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Persistence keeps coming up! Liana persisted in catching her fish. The Lord desires persistence in prayer. And here’s another story.

We spent last week at Spring Canyon, a conference center operated by Officers’ Christian Fellowship. When you’re at such a place, it looks like it’s always been there, but, of course, that is not the case. Spring Canyon resulted from the vision and persistence of one man: Cleo Buxton, an officer who was conducting discipling adventure tours in the 50s and 60s. He believed a permanent location in the mountains would facilitate “vacations with a purpose.” 

When he found the property, owned by people who wanted to sell to a Christian organization, he pitched the idea to the OCF Board. They replied something like, “Thanks but no thanks. We’re not in the conference business.” Undaunted, Buxton formed a non-profit organization, ROACT, raised the money from like-minded friends, and bought the property in 1962. OCF formally purchased it from ROACT for one dollar years later. And it’s been used to bless thousands of people through the decades.

One guy. And when told no, he persisted until he succeeded. (They’ve named part of the Spring Canyon conference center complex after him!)

God often raises up one person to initiate important actions to move his story along. The person is often outside the existing authority structures: Moses, a shepherd in the desert; Gideon, a fearful winemaker; Nehemiah, the king’s servant in a country 600 miles away. Jesus himself was outside existing structures, as were the first disciples.

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.43 – 46, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, NKJV)