Blake Stephens - A Long Arduous Journey
You are listening to the Cumberland Road podcast, where I explore faith journeys with my guest. I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. And this time, I'm in conversation with Blake Stephens. Blake is a Cumberland Presbyterian minister in Franklin County, Tennessee. He's an outdoorsman and volunteers for the local search and rescue organization. This conversation has been 3 years in the making. When I first approached Blake, he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. We spend some time talking about his diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Blake also shares how he has moved from being a nominal Christian to becoming an ordained minister. Enjoy this conversation with Blake Stevens.
T.J.:Blake, about 3 years ago, I reached out to see if you'd be willing to be a guest on Cumberland Road. And unknown to me, there were things going on in your personal life. And I thought, well, maybe we could start there. What was going on in your life 3 years ago?
Blake:Yeah. So about the time you, reached out to me, I had a, an incident where let me tell the whole story. So this is my wife is an airline pilot. My wife came home 1 afternoon or one evening. Actually, it was late.
Blake:She'd been up for about 36 hours when she got home and sat down in the floor to kind of stretch her legs a little bit and and whatnot. And I, I kind of crawled down the floor, laid my head in her lap, and she just patted me, on my chest. And she said, Blake, what is that? And I said, what's what? And she had found a lump on my left side, right right over you know, kinda under my pectoral muscle.
Blake:And, she said, you need to call the doctor that. And I'm not really good about going to the doctor, but I, took her advice to heart, because of the tone in her voice. And so the next morning I called the doctor and, the nurse said, well, it'll probably be about 3 months before I can before you can get in. And I said, okay. Great.
Blake:3 months, and I don't have to worry about this anymore. I'll just go and say, okay. I'm gonna go to the doctor in 3 months. Well, that very afternoon about 3 o'clock, I'm sitting in the pickup line to pick up my youngest son, Lucas, from school. And the nurse calls and says, hey.
Blake:The doctor says he wants to see you. So, apparently, the doctor heard that I had called and said, oh, wait. Blake Stevens does not call me about anything. So, I'm going to, go on and have him come in. So he came in.
Blake:He pokes around on my chest a little bit, and he says, I don't know what that is. And I said, oh, great. I love to hear that from the doctor. Right? You always love to hear that.
Blake:So I went and had a bunch of tests. And that night, he says, we believe he calls me, and he says, we believe you have a pretty rare type of cancer. The guy, he says, I've never seen this. The guy that did the ultrasound has only seen it one time in his whole career. So we're gonna set you up for some appointments at Vanderbilt.
Blake:So I said, okay. And I said, kinda, what does this mean? You know, asking my doctor because he's been my kid's doctor. We've known him forever. And he says, well, it's, not good.
Blake:If it's what we think it is, it's not very good. We're just gonna have to pray. My doctor says that, and it's like, well, I'm good at that. I I I I'm connected that way, so I can do that. So appointments go along, go to Vanderbilt, and, the the the diagnosis is this is some form of a chondrosarcoma.
Blake:And Vanderbilt is the chondrosarcoma center for the southeast. So I go up there, and the doctor says we don't think it's chondrosarcoma. Okay. Great. He says we think you've had that all your life.
Blake:I said okay. Well, I'm not sure about that. Because I I you know, I'm like, I'm pretty aware self aware, but he says, we're gonna check check back with you in 6 months. So I said, okay. So came back.
Blake:Okay. Cancer scare done. It's not what it is. Right? 6 months, I go back.
Blake:It's doubled in size. Mhmm. He pokes at it. He pokes around on it. And, he says, well, let's check back in 6 more months.
Blake:And I'm like, oh, okay. Alright. So I leave. At some point, Vanderbilt has this app where you can get in and you can read the doctor's notes. And I I read on there that he palpated it, and, it was not any pain.
Blake:And I'm like, oh, that's not true because it hurt like the dickens. I just didn't act like it hurt because, you know, I'm a I'm a dumb guy. Right? I got a pretty high pain tolerance. I've done martial arts most of my life.
Blake:And, you know, I've had stuff happen where my eyes shut off for 30, 40 seconds. You know, pain shuts your eyes off sometimes. And so Wow. I've had that. It didn't shut my eyes off.
Blake:So I'm like, well, that's not too bad. You know? Mhmm. So the next time, the next 6 months goes around, I go back to see him, and he's poking at it again. I said, now I read your notes.
Blake:I wanna tell you. It hurts. I just don't act like it hurts. I said, oh, okay. And he says, you go on home.
Blake:He says, it's it's we're we're gonna come back in 6 more months. I said, okay. I'm not leaving. Thank you. That was on a Friday.
Blake:Well, that sat that next Saturday morning, he calls me. And, he says, mister Stevens, I still don't think this is cancer, but I would like to get it off of there. I said, I'm 100% on board with that notion. Let's go in there and cut this joker out of there. Mhmm.
Blake:So he schedules surgery for me. I go in for surgery. And, I wake up after surgery, and, I feel okay. And Leslie comes in. My wife comes in, and and she says, have you talked to the doctor yet?
Blake:I said, no. I haven't. And she said, well, Blake, it is cancer. And the minute they touched it, it kinda fell apart, and it's gonna take a much bigger surgery to do this than than what they could do then. So they just sewed you back up and sent you back out here.
Blake:So then I began the long and arduous journey of trying to prepare for this surgery, and we ran into all kinds of issues. The biopsy they did on it showed a couple of different possibilities of the type of cancer that it could be. If it was 1, they wanted to do 3 rounds of, the red devil chemo, then do surgery, and then do 3 more rounds after that. If it was the other kind that I thought it was, the diagnosis was we're gonna cut it out. And I don't recommend you do too much, googling when you've got cancer, because when I googled all of that stuff, 90% of the people who have the kind of cancer that they that this could possibly have been, They die in 6 months after surgery.
Blake:Oh. So that was that. So I'm like, okay. So surgery gets it out of there, but, you know, there's this high likelihood of death after that. So needless to say, I did a whole lot of praying, and I did a lot of things.
Blake:And I could probably talk for 2 hours about all that god did in the midst of my prayer life and in my time. Leslie will tell you there were nights that I was not awake, but I was talking, but I wasn't you know, she couldn't understand what it was I was saying. Mhmm. And so comes time for surgery. Surgery is gonna be on a Thursday.
Blake:Leslie comes home from work on Wednesday. No. She came home from work on Monday, and she's not feeling very well. And she and I both have to go have the COVID test before you can go in the hospital. You gotta show that you're not you're COVID negative, all that kind of stuff.
Blake:Well, we get the results on Wednesday, and she's positive. Mhmm. So I'm gonna have to go into the surgery all by myself. Problem is about noon on Wednesday, I start running a fever. So I have COVID as well, And we went through the whole thing with the doctors of well, you have this negative test.
Blake:We could probably go on and do the surgery. But you do actively have COVID, so that might not be the best thing. They decide, okay. We're gonna have to wait 2 weeks. So 2 more weeks of those nights of not really sleeping, but not really being awake, and praying and worrying and all that kind of stuff because they still have not determined which of these two kinds of cancer it is.
Blake:They've just decided we're gonna go in and cut it out. So finally, the 2 weeks is over. I go in for surgery. They cut out 4 of my ribs and my chest.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:They took out 2 thirds of my pectoral muscle and, put in a concrete pad. Actually, I get out I get out of surgery. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a it's an it's an interesting, interesting thing to have this concrete pad in your chest now.
Blake:But, get out of surgery, all those kinds of things. And then finally, they, by having it all cut out, they find that it is still a chondrosarcoma, but it is not the kind that they thought it was. It's still an extremely rare form. In fact, the the kind that I had, there are only, like, 40 cases known in medical history in an adult. Some there's more in kids, but for an adult to have it to show up like like I did, it's it's, extremely rare.
Blake:So they study me, and I do they do tests and DNA and all that kind of stuff just to try to figure out if, you know, how to predict any of this. The good thing about the kind that I have is that it, once removed, you have a much, much higher success rate of I mean, it's been 2 years past that surgery, so I've outlived that 6 months. So, I do tell everybody I still kinda live 6 months at a time because I go back for my checkups every 6 months and do all the tests and stuff. And I do pretty good for about 5 of those months, 5 and a half of those months. Those last couple of weeks, you get in that headspace sometimes, and you get to, you you re I get to revisit that thought of what the c word does to our brain, what the what cancer does to us.
