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An extension of the ministry of Stone Oak Bible Church. Stone Oak Bible Church is located in North Central San Antonio, TX. We would love to have you join us.
Hello, and welcome to the Stoned Up Bible Church podcast, The SOBC Pod. It's an extension of the ministries of Stoned Up Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas. We are sitting here on a Wednesday, April 8. We're directly after Easter. Easter was fantastic.
Craig:And this morning, I'm joined by mister Rick. Rick, hello to you, sir.
Rick:Hello, Craig. How are you today?
Craig:Wonderful. Rick, you are you fill a lot of positions in our church. Before we hit all of the different roles that you get to fulfill K. How'd you come to Stone Oak, man? First, are you?
Craig:Okay. Who's your family? Let's hit that first.
Rick:That sounds like a great idea. My name is Rick Elizondo. I am married to Blanca. We have been married for forty four years.
Craig:Oh, goodness.
Rick:Yes, it's amazing. When I look back, it's kind of mind boggling. But it's been wonderful, and I'm grateful for her.
Craig:Forty four years. Do you have plans already for the big five-zero?
Rick:We're thinking about it. Okay. But right now we live each day and enjoy each moment we have together.
Craig:Yeah. Where'd you guys get married at?
Rick:That's the story in itself. Okay. Had basically two weddings.
Craig:Okay.
Rick:We were officially married in Corpus Christi, Texas where Blanca is from.
Craig:And
Rick:this is kind of a strange part of my story. She was a Baptist, I was a Catholic. We had a wedding in Corpus that included a Baptist minister and a Catholic priest.
Craig:At the same time.
Rick:At the same time.
Craig:That's impressive.
Rick:Yes, that was interesting to say. And then the following week we had a wedding, our blessing of the marriage, as I would call it, in the Catholic church a week later. Same thing. The difference here, obviously being raised in the Catholic and Hispanic, it was a two day wedding. Wow.
Rick:Meaning we had the official kind of blessing of the marriage through the church, had a reception, dinner, musicians, a dance and everything. And we had a real good friend of the family who owned a small restaurant. And at midnight, 01:00, he opened his restaurant for family and friends.
Craig:Was that here in San Antonio? Here in
Rick:San Antonio. We went to there and we're there till about 03:30 in the morning, eating and everything. Went home, of course, Blanca and I to our place as married couples, but the following morning, or should I say, by eight hours, that same morning, my mom made a big old meal for everybody to come and we learned our gifts and then we celebrated again. So it was a long, long day to say the least, it was amazing. If anybody wants to know the full story, always willing to share
Craig:How many kids do you have?
Rick:We have three kids.
Craig:Okay, and none of them are in San Antonio, right?
Rick:None of them. None of them. Sometimes I wonder, what did we do wrong?
Craig:What did we Or maybe what did you do right? That's what many You sent them out of the nest, that's the goal of parenting, and they just happen to fly further than you really would have hoped for.
Rick:And that's what people remind me and I'm grateful because we poured into them as much as we could, but it was time for them to take. So I have my oldest son, Richard, lives in Memphis, Tennessee, been married for twelve years. They have two of our grandkids, Joseph and Abby. Then I have a young son who lives in Oklahoma City. He's been married for almost twenty years now.
Rick:And he has three of our grandkids, Josiah, Hudson, and Sivi. And then I have a daughter who lives in Brooklyn, New York right now. She's been there for fifteen years, not married. So she's enjoying life. In fact, I was up there February March 1 helping her recover from rotator cuff surgery.
Craig:Right whenever the snow hits, if I remember right, Rick, you were up there, it was nice, and then the snowstorm came through.
Rick:Yes, it shook my world to say the least.
Craig:Oh yeah. You being a San Antonio native, that's a little different. New York City, first of all, is very different.
Rick:Very different.
Craig:But then you throw in the weather of New York and that's fun buddy.
