There’s not much to tell that is very exciting. I was born in a small town in East Tennessee and have lived here all of my life. I have worked at the same job for the last 36 years. That sounds sort of awful when you read it. I just realized that I haven’t been anywhere or done anything but work for the last 36 years. But in reality, I realize how blessed I am that God has allowed me to live and work like I have. Life is only boring if you are boring. They used to say I could have fun sitting with nothing in my hands on a hot rock in the sun. I always wondered if you would find a hot rock anywhere else but in the sun.
I love riding motorcycles. My first bike was a 1983 Harley Davidson Low Rider. Solid black when I bought it and UT orange and white when I sold it. I have some photos somewhere and soon as I find them I will post them here. Now we ride my wife’s motorcycle. A 1987 Honda Goldwing. She loves the extra seating material on the wing that the Harley didn’t have. I think she just likes it because she can go to sleep going down the road. I thank God that he gave me a love to ride and then provided me a way to ride. This has provided us many pleasures over the years.
If you are wondering about the name Rev Big Boy, let me try to make sense of it. When I started to work many years ago, I worked in one of those places where just about everybody has nick names. One of the guys I worked with decided that he would call me Big Boy. He picked that name because he said that I was big but I still like to cut up and play pranks like a boy. The name stuck and 36 years later, I am still known as Big Boy. Then later in my life, God began to deal with me on several issues of my life. One result of that was my surrendering to God’ s calll to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This caused me to be more than confused because the guy who had always loved to play pranks, joke and cut up, and had never really been serious, now had to be this frowning, stern faced preacher who seen nothing to laugh at and lots to be upset about. (That was my first thought and not God’s plan) I now have learned that God called me and can use me just the way I am, in fact, that is part of why God called me. After this some of the guys I work with started calling me “preacher”. SO it seemed like a natural thing to blend my new calling with my old nickname and that is how I became, Rev Big Boy.
I love photography. Over the years lots of people have told me how much they like my photographs. I have done some photography for hire such as weddings and I used to do some portrait work in my home. Maybe if I can retire soon I can pursue this part of my life again on a bigger scale. I have a web site that I use to share my work with the world and I have been blessed to sell a couple of prints this way. Who knows, this may become a larger part of my life. A link to my photo site is on the left side of this page and on the home page of this blog. Hope you enjoy the photos. (If you look)
First and foremost for me now in my life is loving Jesus and proclaiming His gospel. Although I have listed other things that I love, this would have to rank number one. God has proved His love for me so many times and realizing that has completely blown me away. I became a Chrisitan at the tender age of 9 years old, but even though I knew enough to ask God’s fogiveness, it took me several years to grow into a two way loving relationship with God. Through my teen age years, I was like most others around me. The Lord had forgiven me and I was saved, but I was not that serious about my relationship with God. To me, God was in heaven and I was on earth. I believed in God, I was saved, but I had all this earthly stuff that I wanted to do. This kept me from growing as a Christian in my teenage years and developing the trust in God that would carry me through lifes problems. Soon after I got married and moved out on my own, life began throwing some hard stuff at me. First, in 1976 my first son, Jason, was born. Due to complications during birth, Jason only lived for four days. Then in 1982, my first wife passed away from cancer. I remarried and in 1989, my second wife was killed in an auto accident. During all this and more, I began to shape my view of God based on what was happening to me in life. I had no other choice to do that since I was not serious about my relationship with God. My limited knowledge of God was that he loved me and I simply could not understand how that somone who loved me could allow so much pain to come into my life. But as time went on, God used different people and times to help me to come to the realization that God did not cause my pain and suffering. He allowed it and used it to reveal Himself to me. Think about this. Suppose I own the greatest and brightest flashlight in the whole world. I have this flash light set on a special display shelf in the living room. Everybody who comes in brags about the flash light and asks me what it’s like to own something so beautiful and bright. But you know, unless it gets dark sometimes and I have to rely on my flashlight to show me the way, I can’t really appreciate how bright and reliable the light is. That’s the way it is with God. If life was always good and I never had bad times when I needed Him and He came through for me, then I would never have grown to know and trust Him and appreciate Him for all that he does. We need the darkness to help us understand how much we need the light. Looking back I can now see how that God has opened my mind and my life to all that He wants to do for and through me. I am so grateful that God thought more of our relationship than I did. He never gave up on me even after I wanted to give up on Him.
