As Happy As Clams
Thursday, January 4, 2024
“I feel like I’ve reached my limits, and I know I can find pleasure elsewhere. I’m convinced of that.” – Victor Dubuisson
I can relate to Victor Dubuisson…
Not as a golfer, mind you, because the 33-year-old Frenchman would “clean my clock” if we ever faced each other on the links. After all, Dubuisson won three times as a professional and was once ranked as high as #15 in the world.
What I meant was that I also experienced a similar feeling back in 2011. Having founded and then led The Saints Prison Ministry for 24 years, I came to a bit of a crossroads. Like I said, I was there in the beginning when, with about $2,000 to our names, Deanna and I used our limited resources to launch America’s first-ever athletic prison ministry.
Two decades later, we had grown to a staff of 11 with hundreds of volunteers. We also had an international headquarters in New Jersey, and branch offices in Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Colorado Springs. Between those locations, we fielded multiple softball, basketball, soccer, and volleyball teams that went into prisons across the country virtually every week… competing against inmate all-star teams and sharing the gospel right there in the gym, on the court, on the pitch, or on the diamond.
Yes, there were some other reasons why I decided to leave the ministry that God had used me to birth… and which was our family’s sole source of income. However, at the top of the list was that I had a nagging suspicion that I had accomplished all that I could and had taken the ministry as far as my limited skill set would allow. And so, not wanting to stymie its growth, I voluntarily stepped away.
Today, Deanna and I are happy as clams serving God in a new ministry that includes planting a church, working with at-risk youth, and encouraging fellow believers to step out in faith through my daily devotional messages. We are also surrounded by our kids and grandkids, making us very “happy campers” indeed in our 34’ trailer.
Just like Victor DuBuisson, who went on to say…
“Many people will say that I could have done more and that I could have been world No. 1. But I’m more than happy with it [my career]. I don’t live in regret all the time. When I look behind me, where I started and where I am, I can tell you that I am very happy.”
“Be content with such things as you have…” Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