Blake:But, it's been a it's been a fascinating journey for me spiritually. It's been fast it's been really good for my church. I saw my church post COVID or in the midst of COVID there, figure out how to rally around somebody to see what prayer did, to understand, to to witness what I believe is a miracle because I think and you can dispute me or whatever. Anybody can that they want to. But I believe firmly that all of that time and all of that space between the diagnosis and the surgery, God was probably I believe God was changing the type of cancer that it was.
Blake:From what they could not figure out to a kind that, I am successful in outliving.
T.J.:So you are missing 3 ribs? 4 ribs and you have a concrete chest on one side.
Blake:On one side, Which means I can only sleep on in about 2 positions. It's heavy enough that if I lay flat, I can't really breathe. It kinda collapses that lung just a little bit. I can't breathe well. So, my my wife gives me a hard time.
Blake:She says when she was pregnant, she wanted an adjustable bed, but we didn't get one. But as soon as I couldn't breathe laying down, we got an adjustable bed. So that's fair. We did. So I can sit up or I can lay on one side.
Blake:I can lay on my right side. I can kinda
T.J.:Any other physical limitations?
Blake:Well, not having not having 2 thirds of your pectoral muscle kinda affects your bench press. Some of those things, there are some positions that I get in that I'm like oh yeah I don't have any strength there. There absolutely there are some things you don't realize how much you use your pectoral muscle till you don't have one. So yeah. Yeah.
Blake:There's some physical limitations. But not anything that, you know, I still do everything that I've always done to to some degree or another that I have to just I have learned to make adjustments.
T.J.:Mhmm. So in this timeline, where did I reach out to you about being a guest on Cumberland Road?
Blake:Literally right before I got that first diagnosis.
T.J.:Okay.
Blake:With right that 3 year point, 3 three and a half years ago, right in there. Right. Right about the time, first went to the doctor and we found that. And I'll be honest. I I love to I I I wanted to be the guy who was believing the doctor, but I knew I knew something was up that whole time.
Blake:I I my prayers never stopped. I never, I I just kept going. What the doctor says? The doctor says? But I I knew I knew deep down that, something was wrong.
Blake:And, you know, there were probably opportunities that I could have gone to see somebody else or and those kinds of things, but I was going I don't think you know, everybody else can send me to Vanderbilt because they're the people. I mean, there was a there's an entire board. When I when I finally when they finally found the cancer, I mean, my wife was livid. We sat we went to to meet several different doctors, and she's like, so did you sit on the board that for a year said this wasn't cancer? There was no stopping her.
Blake:You know, she and yes, ma'am. I did. Mhmm. And we were wrong, you know, and and those kinds of things. And and in a very healthy fashion, in my opinion, you say, yes.
Blake:We were wrong. Now this is what we're gonna do. And that's the way we moved and that's the way we functioned. And I was good at that. Cause I don't like living in the past.
Blake:I would rather just go, okay, what are we going to do now? Mhmm. Let's do it right. Let's let's attack this thing.
T.J.:Let's talk about your, head space and how that impacted your faith, because you're you're kinda in this roller coaster. And I'm I'm gonna, like, interject myself into this so you you can push me out. But I think, oh, okay. Doctor says it's no big deal, then it's no big deal. And I wouldn't think that much about it, you know.
T.J.:I don't even but then I imagine it would be kind of like that little just a little voice, that little something in the back of the head of like, well what if? What if it is real? And or what if it is cancer? Or what if I die? And I I can see me wasting energy of trying to silence that little voice, that little thought.
T.J.:And I would I think I would find that distracting. I don't think I could completely push that out until I'm also an impatient person. Just give me an answer. It is or it isn't so that we move on to the next step. No no more of the 6 month thing, you know.
T.J.:Yeah. I Instant gratification whether it's bad or good news. Just give it to me and then I can deal with it. The unknown, I think, would drive me nuts.
Blake:It was a crazy year because, like I said, in my gut, I kinda knew something. But my brain was saying, well, the doctors know. Mhmm. And so the headspace existed in tension, my gut knowledge and my head knowledge, and they wrestle each other all the time. I was constantly doing that, and it didn't help that it was continually growing, Then it was growing as fast as it was.
Blake:So I could see it. And if I lifted my hand above my head, you could see it too. I could show it to you. You know? And that that this not I mean, when they cut it out, it was the size of a, grapefruit by the time they got it out.
Blake:It's huge.
T.J.:Oh, yeah.
Blake:Right. And it's sitting on top of a rib. That's where it was. It was sitting on top of a rib attached to one of those 4 ribs. The reason they cut all the rest of them out is they don't want anything that it's touched to still be in existence.
Blake:That's the reason they cut the pectoral muscle out too. Because the pectoral muscle had sat on top of it. And so they're like, we don't want anything that's touched it to still be in your body. That's the plan to move forward and hopefully be cancer free. So, yeah, the headspace was kinda crazy.
Blake:It I I can only say with from a faith perspective, that I I just I mean, I I learned through the time. God was testing my patience, teaching me patience, bringing me to this place of trusting and understanding. And then as I said before, I believe he was fully at work Mhmm. In what was going on. Now it all changed from that first surgery to the next to a very, very different headspace.
Blake:I didn't I couldn't think about anything else. I I I felt god's presence in every moment. Because COVID had been such a big part of everything, and Vanderbilt was you know, they had all their rules and all their stuff and all those things. I mean, I quit preaching. I pulled back.
Blake:I stayed at home. Thank you to my CP brothers and sisters here in Franklin County who, covered my pulpit every single Sunday for me. It was, that was not a thing I had to worry about at all. It was wonderful, that all of that was covered, and that's that connectional nature that we had. I literally called Michael Clark and said, hey.
Blake:I need some help. And he's like, okay. Here, I I got this. And he scheduled people, and and, then, Gary Tubb had retired and had moved back here. And Gary took over.
Blake:He he preached a couple of months out here, and, I could attend a a Facebook. I could watch church and and do all those things. And, the church had prayer services and all those things. And I was surrounded by all the things you should be surrounded
T.J.:by. Mhmm.
Blake:All those people of faith who, helped carry the burden. And then, you know, so so now, when I came back, things started to change. The church was reinvigorated. God did God did much more than just take care of me, which is how God works. Right?
Blake:God's this multilevel. Everything works.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:And we don't see it. And, Yeah. So the face of the church has changed since then too. We're we're we're different different people, and, it's pretty awesome. Couple things were born out of out of that time.
Blake:Out of those prayer services, our women's group began a a, monthly get together where they come up with projects because I was their first project. Taking care of me was the first project this women's group had, you know? And and, then when I got well, they were like, okay, well, that worked. Let's do something else, you know. And and so this new vibrant women's group came out of all of that.
Blake:And I could probably come up with 2 or 3 other things, but it's God did a lot in the midst of that, and I am privileged to bear witness to it.
T.J.:Have you always been in the faith community, the Christian faith community? Or or was this something that you were introduced to later in life?
Blake:Well, so I have been a lifelong Cumberland Presbyterian. My family started going to Winchester, CP, before I was born. But I was probably not a very good Cumberland Presbyterian. What do you mean? Those times.
Blake:I I I actually didn't really enjoy church too much as a young person. The whole sitting down and being quiet and, you know, those kinds of things.
T.J.:This is coming from a minister.
Blake:Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely, it is. This might be why I've this I my my ministry looks different than some, and this might be why.
T.J.:Well well, looking back Blake, what what was it about the worship or church life that, you didn't care for too much?
Blake:In an attempt not to be offensive, I didn't see a lot of people who looked like me. I have found that not to be true, and I found that I I I find that there are a lot more people that look like me than I gave them credit for when I had that view. But I kind of viewed my I I kinda thought of myself as kind of a man's man, kind of a tough guy. And I didn't see that out of a whole lot of men in the church.
T.J.:Mhmm. What'd you see?
