I’m spent the last three days in Phoenix, Arizona, at the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention.

I love attending the convention. I usually spend a lot of time at the New Orleans Seminary Booth seeing people I taught and others I taught with at the seminary. It’s a great time.

The other thing I look forward to is visiting with two of my suite mates from Samford University in Birmingham. We lived in a really nice dorm for that day. We had two rooms with one bath, a real step up from the days of hall baths.

Three of us spent two years together at Samford. With our wives, we meet at the convention every year. It’s wonderful.

As we said good bye last night, I realized three great truths.

First, I realized how much I was blessed to be with two men the caliber of those guys. My roommate, Al Jackson, and I both had been at Auburn and knew each other there. He grew up in Florala, 55 miles from my home town. Our faith in Christ made us fast friends. Neither of us knew Rod Minor until he was assigned to our suite. How blessed we were to get to know him. We’ve all been friends ever since.

Second, I remembered the truth that you become like the people you hang out with.

We certainly hung out together. Life was good. Though none of us had any money, our splurge trip would be to go to a run down grill named “Jellies” where the owner would make ‘hot honey buns with ice cream.” He put them on the grill with a lot of butter and topped them with vanilla ice cream. Our problem was we usually couldn’t afford the ice cream. Even without the ice cream, it was to be remembered fondly. Every now and then I make one for Martha. She loves it, too.

Here’s the part where we were all blessed. Each of us is still in ministry and all three still actively pastor our churches. Al has been at Lakeview Church in Auburn for 38 years, Rodney has been at Anderson Mill in Austin, Texas, for 22 years and I have been blessed to serve FBC Covington for 28 years.

That has to be a record for three people who lived in the same dorm suite. We were blessed to laugh, pray, study, play, and dream together. None of us made any plans to stay where we are, but we’ve all continued to serve our churches.

Both of those guys are great pastors, and I am thankful to be associated with them.

The third truth is the most important. It is about the grace of God. God certainly is good. His mercy does extend from generation to generation.

There’s one other interesting thing about God’s blessings. All three of us have faithful, Godly children. We all have children who are in the local church and in ministry.

How blessed we are.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:1-2).

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