December 14. Bryan Howard. Bryan is a man who serves Jesus with his whole life every day. Where he works, the students and teachers call him Mr. Howard. By his work, his example, and his speech, he calls them into the Kingdom of God.
On this date in 2017, Bryan won top honors as Math Coach.
Risk opening up about your experience. It could be the opening someone needs.
Bryan Howard had a couple of important jobs, and both involved middle-grade kids. Principal Howard guided kids at school, and he led at the local church’s Bible Club.
In the sanctuary that day, Principal Howard noticed Brandon, one of his middle-school students. And this was the second or third Bible Club meeting Brandon had attended. Mr. Howard grinned. Like other eighth graders, Brandon was willing to listen to anyone (even Mr. Howard) talk for a few minutes—if it meant he would get to play for the church’s basketball league.
The basketball league drew kids who otherwise probably wouldn’t be there. But it seemed as if Brandon and Mr. Howard lived worlds apart.
Brandon had been in the principal’s office a few times, and not to talk basketball. If things didn’t change, Brandon’s consistent misbehavior was certain to land him in the county’s alternative school.
Mr. Howard had tried to get through to Brandon, but the boy couldn’t see how Mr. Howard could ever understand his situation. And Brandon had created an image of the kind of kid God would like. He figured God only liked someone just like Mr. Howard.
And Brandon would never fit that image. He had tons of badly packed baggage from his past, and his present circumstances weren’t anything to make a kid smile. His grades were under the scum at the bottom of the pond, and now he and his parents faced truancy court because of his poor attendance. Mr. Howard had asked God to help him get through to Brandon before it was too late.
So at that Bible Club meeting, when Mr. Howard saw Brandon in the audience, he grinned. God was answering his prayer.
Mr. Howard openly shared about having come from a broken home. He told how—before his parents finally decided to separate—he had often felt torn between them. His dad drank heavily, and neither of them attended church.
Mr. Howard said that when he was a young teen, to escape his situation, he started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol.
Hmm. Maybe Mr. Howard and Brandon weren’t so different after all.
After the separation, because the dad often worked late, Mr. Howard couldn’t bear coming home to an empty house. He usually stayed out late with his friends and went home when there was nowhere else to go. That pattern continued—until the night he found his father lying dead on the bedroom floor. The man had suffered a fatal heart attack.
For months, Mr. Howard blamed himself for his father’s death. If only he had come home earlier, maybe he could have gotten his father to the hospital in time. The what-ifs tormented him to the point of attempting suicide.
Luckily, one of his friends intervened. And this was the turning point. He faced the reality that trying to escape his pain through drugs and alcohol only increased the hurt.
That’s when he decided to turn to the Lord for help. God showed him great mercy. And Mr. Howard experienced the amazing grace of God in his own life.
He begged the audience to realize that God uses real-life, flawed people to show off His acceptance, forgiveness, and grace.
Brandon gripped every word. It was as if Mr. Howard were telling Brandon’s life story. He often felt the same way.
The Scripture pierced Brandon like a knife. Maybe he did have wrong ideas about God and the people who follow him. Could he put his past behind him like the principal had? He decided to ask Mr. Howard if they could talk, and this time he would listen.
“Be merciful to those who doubt” (Jude 1:22 NIV).
Risk opening up about your experience. It could be the opening someone needs.
Story based upon an interview with Bryan Howard, 2019.
Story read by Joel Carpenter