Father wins “Wheel of Fortune” with help from dyslexic son

Matt Popovits recently won $56,000 on Wheel of Fortune. When he was joined by his family on the stage, he shared that one of his children encouraged him to apply to the show. “I have two great kids—Ava and Jack,” he explained. “And when Jack was diagnosed with dyslexia, we said, ‘Let’s watch Wheel as a way of helping him learn to read and spell.’”

“So, we started watching Wheel and he said, ‘Dad, you should audition,’” Popovits continued. “And I said, ‘I will if you help me, and he did and here we are!’”

If someone in our family had dyslexia, I hope we would be as resourceful as the Popovits family.

“Be righteous for the people around you”

Using what is available to us to redeem the challenges we face is a theme I have been following lately in the news.

• Joshua Andrew donated bone marrow to his father David as part of his cancer treatment. Then, when David’s kidney function began to fail as a result of chemotherapy, Joshua donated a kidney to him as well.
• A world-record jump roper used one of his ropes to rescue a young man who had fallen into an icy pond.
• Three teenage boys in Ottumwa, Iowa, saw a man struggling to get up after he fell onto active train tracks behind their school. Rather than wait for the authorities, they ran to the man, got him on his feet, and helped him out of danger. When asked what people should learn from their heroism, one said, “Be righteous for the people around you.”

Scripture promises: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are also told, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).

God’s word adds, “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). When we do, we follow the example of the One who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

Taken together, these texts encourage us to know that God often uses the resources available to us to help us meet the challenges we face.

• He uses people to “provide the way of escape” from temptation, sending them into our lives at just the right moment to encourage, strengthen, or even distract us when we are facing Satan’s attacks.
• He uses the spiritual gifts of our fellow believers—teaching, encouraging, serving, and the rest—to meet our needs as part of the family of faith.
• When “through love” we “serve one another,” we find that our love for our neighbor encourages and strengthens our love for our Lord (Matthew 22:37–39).
• When we emulate Jesus by serving others, God redeems the challenges of the moment by using them to draw people to faith in his Son.

What happened to the dinosaurs?

If you’re like me, your tendency when problems arise can be to ask how an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God can allow such struggles in our lives. However, this is a speculative response to our challenges. It is understandable in a culture that traces its intellectual roots to the speculative theories of Plato and Aristotle. We are “wired” to ask “why,” to want to understand the reasons for the issues we face.

But if we knew the answers to our questions, they wouldn’t usually change our circumstances.

By contrast, our Lord is a practical Father. His word doesn’t tell us everything we want to know, but it does tell us everything we need to know. It doesn’t tell us what happened to the dinosaurs, for example, because that knowledge wouldn’t change our lives in any practical way. But it does tell us how to know Christ personally and how to live our lives with redemptive purpose.

As a result, when we face the inevitable pain and suffering of life, we should ask ourselves what our Father has done to prepare us and our circumstances for this season. He sees tomorrow better than we can see today. He knew about our challenges long before we did. And he has been placing people and resources in our lives to help us. When we look around, we often find that his answers to our prayers are already at hand.

Similarly, we should see ourselves as answers to the unasked prayers of others. Every person you meet today is an invitation to love your Lord by loving your neighbor. You have been given the gifts and resources someone else will likely need today. Staying open to the challenges around you is the first step to meeting these needs. Looking for ways to serve is the first step in service.

In these ways, as we work, God works.

Using lumber to preach the gospel

Jesus met felt need to meet spiritual need. He healed bodies to heal souls. And he encouraged his followers to do the same, teaching us to “wash one another’s feet” as he had washed theirs (John 10:14). With this promise: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Accordingly, early believers “were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:45). As a result of their practical benevolence, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47).

I witnessed this pattern personally in Cuba when a congregation with whom our church partnered tore down their old sanctuary to build a new one. They kept every piece of wood and every nail, then distributed them throughout their village to anyone who needed such help. Their kindness opened doors and hearts to their witness, leading many to faith in Christ.

One of my mentors in seminary pastored a church that baptized new converts every Sunday for five years. He explained their strategy: they identified needs in their community, developed ministries to meet these needs, and then notified their neighbors of the resources available to them. When someone had such a need, they often reached out to the church. The ministries that resulted led multitudes to Christ.

During the pandemic, a church in Houston developed resources to help parents forced to school their children at home. They made them available free of charge to anyone who asked. As a result, families from across the area came to their church, and many came to faith in Jesus.

So, here are two questions I encourage us to ask ourselves all through this day:

Whose prayers will you help answer?

Who will help answer yours?