Blake:I saw mild mannered respectable. Nothing wrong with it. Quiet individuals. I saw that women did most of the work in the church. That's the way I saw it.
Blake:Mhmm. Still kinda see it that way. And I I didn't find that I fit in, to very much to what was supposed to be the Christian male stereotype. Now like I said, that's me in it with a bias, I think, judging a lot of people. I actually find there are more people that walk and talk like me than I ever expected, but I have to be me for them to bring that out,
T.J.:if
Blake:you know what I mean. They're comfortable being that guy around me because I'm that guy.
T.J.:So are we talking about ego, macho, who can lift more weights, who's the strongest person in the room. Are we talking about that type of male?
Blake:No. I'm I'm talking about, Are
T.J.:we talking about, like, survival skills? Like, I can start a fire.
Blake:That's kinda me. I'm the outdoorsy guy. I'm the guy who who says, well, of course, you can make fire with a lighter. Why don't we learn how to make it with rubbing 2 sticks together? That's that's my thing.
Blake:Right? I can make fire from, hand drills to bow drills to flint and steel and all those kinds of things. That was my thing. Again, you know, I was a martial arts guy, so I kinda that was kinda part of it. I I kinda wanted that rough and tumble, kinda lifestyle.
Blake:Didn't see too many people that like taking punches at church. And I did. It didn't bother me any. So that was that was part of it. Again, the the persona that was probably self described.
Blake:Alright? So I think I I had a view of who I was, and I decided that, and this would be ego for sure, that, I was a lot tougher than most of those people, and I liked hanging out with people who were tougher than me. That was that's always been my thing. I wanna be the dumbest guy in the room. Mhmm.
Blake:I wanna hang out with people smarter than me. I wanna hang out with people tougher than me. I wanna hang out with people that know more than me so that I can learn more. That's my personality.
T.J.:So the next
Blake:time I see you very well when I went to seminary.
T.J.:So the next time I see you and I do a leg sweep, you're not gonna be offended.
Blake:Oh, no. Yeah. Try.
T.J.:Well, now that I know your weak spot, I know where I'm going.
Blake:Yeah. Well, it may be weaker. It might break your hand. I don't know. You know?
Blake:I'm yet to test that out. So I had a I I had opportunities to train with a lot of different people. And, one of them was a Japanese grand master. And, he was, he could always find your weak spot. I I watched him do seminars and stuff, and I I saw him do do something to a guy one time.
Blake:And then he he almost had this look of oh on his face. Uh-oh. I've messed up. He he helped the guy up, and he says my power, and this was his him speaking in Japanese, he says my power always finds the weak spot. He's he's recently had knee surgery and his instinct was to go for it.
Blake:And he went outside of his mind. Right? And then once he did something, then he went, oh, no. My instinct took over, and I might have hurt this guy. He didn't hurt the guy.
Blake:Mhmm. But he did say, oh, yeah. That was my mistake. I went to his weakness.
T.J.:So your your early thoughts of the church, you looked around and you didn't see a lot of people that were like you. And that was a turn off.
Blake:Yeah. Yeah. It was. I oh, I'm I'm gonna tell all kinds of stuff here. So one of my wake up moments with church, I had gotten kind of down on lots of things and we had listen, we had had, by this time I'd had my first child.
Blake:My my wife and I had had had given birth to our first child. Actually, I guess we'd given birth to our second. So we had 2. So Evan had come along. And it was mother's day, and I really didn't want to go to church on mother's day.
Blake:I wanted we wanted to go down to the lake. That was one of what's what we were gonna do. So that's what I wanted to do. And, I have to track back to see this. I didn't see it at the time as it was happening, but as I look back in my memory, I can see exactly what God did.
Blake:We had to drive by the Winchester Cumberland Presbyterian Church on our way to the lake. Mhmm. And it just so happened we drove by right as. A bunch of women were walking out carrying roses because they were moms. My wife and I had gotten in a heated discussion over whether we were going to church that day, and she was mad at me.
Blake:And I saw that, and my heart broke. And I recognized what I had done. That I had put my desires in not only in front of hers, but in front of this opportunity for her to be recognized for the greatest thing that she will ever be. And I softened that day to a lot of things, and we started going to church a little more. That was a wake up moment for me, that, my my views and things.
Blake:And Liza will tell you to this day, that I made this statement before, that I believe that church was for weak minded individuals, to go to and to be instructed on how to behave. And I didn't need that. Mhmm. That's preacher Blake telling you. That's what I believed or what I said and what I thought at the time.
T.J.:Oh, you don't think that anymore?
Blake:No. I don't. I think it can be.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:I think it can be. But I think that my job is to strengthen your mind to a place to where you recognize that God is at work in each and every aspect of your life, and is seeking to draw your egotistical, macho self out of that, and turn you into somebody that nearly cries every time they preach. To turn you in to somebody who loves more than they ever thought they could. That's what I wanna do because that's what God did for me. So I wanna help everybody experience that.
Blake:Get yourself out of the way completely die to self, even if it's just a little bit every single day. I sometimes use this analogy. I God had to do this with me. He still does it with me. He takes this little bitty knife.
Blake:It's this little bitty tiny one, and he cuts off just a little bitty part of me. And if he can cut off part of me every day, then I become more who he created me to be. Because he's killing the part that's I've created to reveal what he created. So sometimes that's a few ribs. Sometimes that's a big blow to the ego.
Blake:Sometimes it's loving somebody you never ever thought you might love.
T.J.:That didn't happen overnight for most.
Blake:No. No. It was a long, arduous journey. And I I, you know, and I I'm I'm can I'm still on it. Thank thank the lord.
Blake:I'm still here and still doing it.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:Still dying. Still dying. And that's a good thing.
T.J.:Well, I interrupted you with a poor attempt at humor. You were you were talking about, Mother's Day and that was a moment that you softened. So what what did the coming months years look like after that?
Blake:So after that, like I said, I softened, and a strange opportunity revealed itself to me. I got invited to, go on an Emmaus walk. I didn't even really know what that was. I had heard of it because I had a nephew who had gone. And I had, written him a letter.
Blake:That's part of it. I'm not so as a spiritual director for the Emmaus community here, I tell everyone there are no secrets. They're just stuff that are surprises. But, yeah, you might get a letter sometime during the weekend if you win. And, so I've written a letter and and my egotistical self said, boy, I'd like to get a bunch of letters.
Blake:People tell me how great I am. My love language is words of affirmation.
T.J.:Okay. So This this is the the old Blake. This is This
Blake:was the old egotistical Blake. Absolutely, that was who that was. But at some point said to my wife, yeah. I'd like to do that. So years had gone by.
Blake:That was prior to Mother's Day that I said that. Years had gone by, and, I get a phone call one evening. My my 2 kids are there. I am playing a video game because Wyatt was old enough that he could get through levels 1, maybe 2 of any video game. But that's as far as he could go.
Blake:So they would watch me play through the rest of the levels. So I'm playing a video game, and I get a phone call from this guy. And he says, I heard that you might like to go on the walk to Emmaus. And I'm focused on playing the video game. I'm like, yeah.
Blake:And then I you know, and I'm like, why did I say that? What's he talking about? And, he's he said, oh, I'd like to sponsor you. And, I said, well, okay. I said, tell me more about that.
Blake:What what is this? And he's like, oh, it's this 3 day weekend. And then I'm like, ding ding ding. That's what I did for my nephew. That's where the letters come from.
Blake:Mhmm. And, so I was like, okay. He said, can I come over tomorrow night and do the paperwork? And I said, sure. And I hung up the phone.
Blake:Leslie had gone to exercise, and to get away from the 2 children after I had gotten home from work, right, to to get herself her little, hours worth of breathing in, and and a little break. So she comes in, and I said, what have you gotten me into? And she said, what do you mean? I said, Don Bean has just called me. And Don Bean had been my Sunday school teacher in the 3rd 4th grade at Winchester Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Blake:And he's asked me to go on this walk to Emmaus, and she has this look come across her face like, Oh, yeah. She had talked to Dawn about it sometime earlier and had planned to tell me about it, but she had forgotten to tell me that she had talked to Don. And so Don just called and there was this thing. I said, well, you gotta call him back. Tell him because I ain't going.
