God or Last Night's Pizza? : The Call of God and What to Expect If You Answer

By Tommy Covington

Motivating and insightful, God or Last Night’s Pizza? The Call of God and What to Expect If You Answer will truly inspire. With transparent and humorous accounts from his own life and ministry, Tommy reveals the value of the lives impacted by the obedience of the one who answers the call. Readers will find encouragement from the practical illustrations and biblical explanations derived from the hands-on experiences of ministry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faith 2 Fe
• Release date: Sep 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949934199

Book preview

God or Last Night's Pizza? : The Call of God and What to Expect If You Answer

God or Last Night’s Pizza?

The Call of God and What to Expect If You Answer

Tommy Covington

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION®. Copyright© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked AMP are taken from the AMPLIFIED® BIBLE, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation Used by Permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scriptures marked GW are taken from GOD’S WORD® copyright© 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH, copyright©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan

ISBN: 978-1-949934-19-9

God or Last Night’s Pizza? The Call of God and What to Expect If You Answer

Copyright © 2019 by Tommy Covington

Published by Faith 2 Fe Publishing (www.publishyourfaith.com)

All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written the express written consent of the Author.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, Stacey.

Thanks for believing in me!

Introduction

THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK IS PROBABLY the reason why you picked it up. I remember telling a pastor that I wanted to join his staff and work as a youth pastor. He looked at me and said, Let’s just see if it was God or something you ate last night.

I was pretty confused. Something I ate? Like Shotgun Dan’s Pizza in Little Rock, Arkansas, could stir something in me to quit my job of 12 years, sell all my earthly possessions, and step out into the unknown to be a pastor? If an onion can do that, we are all in trouble because no one would be left to make Shotgun Dan’s Pizza, and it is AMAZING!

No, it was definitely God. God called me. God chose me to be one who tells others about Him. I still can’t believe He trusts me even after all the wrong I have done.

This book is about a journey, my journey. I want to start by saying that you don’t have to have all these horrible stories to be used by God. God can keep you from making mistakes, and you can still be just as effective as a convicted murderer who finds Jesus on death row. He can use all of us. It takes all of us.

Many may walk around wanting to be used by God, but they don’t know how to begin. They think they have heard from Him, but they aren’t sure.

Maybe this is describing you. Make no mistake about it. There is something there, something deep down that just won’t go away. Some refer to it as a calling while others may write it off as a phase you are going through.

Oh, he’s just trying to figure out his life.

She’s just young. She’ll grow out of it.

But it won’t go away. With each passing moment, it grows. You try to dismiss it, yet moments of daydreaming about actually doing it bring supreme moments of felicity that won’t seem to dissipate regardless of who or what attempts to rain on your parade.

I find myself facing people just like you on a weekly basis. You think you have heard from God concerning a specific ministry. Maybe it is a jungle in South America, an inner-city housing project in a vast metropolis, a little church in small-town U.S.A., the homeless in your hometown, the college students in your church, or maybe even the desire to travel the roads in your RV sharing Christ to whoever will listen.

There are just a few problems. You don’t know how to answer the call. You don’t feel qualified to do it, and that little voice of doubt seems to creep in every so often saying that it’s not God, but just something you ate.

You are the reason for this book! The ministry needs you, and God needs you. He is looking for someone to answer the call and tell everyone about Him. The Lord is looking for someone who will step out into the unknown and share how Christ has changed their life. God is looking for someone, and sadly, those someones are diminishing with each passing generation. Now, let’s figure out if it is God or just last night’s pizza?

The Call: Billy and Me

FREEDOM IS A POWERFUL THING. We all desire it, but not everyone can handle freedom. I would be that someone who couldn't.

The humidity was extremely high on that August night in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We had just finished practice, and several of my teammates decided it was time to see what we could get into. It started out with a trip to the liquor store. Little did we know that this night would change us forever.

There it was again, I thought to myself. That church! Every time I passed that church, it seemed to call my name. This particular night was no different.

If you have ever been a runner, you know what I am talking about. I don't know if it was the color of the building or just the sign out front, but each time I passed the church, there was always that little voice that would simply say, Don't you remember?

I was running from God, and God was chasing me. He had been chasing me ever since I was nine years old.

Why did we have to stop at this liquor store? The light inside the church sign across the street suddenly lit up. I hurried inside as if God wouldn't follow me into the store.

You have to understand that the baseball players of the only college in this little town were notoriously known for wild and reckless behavior. I guess we just had a reputation to uphold.

With enough liquid courage in us to float a small armada, someone came up with the bright idea to go and cruise Grand. You see, Grand was the street where hundreds of teenagers would go to exercise their newly-found, false sense of freedom. There were no parents, no coaches, and no rules. There were just lots of high-risk behaviors playing out on the humidity-filled night.

Billy was the guy everyone wanted to be like. He played center field and could run like the wind. I want you to picture him, so think of Ricky Martin, Ponch on Chips, or one of the Jonas brothers (that should grab all generations). He was good looking, with cool hair and shiny, white teeth.

But Billy had one flaw, he loved to fight. Everywhere we went, Billy would pick a fight. (If you ever see me, look at the scar on my forehead. You got it — compliments of Billy himself. He decided to open a can of beer by throwing it off my forehead.) Jerk!

We were being challenged. They had called us out. Billy had started it, but all of us got sucked in. I told the guys I would ride through the back alley to see how many there were before we answered the challenge. I gave my driver specific instructions. Drive through slowly, but don't stop.

We entered the darkness. All I saw were shadows and bunches of them. Remember the instructions I gave my driver? Well, she recognized one of the guys (the enemy) and decided to stop and say, What's up? She rolled the window down.

He recognized me and pointed a snub-nosed 38 right in my face. I screamed, Go! His hand hit the side of the car as it accelerated, and the gun bounced off the car and hit the ground. We drove around to the front of the parking lot to warn Billy and the rest of my teammates.

As we rounded the corner, my teammates disappeared into the darkness. In moments like this, time stands still. I didn't want to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I began to run towards the darkness.

Running. Running from a calling. Running from a God who loved me. Don't you remember?

***

The Call of God

When you are nine years old and have an older brother, you have no choice but to take the top bunk. It was unusually comfortable, so why wasn't I falling asleep? Sorry, Dad, but I snuck in and put the thermostat on 68 degrees.

My older brother, Kenny, was sleeping like a hibernating grizzly on the bottom bunk, but there I was staring at the little rough things sprayed onto the ceiling. Every now and then, I would throw the baseball up and bounce it off the ceiling, and just like snow, that stuff would fill the bed like chip crumbs. Each time I did it, I always told myself I would never do it again.

Tommy! broke the stillness of the night. Maybe Dad heard me throwing the ball. Perhaps he could feel the arctic air escaping from the downstairs. But whatever it was, I dreaded the walk upstairs.

I eased out of bed, stepping on Kenny's