Rick:Well, me tell you, the biggest experience of where my daughter lives, room I was in faced one of the main streets. And in the middle of the night, 02:30 in the morning, hear and just threw me from what's somebody climbing in or trying to bring? I look out the window and I see my first snow plow going through plowing the streets. I'm like, what is this? So yes, needless to say, it a great experience.
Craig:Yeah, a little bit different than San Antonio for sure. We had cold weather that same time, but it was like 40s.
Rick:Yeah, no, I'm talking 15 degrees and with a minus so much with the wind chill. It was interesting. And I've had to go out and walk the streets when it was nice and cold to go to, whether get a pharmacy or something she needed. So yeah, I played dad and nurse dad.
Craig:Well done. Well done though. So how'd you guys how did you and Blanca? How'd you guys find Stone Oak and and come to be a part of of who we are at Stone Oak Bible Church?
Rick:Well, we had been at a church initially for thirty three years. Yeah. From there we felt God calling us to it was time to make a move. Started looking around, we found a church, we were there for five years, but there was still a stirring, we were missing something. And I think the biggest thing is we had lived through topical type sermons, and that was good for me because I was still a growing Christian in my
Craig:life, but
Rick:I felt the stirring. In March 2019, we decided it's time to start looking. Funny thing is, I know Candice, Justin's wife, because they used to attend the church that I grew up in, for lack of better saying, as a Christian, and I knew her parents, Casey and A. Judy. And so we had seen them one time at Green, Texas, and they had talked about they were opening church, was, cool, grateful for that.
Craig:Yeah, good for you.
Rick:Praying for you, good for you, and we decided to go ahead, you know what, if it's time to date, let's just go check that church out.
Craig:We
Rick:went the first day, not realizing it's the first Sunday of when time are off for spring break.
Craig:Oh yeah.
Rick:So we drive up and there's like two, three cars.
Craig:Oh, yeah.
Rick:And I'm wondering, did we make the right move?
Craig:Yeah. In fact, this year, the first day of spring break also hit the spring forward timeframe, which probably most of the time, it hits that same Sunday Yeah. Which across the church, that's one of the lowest attended Sundays throughout the entire year because you're springing forward, so you're losing an hour of sleep. Yeah. And then you also have spring break, which a lot of families leave, like, Thursday or Friday before spring break if they're going on spring break so they can take advantage even that that weekend before.
Craig:So, yeah, it's not a not a high visitor attendance Sunday that that you guys decided to show up. So it's probably me and Justin and our families and you. Pretty close.
Rick:Yeah. But it was amazing. And so we attended and just fell in love. The people were very friendly that were there to greet us, which was, I think, very important. I mean, made us felt important.
Rick:The other thing was when we got there, again, my background growing up as a new Christian was big bands, a lot of music, and we walk in on the stage and there's two people there, Caitlin and Ryan playing. The message I think spoke to both Blanca and I most because it wasn't topical, it was scripture. I think that's where God had me at the time in 2019, was time to truly spend time with me, to know me. I say that because that's three years after I turned 60, which God was reminding me, Rick, there's more to come. And so I think this was just God's timing.
Rick:So come fast forward November, we decided to join Stone Oak Bible twenty nineteen.
Craig:Rick, you hold a bunch of different, let's say positions, jobs, titles within our church. You're a deacon. You've been doing that now for, goodness, five, six years, quite a while. You lead our men's ministry as well. Also been doing that now for six years.
Craig:And then you also help out with assimilation, that process. So we had Monica on. She was one of our first podcasts and she talked about what it is to be a welcoming church. And you're a big part of that. Anytime that somebody has filled out a card, if you're listening to this and you got a text, most likely the first person that ever texted you from our church has probably been Rick Elizondo.
Craig:First phone calls, first contact is often you Right. Because of just your heart for people, your heart for seeing people. And it's one of those things where, as your pastor, I love that you love our church so much that you're like, This is the best thing in the world that everybody should be aware of.
Rick:Absolutely.