Blake:You gotta call him back and tell him I'm not going. He's supposed to come here tomorrow. I ain't going.
T.J.:No. Hold on. Hold on. Let me let me dissect this a bit. So this is Blake, macho man Blake.
T.J.:But in the moment of uncertainty, you're telling your wife to make the call that you're backing out?
Blake:Absolutely. Yes. Right? What a weenie.
T.J.:Yeah. Weak.
Blake:Yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm like, you I did. You got me into this.
Blake:You're gonna get me out. She said, well, I I you don't know my wife very well, but she's really mild and mannered and meek. And she said, if you're if you ain't going, you gonna have to be the one that tells it. So, you know, if you know her, you know that's exactly what she did.
T.J.:I haven't met her, but I like her already.
Blake:Yeah. And so Don comes over, and we start doing this paperwork. And I'm like, oh, man. I can't tell this guy no. I can't.
Blake:He's my Sunday school teacher. I I've known him. I went to spent I I went through all my school years with his daughter. I'm not I you know, I I can't back out of this. So I do all the paperwork, and then it comes time to go on the walk.
Blake:And I, again, I get mad at my wife, and I say, I I'm not going. I'm not going. And she said, well, you call him and tell him you're not going, but I'm not gonna do anything. And I'm mad, and she does she does probably the smartest thing that she could have done at the time. She's like, me and the kids are going somewhere.
Blake:I don't know where they went. Walmart or something. And she abandoned me to be sit there alone and wait on Dawn Bean to come pick me up. So I toughened up, loaded up in the car, and went. And, got there, It was just a strange experience.
Blake:Like I say, I don't want to say too much about Emmaus because there are some special things. But I'll say this, that in the course of that weekend, just like those pilgrims on the Emmaus road, I had an encounter with Jesus, and my life changed. And that's when the wrestling match began. The wrestling match lasts about 5 years, because I like to wrestle. But it started in that very weekend.
Blake:Yeah.
T.J.:In that wrestling match, what did it entail? Blake changing, Blake transforming, Blake in the ministry. What what does that mean?
Blake:Yeah. So, again, I started to interact with more people and recognize that maybe they were more like me than than I thought.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:Got it. It I I began to serve there. And as I served on Emmaus teams, as I served in the kitchen, in the background, as I as I did those things, I I just started I I just I kept encountering god. I kept seeing god over and over and over and recognizing that I had been seeing God over and over and over all of my life. I just didn't know until that initial time, I did not know that I what I was seeing was Jesus at work.
Blake:I I I was I don't wanna say I was secular because I was I was I was a spiritual dude. I just wasn't a religious dude.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:So I had been seeing god in a lot of a lot of ways, but, boy, when I started to serve and I think that's one of the biggest differences that I find when when really when when when I see what I define as real Christianity is it comes out of that service. And, of course, that service comes out of what we've received. But, boy, if you just start serving first, you might you're liable to see it. Come on. It does it's it works both ways.
Blake:You can receive a whole bunch of grace and then serve out of that, or you can just start serving, and you'll just start receiving a bunch of grace. You'll start to see it and start to understand it. So for me, it was both. And, I worked on my way all the way through the lay person side in that wrestling match. At one point, I had a preacher that tell me, that on an Emmaus walk, there's a talk on the Emmaus walk.
Blake:And it may be the same title and some of the others, but it's called Priesthood of All Believers. And it's essentially about how we're all called to be priests in whatever place, and, you know, at your workplace, at your home, all that kind of stuff. Well, in the back of my mind, I started going, well, that's a cop out. That's a cop out. And I told a preacher that, and he said, well, that ain't normal.
Blake:If you think that being a priest wherever you are is a cop out, then you're doing that very same thing, and that ain't normal. And so I began to say, well, does that mean that I'm being called to something else? And, of course, it did. Of course, it did. But it took me a little while to figure that out.
T.J.:Now, Blake, what what was your, first career?
Blake:So I grew up my in a family furniture store. So I I've been in sales all my life. I start I earned my first commission check when I was 13 years old working on Saturdays, And I start I sold a lady a recliner on a Saturday afternoon when I was 13, and it was one of the highest highs I had had in my 13 years. And, I made my daddy proud and all those things. And, so I worked in sales there.
Blake:I went into, I I did some on the road sales for a little while, worked for LG. When, high definition television first came out, that was that was my time. Alright? Mhmm. I sold the first high definition television, high definition plasma television to be sold in the southeast.
Blake:I sold it to the deal to my dealer. And then when he had a customer interested in it, I went and sold it to him. I sold a 42 inch plasma television to a dealer. At that time, the the, cost was $9,999 for a 42 inch high definition television.
T.J.:Golly.
Blake:And he sold it to his customer for $14,999.
T.J.:Commercial or residential?
Blake:It was residential. The guy owned a Budweiser distributorship. I even went in and put it in his house. I installed it for him and everything. I did all that stuff, to good customer service.
Blake:I'm a firm believer in that. Right? So we did all those things. So I sold on the road for a while, and then came back off the road, back into the furniture store, up until I finally gave into ministry. And the day the day I the day I went in went to seminary, my dad put a going out of business sign up at his furniture store.
Blake:My dad went out of business, after I left. There were other factors, of course, but it was pretty unique to me the day that I left at this going out of business. The thing I thought would always be my future. Right? And I thought I was, that I would inherit the family business and do all those things, was not what god had.
Blake:And, you know, one door opened and another closed forever, which was really healthy for me, because I had always used that furniture store. It was a really comfortable safety net. I could go out and venture and try some other things. I tried my hand at insurance too, and I did not like selling insurance. I I like selling people things that made them happy.
Blake:Nobody's happy to pay an insurance bill. It was just not just didn't fit my personality, I guess. But, Yeah. Yeah. So, all those things changed over time when I left for seminary.
Blake:Yeah.
T.J.:Well, let's live here for a minute. You're on a Emmaus walk weekend and you're in conversation with a minister about the priesthood of all believers. And then I asked you about your, your first career. Because I just wanted context of
Blake:Sure.
T.J.:What all your balancing family, career, and what transformations are about to hit your life.
Blake:Yeah. Yeah. It was. So I'm having that conversation, and I had that conversation with multiple ministers. That was one of probably one of the best things about the the the friendships I got out of the walk to Emmaus.
Blake:I I got to interact with a lot of the different preachers, And I tried to do this for my for for my perspective now. Sometimes it's easier to talk to a preacher who don't really know you and maybe not your preacher. I do more counseling with people that are that are not members of my congregation. Sometimes it's just on the phone. Sometimes I do interactive.
Blake:Those kinds of things. Just you you can be a little I found I was a little more open with somebody that, didn't know everything about me. Mhmm. My I had pretty much the same minister all my life at being at Winchester. Jonathan Clark came to Winchester when I was, I think, 6 years old, and he was my minister all the way through.
Blake:He, had my ordination service. He spoke at my ordination service. So in in in my ordination service, he said that he and I had had a conversation, and I told him. I said, you're the only preacher I ever really had. You know?
Blake:Only you were my CP minister. In that ordination service, he, you know, he said, well, I hope I did a good job. And, of course, I I think you did a great job. But, yeah. So he he he had been my minister there.
Blake:So he'd known me all my life and known my family, all that kind of stuff. So sometimes it's just safer to talk to somebody that doesn't really know you. And is just taking just what you have right there at that moment. Mhmm. And so I try to be that in the Emmaus community or outside.
Blake:So I'm also serving in the same county I grew up in. So their people come to me. They've known me all my life, but I'm the preacher, but I ain't their preacher. So they can come talk to me about things and and seems to work okay.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:But back to the to the to the journey. So, yeah, I I go all the way through the walk to Emmaus. I actually made a a a friend with a minister friend through Emmaus that introduced me to a guy who was doing men's retreats. And I started doing men's retreats with a guy named Larry Malone. He was, he was a Methodist.
Blake:And, we would do God's story men's retreats. That was his kind of thing. And he was a fighter pilot in, Vietnam, and he he could tell stories. And he really helped me learn how to tell a story to connect god in the everyday. So I I learned from him how to take everyday moments and pull god out of that spot, and then flesh that out and build everything into god's story as opposed to our story.
