The Rest of My Story

God's Been So Good...

Last week I wrote about how God’s saving grace was available to “whosoever” — everyone. I told about the mid-life rededication of my life and how I asked God Almighty to bring me out of my life’s troubles in the mid-1980s.

I used my testimony to show I was living a life that was far removed from the righteousness that God wants for us. 

I quickly moved on to explain that God was waiting for me to come to him and that whosoever comes to him can receive his living water and their lives can be changed. 

Not long after I hit the “publish” button did I get this comment:

“‘He saw me as his creation, in need of repair.’ A wonderful word Charles, but what about the rest of the story — we all want to know what God did with you after your confession.”

I replied, “Stay tuned.”

Admittedly, I hadn’t planned to do this. And before I begin I want to make it crystal clear that I’m not bragging on myself, I’m bragging on God for what he did for me in the last half of my life, after my rededication.

I had been out of the newspaper business for a few years, running my own businesses, doing everything “my way.” Nothing was working.

I had been attending church under a wonderful teaching pastor. That’s how I knew I needed to repent and rededicate my life. 

When I did that, I tried to make a deal with God, telling him if he would get me back into the newspaper business, I’d never leave it. (I don’t recommend trying to make deals with God.)

Soon, I got hired by a daily newspaper about 50 miles from where I lived. I would be on the copy desk making $7 per hour. I was hired on the recommendation of a friend who was a fellow sportswriter in my early career. The editor of the paper was my age.

After about 18 months, with the 100-mile round trip to work and low wage, I was not providing for my family. At that paper, I was blocked from ever getting the job I was shooting for, editor, because I thought the editor my age was going to be a lifer. So I sought other opportunities. I took a trip through North Carolina stopping at newspapers, leaving my resume.  When I got to Raleigh, the state capital, I had just one resume left.

I had previously worked for United Press International in West Virginia, so I decided to visit the UPI bureau in Raleigh.

There, I met the Bureau Chief. She was a former employee of the family newspaper group I was currently working for. She reviewed my work and wanted to hire me, but she had already promised the only open position she had, so she said she would keep my resume.

Several months later, she called me to offer me a job. I left my current position under good circumstances. The publisher understood he couldn’t come close to matching the salary that UPI was offering.

On my first day on the job at the UPI bureau in Charlotte, North Carolina, UPI announced it was laying off 300 employees. Even though I was the newest employee in the whole company, I was spared being laid off because North Carolina was one of the most profitable states for UPI at the time. None of the layoffs would affect the North Carolina bureaus.

UPI was awash in losses of revenue and three months later, another large round of lay offs was announced. Just before that broke, however, I had been promoted to North Carolina State Editor and moved to the Raleigh bureau. I was now in management and only non-management layoffs were made in the Tar Heel State.

After two years in that job it was obvious to all that UPI was in bankruptcy and probably would not survive it. I was offered the managing editor’s position at one of UPI’s client newspapers, so I took it. 

It was a wonderful position at a small town newspaper in the Bible Belt, owned by a wonderful Christian family.

I joined a start-up church with a solid pastor and I was growing in the Lord. 

Eight months later, I was approached by a non newspaper company I had interviewed with a few years earlier. I was offered a very attractive position in Richmond, Va. I was considering it, when I got a unexpected telephone call.

It was from the editor of the newspaper I had left in West Virginia. He told me he was leaving his job and said if I was interested in the position, I should call the publisher.

I called immediately. The publisher told me, which I knew, that the company liked to hire from within. He would check, and if there were no obvious candidates from within, he would call me.

He called the next day and offered me the job. The job, however, was offered at $5,000 less than the job in Richmond.

But, I remembered my “deal” with God and took the newspaper job in February of 1990. In just a little over three years, God had provided me with my dream job.

But there are 33 more years to this story. I’ll cover these blessings as quickly as possible. 

I set my sights on being a publisher in four years. In February 1994 I was given my first publisher’s job. Thirty months later I was transferred to publish a larger newspaper. Eighteen months later, July, 1998, I was transferred to publish one of the largest papers in the company.

By the year, 2000, I was given other duties of supervising additional newspapers until eventually I was involved with the management of as many as 15 daily newspapers, several weeklies and magazines. 

Also in the year 2000, I decided I would sing special music in my church. I wrote several southern gospel songs, some were recorded by other artists. 

In 2013 God matched me with a wonderful Christian woman, who had been a missionary in Mexico City for 17 years — and she could really sing. Since then we have been blessed to sing in hundreds of churches, concerts and events. We both have frequent opportunities to share messages in churches.

All this would be enough blessings from God, but there’s more. Remember, I’m not bragging on myself, I’m bragging on God.

When I sat down in a student’s chair on my first day in journalism class at West Virginia University in the fall of 1967, the Dean told us: “If you want to get rich, the law school is that way and the med school is that way. You won’t get rich in journalism, it’s a calling.”

I am not rich in money, but I’m rich in so many other ways. 

Nevertheless, when I retired in 2023 my annual salary was more than the average lawyer in America, more than the salary of a Supreme Court Justice and more than the average doctor.

God has been so good.

And that’s the rest of my story, but maybe God’s not done with me yet.

“Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your  hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.” — 1 Chronicles 29:12

Thanks for reading. Your comments and suggestions are appreciated.