One day when I got an invitation from a friend to travel on a nuclear submarine to travel from South Carolina to South Florida and spend three days underway that I met an incredible individual, Captain Brad Fleetwood McDonald. We became incredible friends. He took me on his submarine so I started taking him out on my fishing boat. We traveled to Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, the Virgin Islands, wherever. And as time went on I began to notice that he always had his Bible with him. Never pushed it in my face but he always had it with. He’d read when we weren’t catching fish and I began to ask him questions about leadership. I thought, “Who better than a man that commands 120 gentlemen underneath the ocean for six months at a time?” I’d ask him about conflict resolution, about how he led the guys, how he would help them to to grow as individuals and he always referenced his Bible. It was incredible. He’d take me and he’d read me a few Bible verses and then he’d explain them to me. And,the more time we spent together, the more I realized how different he was than me. You know, he was a sailor, but he didn’t drink like a sailor, he didn’t swear like a sailor. I did. And he had this incredible peace about him that was unlike any that I’d ever seen in all the people that I had met through Wayne, Sr., a peace that, that just was, worldly, and yet he was so incredibly humble. And one day I got up my courage and I asked him, I said, “You know, Captain Brad, why are we so different and how do I become more like you?” What do I need to do?”
He said, “Well, I read my Bible every day. I use my Bible as a guide from my life, and I have a relationship with God.” I said okay. He went on to explain, he said, “Junior, you have a hole in your heart.” And I said, “What?” he said, “You have a hole in your heart. You’ve heard you’re create din God’s image.” And I said, “I’ve heard that before.” He said, “Well, His image has a hole in your heart and that’s where He’s supposed to live.” And I said, “Well, I don’t understand.” He said, “Well think about this hole in your heart like a black hole in space.” I said, “Yeah like it sucks everything in?” He said, “Yeah, moons, stars, whatever, all gets sucked into this black hole in space.” He said, “That’s the same thing that’s happening in this hole in your heart.
It’s consuming everything that you’re trying to put in. Your drive for business deals, for new boats, or going to new places where we’re going to find more fish. Everything you do is trying to fill that hole and the only way you’re going to fill that hole is with a relationship with God.” I thought, “Could that be it? Could it be that easy?” All these things that I’ve been chasing, all these places I’ve been going, a relationship with God.
This account is from the website I am Second. A complete interview with Huizenga and video is at this link.
Prayer: Lord God, our faith and hope are in you who fills us with your spirit. We thank you for the people you place in our lives when they feel empty. Amen.
Prayer Concern: those seeking fullness in their spiritual life.
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