Blake:So I did a bunch of those, and that was still scratching my itch of manliness. Right? That that okay. Men's retreat. I can do those.
Blake:And so I I we we did several of those retreats together. And, eventually, I just I found that no matter how many Emmaus walks I did, no matter how many men's retreats I did, no matter how many bible studies I did, I didn't feel like I was giving God enough. I there was still something left. I'm like, because I would do each and everything and go, god, isn't this enough? I'm doing this.
Blake:Isn't this enough? And the answer was always no. I felt it in my heart. It was just not not not enough. I was not every listen.
Blake:I don't have to be better than you at anything. But I have to be the best person the best I can be at whatever it is I choose to be. It's the reason I don't play golf. Golf's too expensive for me to be as good as I can be at. So I've never picked up on that addiction.
Blake:I I don't have to be better than you. You could beat me every time, but I have to be as good at golf as I could ever be. And in order to do that, I have to work and practice and play, and I could never could afford that. So I don't play golf. But I just I it it wasn't enough.
Blake:I wasn't all in. And at some point, I've decided to be all in and talk about going into the ministry and making it everything that I do.
T.J.:That was the path that you saw. That was the only way to feel or to respond to some of the emotions that you were experiencing.
Blake:There's another thing I had left. I mean, I was like, I've done so I've done all the things I could come up with, but I still think I'm doing enough. I'm not I'm not doing enough for god.
T.J.:Well, that seems frustrating though.
Blake:Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we argued a bunch. Isn't this enough, god? I'm doing this.
Blake:I'm all my free time, you know, I'm I'm taking my I don't in in sales, you don't get weekends off, but I was given a bunch of weekends and and now all that stuff. I'm I'm giving you all my time and and that I can and and, you know, and I I still gotta earn a living, you know, blah blah blah. And then, of course, god showed me that too. I you know, you can get by on a whole lot less than ever thought of when God's in it when God's in it. Right?
T.J.:How is this affecting your family life, your marriage, your parenting? Are you a better husband?
Blake:Absolutely.
T.J.:Better father? Even even with this internal wrestling, that frustration is not rolling out and rolling over to other members of your family?
Blake:No. I I don't think it did. I I somebody may one of my family members may answer that differently. But I don't think that the frustration I I I kept most of the frustration internal. But I will say when I finally told my wife that I felt like I needed to go into ministry, it was not a surprise.
T.J.:Everybody everybody seems to say that. For those who enter the ministry maybe as a second career or second calling, everybody seems to respond or almost everybody is like the only one that's surprised is the one who responds to the call in ministry. All the family members and neighbors and friends are like, well, you know, it's about time.
Blake:Yeah. Yeah. I think that was I think that was it. I
T.J.:wonder what makes people so blind to the obvious.
Blake:I think it's the sacrifice. The the the the fear of giving up everything that we are in order to become something else. No. That's not true. I don't think it's true at all.
Blake:Mhmm. But I think that's what my fear was, is, okay. Am I going to have to change all the other ways in which I have defined myself in my life? The answer is yes, in some way, but in other ways they become more pure. Because so if I look at myself and and if I so let's say I define myself as a warrior, because I did.
T.J.:I'm sorry.
Blake:Yeah. I mean but
T.J.:I I mean, I think of a warrior who is just gonna fight to the death, but is also looking for a fight, looking for a chance to prove the merit of survival.
Blake:Well, we can look for it in a lot of different ways. Mhmm. So I I that that proving myself was probably a I mean, that was an everyday thing for me. Whether it was, learning how to to, I mean, gosh. I I know how to use so many useless weapons, ancient weapons that are that have, you know, that you can't carry around with you, you know, but I'm really good at it.
Blake:So those little intricacies and learning those things, those were proven that that that was that mentality. And and in order to do that, in my opinion, I had I had put myself in this place of I'm always thinking in that way. So if I had so so back to what I was saying, I guess, is if I was defining myself as that, I was afraid I had to give that give that up. But then in reality, God kind of makes it more pure, in that, yes, there's all kinds of different ways that we can be warriors in the world. Sometimes that is, from a spiritual perspective.
Blake:Sometimes that's a refinement that requires discipline. That's the big part of being a warrior, is discipline. Well, spiritual disciplines are that very same thing. So I was able to go, okay. So we're gonna turn this more internally, turn that same kind of drive to an internal space.
Blake:And then, of course, when he turned something in internal, it then turned god turned it external the way he wants it to
T.J.:warrior to run with that metaphor, then we often think of, yeah, something physical to either overcome, defeat, master, whatever it may be. But you've shifted horizons to the internal.
Blake:Mhmm.
T.J.:I can see where you could fight that tooth and nail because it's so much easier when you can feel and see and hear maybe what your enemy is or whatever it is that you want to overcome. But when you take that inwardly, that changes the landscape.
Blake:Absolutely. Yeah. I'd much rather get hit in the face than wrestle with some of the things internally you have to wrestle with when you come to when you come to terms to to what part of this inside of me is stopping me from moving into the next place God would have me. Be. And I go back to that dying every day.
Blake:It's not fun to let some of that stuff die. It's important. It's vital. It's vital to to abundant life that all the rest of that stuff die away. Isn't that the part of the gospel message as a whole?
Blake:That we that that that we surrender ourselves, that we sacrifice in order for god to live in and through us? Well, that's that it's easy to say, but, man, it's hard to do. It's hard And to recognize that I am my own worst enemy in many, many, many cases. I'm the thing that's keeping me from making that next step. It's not anybody else.
Blake:Man, it's easy to blame others, but it's me, And I'm willing to let that die.
T.J.:Because it's even deeper than looking at the limitations like, oh, okay. I don't have that skill with that particular tool or sport or whatever it may be, but I can overcome that. This is a different type of thing of actually letting go of a portion of your identity or what you thought identified you as an individual, as Blake.
Blake:Absolutely. It's your it's my my own created idea of who I was and letting that go, and then and then coming to the place that I am still I am still fleshing out. And that is going but but whatever drive it was that created in me the desire to define myself as a warrior, to again use that metaphor. That same drive was knit together in my mother's womb for me. So how to trans how to allow god to transform all of that into something that is solely for his purposes.
Blake:I'm still doing that. And I still I I'm I'm still my worst enemy. I still am. Still the one who gets mad and and, or fails at loving somebody or name it. You name it.
Blake:I still do the sinful things. Man, my biggest thing is my go to I'm a fighter, so my go to is to fight. When in actuality, I need to be able to love in a way not to compromise my views or not to not to not to short sell god, but to love my enemy, that's hard. That's hard. And it's only through god that I can even attempt to be in that space.
T.J.:You were talking earlier about the beginning of the seminary journey. Is there anything during that time of your life that you want to share?
Blake:Yeah. So, again, part of my my I went to I went to visit 2 seminary. Now my my wife wanted me to go to Asbury, and we had known several methodists that had gone to Asbury through the Emmaus walk. I knew several of them. So we went to visit Asbury.
Blake:And, man, it's beautiful up there. It's a beautiful campus. It's it's great place, all those things, and and I'm not taking anything away from it. It's an awesome experience. And Leslie left there thinking, oh, we're we're moving.
Blake:We're going there. That's that's gonna be awesome, and we'll be, you know, encased in this whole, seminary journey together. And we'll raise our kids up there, and it'll just be wonderful and all those things. And 2 things happened on that, that that she didn't realize were going on in my brain, while we were at Asbury. One was, they took us to a class, and then in the class, it was a class on leadership.
Blake:And I left that class going, man, I've been in so many sales seminars. I could have taught that class. I didn't learn a thing. Mhmm. Now I know they teach other things.
Blake:That's just what they taught. I'm not knocking Asbury at all. I in fact, my best friend graduated from there. So I I'm not knocking them at all. I'm just saying that's what happened to me.
Blake:And the other was, at dinner, the the meeting after dinner was, here. Let us help you fill out all the paperwork for all the student. Why don't you go ahead check? And so on the way home, I said, well, I know you loved it. To I've said telling my wife, I know you loved it.
