What Can Happen in 50 Years
August 24, 1973 … August 24, 2023.
50 years of life … of challenges … of joy … of growth … of the goodness of God.
50 years.
My heart is aching just a little this week ... knowing that it was 50 years ago I arrived on that sacred piece of real estate .... 7777 South Lewis … Tulsa, Oklahoma.
You might not be familiar with that street address … but to the literally tens of thousands of alumni who walked upon that holy piece of earthly ground … we know it as Oral Roberts University.
We know it as home.
I didn't actually know I would be attending ORU until just a week or two before I arrived.
You see … I had planned to go to the safe Christian college about 45 minutes from my home ... until the phone call from the ORU Admissions office that interrupted my life and set me into my destiny.
I’m not sure I have ever heard the voice of the Lord so clearly since that 8th month of the year 1973.
Around August 1, 1973 … I was sitting at the dinner table with my family … likely eating fresh produce out of our family garden that I had helped plant … fertilize … weed … harvest … and prepare.
My dad … who was truly a general of the faith … looked at me and said, “Well, Carol, are you excited about going to Houghton?”
I was truly a dramatic teen-ager … and burst into immediate tears … and said, “No! I don’t even want to go there. Why am I going there?!”
My dad … in true dad fashion … calmly put down his fork … put his hands out as a signal to hold hands around the table … and said … “Let’s pray.”
He prayed I would go to college where the Lord wanted me to go.
He prayed I would walk in my destiny and that I would have the peace that passes understanding.
He prayed the Lord would close the wrong doors and open the right doors.
This is where the story becomes unbelievable … so hang on …
The very next day … my mom came to the place of my summer employment and said, “Carol, someone called you from Oral Roberts University and you are supposed to call there on your lunch break.”
Although I never applied to ORU … I can still hear the voice on the phone that early August day … “Carol, this is Tim Cameron from Oral Roberts University. Would you like to come to college here?”
I know this phone call might sound too improbable to be true … but true it is.
Once my parents and I realized that God was opening the door for me to attend ORU ... we quickly pivoted and began to prepare for this heart-stopping change.
My mom bought a massive black trunk that we filled with my winter clothes ... high school treasures ... piano music ... pillows ... a quilt ... a lamp ... and lots and lots of hangers.
We shipped that black trunk on the Greyhound bus the week prior to my departure.
As I stood at the bus station … watching them load my trunk into the belly of the bus … I wondered, “What in the world as I doing?!”
What was I thinking?
What were my parents thinking?
What was God thinking?
My graduation gift from my parents had been purple luggage ... 4 pieces of all different sizes.
I packed each purple piece to the brim ... and tearfully said good-bye to my precious family.
Aunts ... uncles ... younger cousins … grandparents ... we all sobbed.
It seemed nothing would ever be the same again.
And it wasn't.
As we pulled out of the driveway of 6555 Alleghany Road that August morning ... I was sobered by all that was happening and how quickly it had transpired.
I had never even heard of ORU prior to 2 weeks earlier ... I had never been on an airplane ... I was a homebody ... I knew no one there ... my trepidation spilled out of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.
As our station wagon pulled out of the driveway ... I looked longingly at the family home.
How would I ever be happy anywhere but there?
My dad slowly drove out of our small town … and I watched each house disappear behind me ... the Houston's ... the Cranston's ... Auntie and Uncle Doug's home ... the Eick's.
As we reached the verdant fields lining the country road ... I knew my life was about to change.
I held my mom’s hand over the seat … with tears rolling down both our cheeks.
My childhood was over ... I was a young adult.
Tomorrow … and ORU … awaited.
When my plane landed in Tulsa ... I retrieved my four pieces of purple luggage from baggage claim ... and was greeted by a smiling, enthusiastic young man who said, "Welcome to ORU!"
As the campus van stopped in front of the cafeteria … I realized I knew no one in this place.
No one.
No one at all.
I tentatively found the registration table and quietly said my name.
The Dean of Women looked me straight in the eyes and said, "We have been waiting for you."
We have been waiting for you.
I'll never forget her words ... or her intentional greeting of me.
Never.
I found my dorm room ... my black trunk was already there ... and my purple luggage showed up shortly … brought into the room my two upperclassmen.
Within minutes my roommate arrived ...Mary Ann Smith ... from Alief, Texas.
I still remember her cultured drawl ... her wise insight ... and her comforting ways.
We became fast friends that year ... and I still love her like a sister.
She … to this day … is one of my heroines of the faith.
I started that freshman year in college with grand anticipation!
What was God’s destiny for me?
Would I marry a pastor? Or be the next Barbara Walters?
Would I play piano at Carnegie Hall?
Would I teach third grade? Or be a Pulitzer Prize winning author?
Oh yes ... I had dreams and plans in the fall of ‘73 at Oral Roberts University.
When I arrived at ORU ... I learned instantly that ORU was a place of big dreams.
You see ... at ORU we were taught to "make no little plans here".
“Make no little plans here.” – Oral Roberts
We, the freshman class of 1973, were convinced that we could change the world for Christ and His Kingdom.
Every night in the dormitory ... my friends relentlessly discussed their dreams ... and plans ... and calling ... and destiny.
At dinner in the cafeteria ... we talked about purpose ... and possibility ... and divine assignment ... and reminded each other to make no little plans.
In every prayer meeting ... we prayed earnestly about what we would accomplish during our tenure on earth.
I was rubbing shoulders with girls who wanted to be the first woman on the moon …the first woman Supreme Court justice … even the first woman president!
I made a determination during my freshman year in college.
I decided - whatever I accomplished - wherever life called me -I was going to turn the world upside down for Jesus!
I would be a world changer for Christ and His Kingdom.
I said a definitive and non-negotiable, “YES!” to my Father in Heaven.
No longer were Jackie Kennedy ... Jane Pauley ... and Barbara Walters my role models.
Now I looked to Katherine Kuhlman ... Elisabeth Elliot ...Corrie ten Boom ... and Evelyn Roberts.
I asked God, that freshman year at ORU, to challenge me to stand on my tip-toes every day of my life.
I promised God that I would never settle for mediocrity in my life - but I would serve Him with every fiber of my being.
I meant it then in 1973 ... and I am even more determined now in 2023 to make every minute ... every day ... count for the cause of Christ.
It was a year in which I hungered and thirsted for God ... and He met me there ... at 7777 South Lewis.
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!