wait a minute, what did I just do? I walked into a room where there was a guy and a camera, a camera and a guy and me. I had a podium and I spoke and he recorded it, but he didn't record it because he forgot to. But then he recorded it the second go round. But wait a minute, it was just me and the guy in a podium in a camera. Wait a minute, I don't need to go down there. I can buy a camera, I can find somebody who will film me and they'll remember to put film in the camera. Wait a minute. I can do this anywhere. I don't have to drive down there and do it. I can do this myself. And guess what? In Touch Ministry was born. That's how it started. Dr. Stanley made mention of the fact, I probably never would have had the idea that I could do this myself. I thought as a young minister speaking, you have to be in their studio, you have to use their camera, you have to do things their way. Then all of a sudden, he found out, I can do this myself. I don't need any of them. So you hired somebody, bought a camera, then he would do the messages himself, and they would deliver them and air them each week on the television station. In Touch Ministry began and it spread all over the world.

I find it to be interesting that we probably all owe a lot to that guy who was smoking some kind of something in a studio and not paying attention to what he was doing. Who would have ever thought, oh, this is going to turn into something great. This will probably go all around the world. This will probably be some kind of great ministry that will help others and minister to people and encourage people and bless people for decades to come. Nobody would have thought that. We would have thought, somebody needs to fire that guy and he can go smoke somewhere else, over in the corner with whatever is he smoking, but we don't need him here. None of that was the case. You see, he may have done what he did without paying much attention to it, but it woke Dr. Stanley up and awakened him to the fact, I can do this better. I can do this myself. Now, let me ask you a couple of questions. First of all, what are you going through that you really don't like? Is it some situation school, or with a brother or sister or mom or dad or a neighbor or whatever it might be? Are you just bummed out because something's not going your way? Well, maybe it's leading to something better. Maybe what's taking place is to wake you up to new, better, different possibilities.

Maybe what's taking place is a blessing in disguise. You know, Dr. Stanley was a very unique individual. His grandfather.

Helped raise him, and he would say to him, charles, if God tells you to run through a brick wall, you start running as fast as you can. And when you get there, he'll open up a door or make a way. Now, that may sound a little extreme, but Dr. Stanley believed that. He believed that God was on his side and would guide him and help him. He didn't think he was better than anybody. But he did love God with all of his heart and did all that he could to pastor the church and to start in touch ministry which went around the world I think probably. And I've heard Dr. Stanley speak so many times and of course now he's in heaven. He passed away in the month of April 2024 when he was 90 years old. But here's I think the number one quote that I can hear in my head all the time is this. God takes full responsibility for the outcome of any situation to those who leave the final results in his hands. I will say that again a little bit slower because most of us don't believe that. Listen carefully. God takes full responsibility for the outcome of any situation to those who leave the final outcome in his hands. That's what Dr. Stanley did with the situation within touch. He just put it in God's hands and God took full responsibility for the outcome of that situation. And look how it turned out. I would say God did a really good job. Dr. Stanley woke up, he had a new idea, a new vision, all because some hippie who was smoking something wasn't doing his job. And that led to a worldwide blessing for everyone who has ever heard Dr. Stanley or in blessed by the ministry of in touch. You know, that is a hard pill to swallow because we want to defend ourselves, don't we? Well, I will straighten them out. Well, they need to learn a lesson. Well, I'm here to tell you they're not going to do that to me again. Well, they're never going to get away with that. I'll show them a thing or two. That tends to be our natural response. That tends to be the way we want to handle situations. I cannot tell you how many times somebody would say something or do something to Dr. Stanley and he would not respond. He took the posture, I do not need to defend myself. Now if he had been doing something illegal, immoral or unethical, that would be a different story. But somebody would just disagree with something he had said in one of his sermons or somebody would disagree with something that he where he spoke or how, what he was involved in or what he was doing. I mean the man was such a blessings as so many. He would take cruises and have huge people, huge responses from people who would come and be part of the cruise and somebody would say, well I don't think this is right. We shouldn't be on a cruise ship if we, I mean it's just. Listen, if you ever do anything, somebody's going to complain. Somebody's going to gripe and somebody's going to try to belittle what you do. That's because they don't have a life of their own. So they can only pick at your life. Dr. Stanley was always gracious and he never would defend himself because he lived by the truth. God takes full responsibility for the outcome of any situation to those who leave the final results in his hands. I saw him do it so many times that I learned that's the way to do life. I don't have the time, effort or energy to try to explain everything that I do to everybody I meet. I mean, I'm not doing anything illegal, immoral or unethical. But sometimes I might make a decision and somebody might not agree with it. Do you know what I say? I don't agree with everything I do either. So I'm not surprised you don't agree with it. That's just life. But when you take an attitude of I'm not going to be offended, I am going to be an unoffendable person and I'm just going to leave the situation in God's hands and let him deal with it. I don't have to have a meeting and explain everything that was said. Nobody's going to understand everything that happened anyway. He who is convinced against his will is of the same opinion. Still, sometimes people would not change their mind if they actually understood what happened or saw things from your perspective. So I just hope on this particular podcast you might want to write that sentence down and put it on a three by five card. I have learned to let that be a guiding light in my own journey. God takes full responsibility for the outcome of any situation to those who leave the final results in his hands. God. God is running a universe. Think about that. I have a PhD in higher education administration. That means I'm qualified to be a college president. I could run a university, but I couldn't run a universe. I'm not qualified to do that. I may be qualified to run a university, but God is qualified to run a universe. Why don't I just leave the situation in his hands? Why don't I try to look for the good, the pure, the positive? When something goes wrong, don't go with it. When things don't work out like I thought they should, when I have four recordings and the guy tells me, sorry man, I forgot to put in the film in the camera and I still have to do it over, maybe all of that happened for a reason. I don't necessarily have to be happy about it. I don't necessarily have to agree with it, but I can still leave the outcome, the circumstances and the situation in God's hands. This has been a spotlight, it has been a guiding light. It has been a beacon for me for probably over four decades that I'm trying to do some teaching and training. If you listen to these podcasts, I mean we've had over a hundred thousand people do downloads, give create downloads from these in just a year and it just continues to grow. I may I share something with you? I'm not even sure I know what I'm doing. All I know is this. I want to be a blessing to you and an encouragement to you and teach you how to be wise. That's why we call our podcast Becoming Wiser. I just want to be a wise person. You want to be a wise person? Stop trying to defend yourself. Again. I think you need to be a good person. I think you need to be positive and encouraging. Look for the good, the pure, the positive in everything. Be uplifting. Don't be a person who's involved in things that are illegal, immoral or unethical. Take the high road. But even with all of that said, you're still going to mess up from time to time. Welcome to the human race. Then somebody's going to criticize you. I saw a poem that said, I hate the guys that minimize and criticize the vigorous lives of other guys. And off it went talking about how somebody's going to always criticize you.

Just remember, God takes full responsibility for the outcome of any situation to those who leave the final results in his hands. Do your best. Try hard. Love God, love people. Be a good person. And then let everything fall out the way it's supposed to. You do not have the power to control other people. Don't let other people rent space in your head for free. Leave things in God's hands. He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him. I'm sure that you or you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. I hope this has been helpful. I know it's helpful for me when I use this information on a daily basis. I trust the same will be true for you as well. Look forward to another time together on another podcast real soon. Thanks so much.

For more information about this podcast, please visit www.becoming wiser podcast.com.