Blake:But we owe it to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to go visit Memphis. Mhmm. And she said, okay. But we're gonna go to Asbury. You know?
Blake:And, so we went down to Memphis. And, the the preview class we had well, we of course, Barry Anderson spoke with us. And this is this was he actually spoke to Leslie in his little speech. He tells this story coming out of one of the chronicles of Narnia, the horse and his boy. He tells this story, and Leslie's sitting over there.
Blake:And she's like, that's my favorite book. That's my favorite story out of that book. And she her radar her god radar went up and went, uh-oh, something's happening. Right? And then I took, then she had we she was nursing our youngest child, so she couldn't hang out in the classroom while we had the class.
Blake:She she he was still Lucas was still a little bitty fella. And, doctor Aliu Niang came in to teach the preview class. He's no longer at MTS. He was in fact, he left before I got out. But in an hour and a half, he taught me more about the Bible than I had ever learned in my entire life.
Blake:I soaked it up, and I left there. And I I told I told Leslie on the ride home, I said, I don't know about you, but I gotta know what that guy knows. I am ill equipped to do this job, because he just showed me how little I know. And I told you, I don't have to be better than you, but I gotta be as good as I can be. So that's the reason I went to MTS.
Blake:That alone. That was it. I needed to know. Now I'm not anywhere near as smart as him, but I learned a whole lot from it. And that was that was what took me to MTS.
Blake:And then my goodness. What a transformation happened in me there. I learned so much, so many ways to not only understand the Bible, not only study it, but how to how to deal with people, how to how to love people who were very, very different from me. You know? The diversity that was at MTS is one of their their greatest points.
Blake:And I learned so much because, you know, I live in rural Tennessee. Most everybody looks like me. They don't look like me in Memphis, but, boy, we were a whole lot alike. It's just like you said earlier when we're talking about the call story, how everybody else knows. Well, I I love sitting in those classes.
Blake:They're talk everybody telling their call story, and I'm like, thank god. This is everybody's got the same story. The timelines are different, but we all it's all similar. God worked in all of us in at least very similar ways, but yet unique.
T.J.:Right.
Blake:So yeah. Yeah. That was my entry into seminary. My 2nd semester of seminary, I I had an opportunity because of the travel, all of those kinds of things. I only took 2 classes plus formation for ministry.
Blake:So that was an hour and then took took took the other two classes. One was Christian ethics, and one was the parables with doctor Niang. And, I don't know. Maybe it was because I only had the 2 classes, and I I actually had enough time to read all the books that were assigned, you know, to really read them all instead of power reading. Right?
Blake:That's part of what you have to do in seminary sometimes, is get the gist and then move on. But, I read everything, and I that semester, Blake Stevens became a really different person. A really between between learning about Christian ethics and having to discuss things from the standpoint of what would the what would Jesus say about this? How would the scripture, help you to interpret this? Between that and learning the subversiveness of the parables that Jesus was speaking, my my world opened wide open to, oh my, I have been putting god in this little tiny box, and there ain't a box that can hold god.
T.J.:When people are exposed
Blake:to
T.J.:new ways of reading the scripture, It has multiple reactions, responses as a student of the Old and the New Testament. What words of encouragement do you have for those who want to study the scriptures? They don't even have to be a Christian, let alone somebody called to ministry, and are looking for more in-depth, more focus beyond the superficial of Sunday school material or just a 5 minute devotion, how would you prepare them for their world to be rocked in a way that yours was? Because it could be very scary or overwhelming. Because it can undermine maybe if you already have some background in the Christian faith or in the scriptures.
T.J.:And it can also do something like, well wait, if that's not true, then how can everything else now everything has to be questioned in the Old and New Testament. I rambled there a bit. Maybe you come up behind me and sort of clear it up with some beautiful beautifully crafted word or response of wisdom and clarity. But there is that place to where it can become unnerving for folks of going, wait. You know, whether it's about the gospels or Paul's writings or something in the old testament that can really shake people, especially those who are preparing for ministry.
T.J.:And I've seen folks either embrace new perspectives, and then the other extreme, I've seen people just become very rigid and go, well wait, that cannot be true. Because if if that's untrue or there's another way to look at it, then everything else comes unraveled. I don't know, what are your thoughts, Blake? Especially somebody who kind of worked through that.
Blake:I guess my so I there there are a few key terms I use a lot when I preach. One of the things I use, I've already told you about my little knife analogy. That comes up a lot. But one of the another thing I use is lean into it. Just lean into it.
Blake:Chase it. So when you have doubts or when you're challenged, chase it. I had a bunch of, had a bunch of doubts, a bunch of fears, a bunch of questions, but chase it because god is chasing you at the same time. And somewhere along the way, you interact. So take a step.
Blake:Walk through the door, however you want to say it. Walk through it. See what happens. I have found that every bit of growth I ever had started with saying yes to some. Yeah.
Blake:I'll try. Yeah. I'll do it. I'm willing to to risk it to see what's on the other side. So I'll step through this door.
Blake:I'll run after that little thought over there. Mhmm. And I am not afraid of doubts. Within doubt, by having doubts, I have to figure out what the answer is. If I already know it, then why am I doing it?
Blake:If I already got the answer, then I got the answer. I lived the first 33 years of my life like that. Had all the answers. So I love doubt. I love questions, but it's an adventure to figure out the real answer, The pure one, the true one.
Blake:We're chasing truth. Jesus is truth. So I'm chasing him. And the whole time, in a spiritual perspective, he's standing there going, come and find me. Come and find me.
Blake:I've been here all along. So what is it that's blocked? What where's your blinder? Remove that and look. In my ordination service, My son played a song, by a really obscure songwriter.
Blake:His name's David Wilcox. And the song he's saying has this line in it, and it says, I saw you see, but you did not see me because you were going somewhere. Well, that was my whole life. I had seen God, literally. That's it.
Blake:What what is that? What was that? Oh, I ain't got time to think about what that was. I'm going this way. Well, slow down a minute.
Blake:So I do search and rescue tracking. I'm a man tracker for the search and rescue team here that I did that before I became a preacher. I still do it today. It's still a thing. Well, if you woke open up your your vision to a place where you can pick up on what's a shadow place, If I'm looking for a footprint in the middle of the woods, it's got a straight line on it because people wear shoes.
Blake:Straight lines don't exist in nature. So that's the thing that's out of place. Well, in the world in which we live in, sometimes God leaves you a little footprint over here for you to go, what is that, if you got the eyes to see it. And then if you go and look at it, you might actually be able to analyze that footprint enough to go, oh, this is the direction of travel. Where's that next one?
Blake:Where's that next footprint? Well, if you won't find that next one, there's another one too. And another one and another one and another one. And before you know it, you are walking the path of god.
T.J.:Where do we find God? I haven't asked this question of a guest in a long time. I used to ask when I first started, you know, where do you see God in the world today? And so I pose that question to you.
Blake:I find god in the everyday moments, in the small things, the sunrise, the wind that blows just right to where you might be listening to his very voice. And I find God in the big picture. I see God in in the movement of love and grace. It's out there. It's everywhere.
Blake:You know, I'm a nature guy, so it's easy for me to say, oh, I find god in nature. It's so much more than that. It's so much more than that. I find him inside too when I shut down enough. I shut out all the other stuff, and I quit talking.
Blake:Now listen. And I say, where are you? Where where is that next footprint? Because it's out there.
T.J.:Yeah. And I'm laughing because, your words made me think of me. You know, they're just, the life that I live, schedule that I keep is, it's there. Can I slow down enough? And slow down not for the purpose of sleep, but for reflection.
Blake:Yeah.
T.J.:And there's a difference.
Blake:Oh, 100%.
T.J.:Sleep, rest, reflection, those are very different.
Blake:Yeah. And necessary to me for for me, it's necessary for me to do something that's not not preacher related. Not you know, I gotta take that hat off sometimes, you know, and go, okay. I'm gonna go out here and run around in the woods. And I honestly, my my my group of friends that are part of the rescue squad I serve on, they're a great place for that.
