Excerpted with permission from Experiencing God in Everyday Life Bible Study by Richard Blackaby, Mike Blackaby, and Daniel Blackaby. Copyright 2026, Lifeway Press.
Richard and his team from Blackaby Ministries International were conducting a leadership conference in Puerto Rico. Richard preached the final message and then challenged participants to let God do whatever was necessary to help them grow and become more like Christ. Richard concluded the gathering by assuring the crowd that it might not be long before God did a fresh work in their lives to make them more like Jesus. It had been a wonderful two days! Now that the meetings were over, the Blackaby team climbed into a large van to go to dinner.
As Richard entered the vehicle, he saw the distant rear seat that had been occupied by the youngest team members and decided he should take his turn in the worst seats. He lumbered his 6’ 2” frame to the back of the van. The second to the last seat was folded down so people could climb over it to get to the back.
Richard tried to lift the back of that seat into place, but to no avail. Seeing a metal hinge beneath the seat, he grabbed it and tried to lift up the seat. Just then, Mike appeared on the scene, ready to help. He energetically pulled on a strap he found and then heaved the seat as forcefully as he could.
The seat sprung back into place . . . right onto Richard’s finger. Richard writhed in pain, struggling to get his hand free. Mike felt terrible when he realized what happened. Later, when the pain had subsided, Richard reflected on what had happened. By the grace of God, he had not said anything to his well-intentioned son that he would later regret. Most of the ministry team was in that vehicle.
They had just heard Richard deliver a sermon about God changing them for the better, but those inspirational words would have been for naught had Richard acted out of anger or in a manner unlike Christ as soon as his own character was put to the test. We may think our character is authentically displayed on the public stages of life, but that’s not usually the case. Rather, our authentic selves are forged and revealed in the ordinary, private, and sometimes painful, experiences of life.