Who would write such a script, on February 1st 2008, I had just lost our Dealership, I went to an attorney friend who instructed me that it would take three hundred thousand dollars to go bankrupt and since I didn’t have a dime he said, “Robby you had better climb under a rock because everyone is fixin to come after you.”
The IRS said I owed them over a half a million dollars, The SBA/Justice Department said I owed them over a half a million, Chrysler, (who were themselves destined for bankruptcy within a year) said I owed them over a million dollars. Other creditors from the dealership were hundreds of thousands. Our house was in foreclosure we had lost our cars, our kids school tuition’s were months past due and my son’s needed to be current because he was to graduate that year. Although I had a job with the radio station it was mostly commission and I hadn’t many clients yet. In order to have the money to rent a house I was delivering newspapers getting up at 3am seven days a week.
I do have to add that the good news was that I was ‘Going to the Super Bowl’. This is so Jesus, my son and I had won tickets from Chrysler that fall and we had signed an agreement that we wouldn’t sell them. Although we had to sleep in our car in Phoenix that night because we had no money for a motel room or a hot dog for that matter, we watched from a few rows up, Eli Manning throw the winning touch down against the undefeated Patriots that year… Do you believe that, who could write this script?
Someone besides my office manager who would plead guilty to embezzlement and went to prison must be to blame. I do believe in many ways I was responsible, I was the one who didn’t want to pay for an audit every year or find enough capital to have the used car inventory we needed. It was common place to move some numbers around the financial statement to show more net worth for Chrysler’s working capital standard and no doubt I condoned our office manager doing that. Yes, I had fallen a long, long way down.
My tumble down from the mountains of life to the deep rich valleys had planted me in soil Jesus knew would allow my roots to go deep and nourished in the ashes of my disasters and the compost of weeds long since uprooted. I certainly thank my Savior I had been well watered with the storms of my life and well drained with the sand from my rough edges. God certainly placed me facing south with exposure to the needed Sun/Son every day as I was instructed at the beginning of my Christian walk to spend time in the light every morning (the Word of God). I feel I have lived Isaiah 61 :11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
The most amazing part of the story for me; is that my wife was by my side stronger than ever before. Yes, I mean that. What, are you kidding me? Tammy had never had to drive a car more than 6,000 miles since we had known each other, and we lived in a custom built home in an exclusive neighborhood. We traveled constantly, amazing adventures around the world cruises to Russia and the Black Sea. That past September we had been to Ireland. We took our family to Disney several times a year we had season tickets the last seven or eight years to Disney and Carolina Panther Box seats. Most of our friends lived similar life styles and would soon abandon the ‘has been’ Dilmores. Yet Tammy was somehow made for me and this adversity and she leaned into the storm with almost reckless abandon. I could never dream of how rough it would get; court orders and subpoenas, certified packages and Sheriff visits. I never felt once that Tammy wasn’t right with me all the way at first it even appeared I might go to prison.
The one moment I will never ever forget was that February at age fifty three dark and cold, very cold, I was running from Apartment to Apartment trying to throw the papers up to the third story failing and having to run those stairs. All the papers had to be out before 7am. There was a patch of ice and boom; I fell hard, slicing my knee through both my sweats and long underwear. There I lay all alone in the dark. At that point and only at that point did I cry out, “God, WHY, WHY, WHY?” No answer, not even crickets, it was too cold.
A wife and three kids at home needed shelter and food and I may not be able to run a Chrysler Dealership but I could get those paper out and there was a deep sense of satisfaction in knowing I could do that job well. This valley had far richer soil than the mountain top I had fallen from. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was doing all I could with no compromise, no fudging the numbers or falling for one of Chrysler’s schemes. Oh did Chrysler and the banks have schemes, which would be a book in itself, I truly still have nightmares.
Yes when you are in the “Valley of the shadow of death” you see who and what really matters. May I tell you it’s God and family at this point the Greenbay Packers are out of the picture (ala Vince Lombardi’s and Jim Valvano’s famous speech.)
Where do you get the faith to put your last dollar into the gas tank of that news paper delivery car at $4 dollars a gallon that winter or the strength to roll that first paper? Jesus had told me to share my heart on the radio and He had never let me down, not through cancer or Jeep crushing or brain abscess and He got me that job throwing Newspapers. My wife believed in me and her faith was stronger than mine and I knew it. Jesus and Tammy, my mother and father, Vic Hill, Stu Epperson, Bill Mixon, Gaither Markland, Jerry Mathis, Vinnie Manino, Adam Draper, John Corts and Dr. Branch. I am telling you, God had planted ‘Oaks of Righteousness’ all around me and they prayed and they encouraged and many loaned me money or even gave me money.
That soil was far richer from the ashes of my disasters, (ashes make lye I discovered and I needed that strong a cleaning agent). The heat of the compost of my turned up weeds and other decaying schemes also made for some precious nutrients of illuminated scripture. I had surely had a serious roto-tilling to loosen my prideful hardness allowing my very thirsty roots the much needed water of life. Yet just as Paul planted and Apollos watered it was Grace/ God/Jesus that helped me grow.
Grace from God, oh yes but Jesus with flesh on was first and foremost from my wife. I so love this quote from Stacy Eldredge in her book Becoming Myself, “The Kingdom of God will not advance without women rising up and playing their role. The transformation and healing of a man requires the presence, strength and mercy of a woman.”
It was six years ago and I am just now able to understand the critical role my wife played. She called me out and up to things that were miraculous. She was even in the car waiting on me that night I fell at 4am in the morning.
Many call me faithful but first of all my wife and so many family and friends had faith in me when I really had very little in myself. No doubt Jesus the Holy Spirit and The Father met with me every morning but all those around me carried me through the day. How I got on the radio and spoke with any confidence on any automotive subject or faith issue was from The Lord and his many advocates in my life, it is more than amazing to me.
You are likely wondering where all this financial stuff stands 6 years later. The IRS and the Justice Dept have first dibbs on all our assets, which kept everyone else backed off. I have to say both government agencies have allowed us a simple but comfortable life. We are both allowed $1,500 a piece for a car (old Red easily fits that category). We are allowed plenty of food, utilities gas, insurance and health care. No doubt we can not even pay the interest on what they say we owe, so there is not much chance for me ever having any property of value but perhaps Tammy may some day.
Surprisingly, there is no stress in all that for me any more, God has healed my heart on many issues I never knew I had. It would be nice to know when the next shoe will drop but none of us really know that now do we.
Another shocker in this crazy script is that within a year of that fall in the parking lot at 4am delivering newspapers I was in New York City on the TV News show Fox and Friends in front of millions with my idea on how to save General Motors. I was featured on hundreds of Fox radio shows across the country, G. Gordon Liddy radio show and Lars Larson sharing Christ from an automotive platform.
Since then I have had the chance to share my faith in Jesus on dozens of radio stations across the country every week, published in books and magazines and involved in many, many ministries. God continues to give me places to speak and teach and share all He has done in my life and taught me. The issue I now love to consider is all those that played a key role in what Jesus was doing as he was cultivating “a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13
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