Blake:They let me be just me, you know. And what I find fascinating about that is so many times I get to be a pure version of preacher me too. We deal with a lot of stuff. There's a lot of things we see and do and, you know, when you when you I try I I don't wanna sound make this sound too flippant. But when you find a 14 year old kid in the that's drowned in the lake, and you pull them out.
Blake:And you touch them, and I tell everybody, I'm like, that feeling. I I I can't describe to you what it feels like to touch a drowned victim, but I know I never will forget it. And I know what that feels like. And when and those guys in there that are doing that job with me, they need help, and they need somebody to talk to about that. And I get to be a really pure version of preacher me in those instances when we're dealing with, bad stuff.
Blake:It's bad stuff.
T.J.:Life, death, mortality. How do you process that?
Blake:Yeah, we do.
T.J.:How do you yeah. How do you articulate yeah. How how do you articulate to those who have not seen what you've seen, touched what you've touched, heard what you've heard?
Blake:It's it's almost impossible to to to tell anybody that hasn't done it. Mhmm. But even the people who've done it need to hear from the perspective of, number 1, listen, not everybody can do what you just did. I've seen countless people. The first time it happens, you never see them again.
Blake:Mhmm. And for those who can remain and do that thing, it's a gift, because we offer people closure. I can't imagine if I thought my 14 year old had drowned and we didn't, and nobody could get their body back. So we provide a service that has eternal value because you provide closure for the family. And that's important for those people who are doing it to recognize.
Blake:I think it's God's work. I think we're doing the work when we do those things, And they certainly need to know that it's important because there there are not a whole lot of thank yous that go around for that or fireman or policeman or any of those things. There's not a whole lot of thank yous for what gets done. And so you have to find it internally. And I I I'm privileged to get to serve next to them and and not only help the families, but also help those that are doing the job.
T.J.:Well, let's live here for a moment. So you're in middle Tennessee. How often do you receive calls for is it search and rescue that you do? Yeah.
Blake:So we do search and rescue. We have we have a Lake here. So those are typically recovery. Mhmm. There's no way we can get there in time.
Blake:But if somebody goes off the boat, we're we're just trying to find them. So that's not a rescue. The rescue side comes on the land side, which is my specialty. Land land cert I'm the land search captain, so that's my specialty is land. But I'm also dive certified and help operate the sonar equipment sometimes and all those kinds.
Blake:I kinda I dabble in everything because we're we're a small crew. So everybody's gotta kinda know how to do everything.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Blake:So how often? That's that's like the the, it's almost a curse to say. Oh, not too often because then it'll Okay. The phone will ring. So we since we've been keeping records, there's over a 100, bodies recovered out of Timbs Ford Lake since we've been keeping record.
Blake:It's it's an every year, multiple times a year occurrence. Everything from, you know, freak accidents to suicide. That's a reality. That's something we do. To stupidity.
T.J.:Is this all volunteer?
Blake:Yes. We are yes. The the rescue squad here is an all volunteer service. Yeah.
T.J.:How often on average when you're doing doing a search and rescue can you be out in the elements?
Blake:Oh, every time.
T.J.:Well, I mean, for is there shifts? Is there hours?
Blake:No. There's we're we're too small for that. Unless it's like so if we if it was a we haven't had a major major search where we had to call in other counties in a long, long time. That's a potential, but, yeah. No.
Blake:I've been out all night long. I've been out all night long and then come in and preach. That's a thing. Yeah. We're so lots of times people go missing, let's say it's a Saturday night, and they're gone they've gone missing, and we're searching A lot of times, just this is just through historical about the time the sun comes up, things get easier.
Blake:The noise of the woods quiet down if you're on a search like that. That that happens, and so they hear you more. I've I've been probably 30 yards from somebody, and them not be able to hear me over especially over the cicadas as we've had recently. Right? They can't hear you yell.
Blake:But, yeah, as the sun rises, people start to move around, start to look, start to recognize places, those kinds of things. You come across on those. That that's a possibility. So, yeah, I've had Saturday nights where I was out all night and come in and go, okay. I'm just gonna get straight in the shower and go preach and then I'll sleep after that.
Blake:So, yeah, I mean, that's a, not an everyday occurrence, but it's, certainly a possibility. Yeah.
T.J.:Well, speaking of church, let's talk about the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The only church you know really.
Blake:That's right.
T.J.:If you were to explain this denomination to somebody who was not familiar with it, what would be the good aspects that you would mention? And then if you were to analyze us as a denomination from the inside out or the outside in, really, we can choose. What would be some of the areas of weakness, some of the areas for improvement to be the best that we can be as the practice that you hold yourself to as an individual? So it's a 2 part question. You can run with it.
Blake:Alright. Well, I I I usually start off by telling everybody that we're a pretty small denomination. We find our roots in a bunch of hard hard headed Scots Irish folk, and we still are. I still I still prescribe to the idea that we are a medium theology. I that that we are, a place I believe that I that within the confines of our confession of faith, on many, many different topics, I can find a way that the confession of faith can mirror someone else's view.
Blake:So you could tell me you believe this. Okay. Well, here I can. Here's in the confession of faith. This is, you know, or whosoever will people.
Blake:So here's where I can find this or that or the other. I love our confession for that reason. I think that we, we're very connectional, which is something I didn't really understand until I got outside of the Winchester Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mhmm. Because Winchester's a big church.
Blake:It's a beautiful church, wonderful church. Not But when I grew up in it, I didn't realize how many other Cumberland Presbyterian churches and how much connection there was. Maybe because as a kid, I did not attend church camp. Now when my kids started going to church camp, I started to go, hey. We're this is special.
Blake:I don't I missed out on it, but this is very, very special, and the connectivity that comes from that. Now when I went out to seminary, I sure saw the connectional nature and, was, again, an outsider because lots when I came, lots of the folks that were Cumberland Presbyterian, they they came straight out of Bethel, went straight to seminary. Well, I'm in my thirties. I'm an old man compared to them, you know, at seminary. Right?
Blake:And, but quickly, you know, found friends within the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and and made good friends and and, got to see that connectional nature. So the good points that I see out of our church is that we're like a really big church in and of itself. We know one another. We get to know one another. I care about you, and you care about me.
Blake:And we talk, and we and we might just interact at the occasional general assembly, or we might interact at at a presbytery if you happen to be in the same presbytery with somebody. But regardless of that, we have we have this threat of grace that's running through us that we call ourselves Cumberland Presbyterian. And for better or worse, we define ourselves as that.
T.J.:Yeah. Yeah.
Blake:Yeah. That's who we are. Mhmm. I'm Cumberland Presbyterian, whatever that might mean. And apparently, it means something different to some other people sometimes.
Blake:And that's okay, because I think that's alright. I think that's healthy, that we are not all cookie cutter, because I don't look like anybody. That was one of my this whole conversation. Oh, I don't know how long we've been on today, but everything we've talked about is how I don't look like the rest of the folks. It's been my struggle.
Blake:And it's to me, it's also one of my greatest strengths. Or it's the this is the place god can be best through me. I guess I should define it that way better. So that's the good part. What was that second part?
T.J.:Well, with any group of people that come together, there are places that we need to shore up. You know, we have weaknesses, we're not great at everything. So as Cumberland Presbyterians, what areas of improvement do we have as we share our witness out into the world? Or are we sharing our witness out into the world? Maybe that's our weakness.
Blake:I I I probably would go come closer to agreeing with you there. I I think one of the problems, that I see is that we are very concerned with the box in which we have put ourselves in. And we want to defend the box in which we are in to the point of saying not reaching out very much. So many of our churches are family churches, and that's that's the both the nature of of us as a whole, but it it can also be this this weakness of, you know, when when when you're looking for a new church and a new place serve. When you're Blake Stevens and you're looking for a place to serve because you've had this awesome sort of Emmaus experience in whatever form that it took on for whoever it is you are, and you come to a church that says, oh no.
Blake:We got all the leadership we can use. I'm probably gonna go look somewhere else because god is calling me. Mhmm. So I I I think we we that that call is is a is an amazing thing, And we should be able to, recognize that person's call to be a Sunday school teacher, or to lead a man's bible study, or to be a preacher, or to and I'm talking from my perspective. So when I say men's bible study, but a women's bible study, just the same.
Blake:If you what? We need to find a way to celebrate the way God works in each and every life. And so I I struggle with a few things. I serve on the on the committee on ministry. I struggle with the fact that we think every preacher's got to fit in this certain mold that you gotta come here, come under care.
Blake:You gotta pick your path. You gotta go to pause or you gotta go to seminary. That's where that's where we gotta go. Or we might even assign it to you. I don't know.
Blake:Depending on where you are. This is where you gotta pick that path and you gotta do that. Then when you do that, then after you do after you're about halfway done, we're gonna license you. And then when you're done, we're gonna ordain you, and we're gonna expect you to be a preacher. That's what we expect.
Blake:You need to look like this, because this is what I look like. You need to look like that. I think there are people that are called to lots of different ways and forms and fashions. And if they don't look like let's say you're called to be a chaplain. Well, yeah, they're just over there being chaplains.
Blake:They're not in the inner sanctum of, the CP preacherness. You know? I I I I I see that. I I see these. We we we form these clicks.
Blake:I believe this way or I believe that, and and and we make people have to look like what they look. What we want them to look like.
T.J.:Well, how do we overcome that?
Blake:By celebrating the the spark within each and every individual, and helping to fan that flame, and not defining anything. We need preachers. Yeah. We do. But if you feel like your call is to if you feel like your call is to serve in a search and rescue, squad as a chap as a as a semiformal chaplain, then we ought to support the fact that that's a that's a calling too.
Blake:Mhmm. And we ought to find a way to help you live into that. You're not ever going back to living at that, but a seminary or a POTS degree, those could be helpful to that thing. Maybe we need to expand who we educate and concentrate on educating them.
T.J.:Just educate everybody.
Blake:Let's educate everybody. Let's have seminary seminary is now online. Let's let's let's have the average Joe church member come and sit in a class with Mitzi Minor. I think that'd be awesome. There were people that did that when I was in seminary that lived there around me in Memphis, and they just come and they'd sit in on the class.
Blake:They didn't have to do the homework, but, boy, they learned. Mhmm. They learned. Alright. Let's do that.
Blake:I think that's a good idea.
T.J.:Well, speaking of education, Blake, what are a couple of books that are your favorite reads?
Blake:Oh, gosh. I mean,
T.J.:are you Education goes beyond the written word. I know that. But
Blake:Yeah. Yeah.
T.J.:What recommendations do you have?
Blake:Oh, I don't know. I I there's so many things. I you know, and so here I go again. So I'm not always I can find God present in stuff that doesn't have to be a theological book either. Right?
Blake:I could find that. So I I'm also notoriously. I I'm I'm notorious for listening to secular music. I'm sorry. And if everybody wants to judge me over that, they can.
Blake:But I find God in secular music too. So I that those things, but I I don't know. So I'm I'm a big I love the Lord of the Rings. I think the Lord of the Rings is a spiritual journey.
T.J.:I think
Blake:it's a book about our spiritual journey, about the precious and the thing that that I hold on to, that I don't wanna let go of, that I don't wanna throw into the fiery place so that I can go to that that next level where God would have me to be.
T.J.:Well, that really resonates with everything that we've talked about today.
Blake:Yeah. Right. That's that's me. Right. That's that's that's so that book means a lot to me.
Blake:Mhmm. And every step of that journey in finding the way, and, you know, it even speaks to the warrior side of me. Right? That's that's very present within there and how to how to find those things. That that's that's a that's a go to, have to kind of thing for me.
Blake:Even if you just just watch the movie if you don't want if you're scared by the big book. But if you're if if you're if you're willing to lean into it, read the big book. You know? There's more there. Yeah.
Blake:That's that's one.
T.J.:Alright. Well, I'll give you a break here. You mentioned, music. How about, what music has spoken to you over the years?
Blake:Oh, gosh. So I love those obscure songwriters. David Wilcox is one of my go to obscure songwriters. He he is, definitely somebody that speaks to my soul. Joe Pugh, that's another person.
Blake:If you haven't heard anything from Joe Pugh, he speaks to my soul. He has a he has some songs that he calls hymns. There's hymn number 35 and hymn 101 and all those things, and they are Jesus. That's Jesus music, and you're just not gonna hear it in a contemporary service. Gosh.
Blake:There's there's so many, because I find I I love to find God in the struggle of life. So I love, it it's probably the real country music, not this mess that they have now. That's real country music that talks about the the hard times. That's that's very real to me.
T.J.:Okay.
Blake:I find God present within that.
T.J.:Yeah.
Blake:But I was you you know, I I was listening to anything and everything. Who else?
T.J.:I would imagine, you know, with your secular work traveling, you probably were really punching the buttons or turning the dial to to find new music, talk radio.
Blake:Yeah.
T.J.:Whatever it is. Yeah.
Blake:I was one of those guys that rode around with the with the the big binder full of CDs too. Okay. You know? Yeah. The kids listening won't remember those big binders for those of us that had to remember the big binder where you had to flip the pages, and pull the CD out, and throw the CD in the player, and listen.
Blake:And it's just music brings so much there's so much truth hidden within it, and I don't like a song unless it's got 3 or 4 layers.
T.J.:Mhmm. Okay.
Blake:That's that's that's my thing. If it's just about surface level stuff, then I don't really care for it. Even if it's catchy and got a good got a good beat and you can dance to it as they used to say on American Bandstand. That's not for me.
T.J.:Well, sometimes, it takes time for that song to be heard for what it really is.
Blake:Absolutely.
T.J.:So what may be new, superficial today may be deep and meaningful tomorrow.
Blake:That's right. That's right.
T.J.:Kinda like our conversation today. Maybe some will find it superficial and silly. 2 guys talking about faith. Maybe somebody else will come along and find it deep and meaningful.
Blake:I hope so. I think that's the point that we have. That's the point I'm always after. I'm always after a story that has depth for people who have ears to hear. Mhmm.
Blake:I I think that's the Jesus' whole parable thing. Right? That, oh, that's a great story. Oh, that's great. That means this or that.
Blake:Oh, does it really? Dig deeper. There's more and more and more. That was, again, back to seminary, back to the learning about, well, how would the people who first hear heard this hear it? They're not going to hear it with my 21st century ears or 20th century because I'm old, ears.
Blake:They they would have heard it very differently. And to and to slide myself into that set of ears, and then hear it differently, hear it new, that's that's the eternal work. And I think it's true of everything. We we do and say.
T.J.:And the inverse is true as well. So to hear it with 21st century ears as well, how will this biblical text that is literally eons old be heard in the 21st century For those who are gathered in in that place of worship or may listen to it later or from a digital device, you can hear it differently. And I think our past informs how we hear as well. I think for those that are leading retreats, devotions, bible studies, Emmaus walks, and even worship services. Good students of the scripture will try to think of those pairs of ears and how they can hear that good news.
Blake:Yeah. And that and and, ultimately, that is the good news. The good news has to be preached. We have to find a way to get beyond everything else and get to the core of what that good news is.
T.J.:Yeah. I can find bad news pretty easily.
Blake:Absolutely. At times, I think there's so many people that are focused on it. They're focused on the bad news. And I'm like, we're supposed to be telling them the good news. And if we're not, what are we?
T.J.:Yeah. Yeah. Blake, I've enjoyed getting to know you better, enjoyed this conversation. I've enjoyed, you being willing to revisit the idea of having this faith conversation and to hear your faith journey, hear how god has worked in your life. Like I said, it's been probably 3 3 and a half years in the making.
Blake:Yeah. I don't know if anybody was
T.J.:I don't know if anybody was waiting on it beyond me. But I would
Blake:I'm sure they weren't. But maybe maybe there's somebody out there that'll hear this. Mhmm. And they'll find that depth. Just find a way to lean in to search for that next footprint. Hang tough. Let god change you. All those things. Yeah. Thank you for look. Thank you for allowing me to come back on after all this time. This has been really good.
T.J.:Thank you for listening and supporting Cumberland Road. I have felt and heard your love for me and what Cumberland Road is trying to accomplish. To close, here are some words from Bruce Lee, martial artist, actor, and some might say, philosopher. The successful warrior is the average man with a laser like focus. Thanks for listening.