Craig:And so because of that, you have kind of that desire and that heart for people to get connected. A big part of what you do, those men's ministry. What's men's ministry look like for you right now? What's the day to day grind of men's ministry? We're sitting here Wednesday, by the way, so this is perfect timing.
Rick:Perfect timing. Every Wednesday, 06:30 a. M, we meet at Bill Miller's located 281 And 1604.
Craig:Did you choose Bill Miller's because of the location or because of the tacos?
Rick:No, actually we were, that's the story. We actually were meeting at Las Palafas.
Craig:That's I right,
Rick:don't wanna say things, but they had trouble trying to always lower the volume at 06:30 in the morning. As men It's loud
Craig:at 06:30 in the It's morning very at Las Loud.
Rick:And like, I guess it's to keep the workers awake, I think. Because there's nobody there.
Craig:And
Rick:they just would not lower the volume. So we got tired of shouting at each other. It was found like we were yelling at each other instead of reading the gospel. So we chose Bill Miller's, which is right next door. It's a little quieter.
Rick:The first time we were there, I asked the lady, the manager, she went, Oh, absolutely. And ever since then, it stays, it's nice and low, it's quiet, we're out in the back of room. And it's just been amazing. All I can say is God is so good. I started this, which kind of was a reluctant person in the sense of teaching.
Craig:Would never Tell us about that first time you started, Rick. What was the timing on that? It's one of my favorites.
Rick:Oh yeah. So I decided, I had talked to both you and Justin about doing men's ministry. And that was in 2019, thinking though I was coming to Stono to just sit and soak, but God laid on my heart, Men, men, we need somebody to connect. So I approached y'all about doing men's ministry and asked y'all to pray about it, and y'all felt good that I could lead it. The first men's ministry, and I believe God's calling me to this, to do.
Rick:So we meet, our first is February 2020, February.
Craig:Great timing.
Rick:On a Saturday, we had about 15 to 20 guys show up, wanting to know because y'all hadn't really had a men's ministry. And we were all excited. So we planned, okay, next Saturday we'll meet and we'll start reading scripture or we'll figure it out. But then COVID hit and shut everything down.
Craig:Yes.
Rick:So, I'm like, Lord, really? But this was part of my journey to stretch me. Yeah. Because from there, we couldn't meet. Everything was closed.
Rick:And that's when all of a sudden Zoom came into life.
Craig:Oh, yeah.
Rick:And if you know me, I'd rather be in front of people, talking with people, interacting with people. But he says, No, now you got Zoom. I'm like, Really? No. I can't I don't I don't wanna That's so impersonal, Lord.
Rick:Oh, yeah. Why do I wanna do this? But he did, and I started to do the Zoom, and we just would do topics, and one of the topics that got, and again, stretching me, was now we have free time to truly spend time in the gospel. So what are your distractions? There's no distraction.
Rick:There's no running off to school activities and this and that, so you're home. Again, God bless that we had, again, maybe 15 guys show up on Zoom, I'm like, What?
Craig:Yeah, that's crazy.
Rick:That is crazy. So that's kind of the starting. So when finally it opened, when we could meet, I thought, Well, and I've like, Oh, now I gotta continue this. I said, No, I don't really don't. I'm not a teacher.
Rick:But God says, Rick, obedience is yours. The results are up to me, just And trust so I started teaching and it's been now four years, but that first year, if we had two or three people show up in addition to myself, and there were days and weeks it was just me, and it was like God saying, Well, this message was for you, so enjoy it. And so today, I'm here, God is faithful when we are faithful. We average sometimes up to 15 guys, and that's amazing for a Wednesday morning, thirty AM in the morning. And I need to go one step further today.
Rick:One of the guys commented and says, Do you see what's going on? And we're back there, we've been there now, what, three years, three and a half years. There are actually other men's group, small but yet reading scripture. I'm like, Lord, you're working.
Craig:So
Rick:anyway, that's kind of the journey, and it's something I never expected in my life.
Craig:Yeah. So Rick, if a guy's listening to this and they want to join you for that Wednesday morning, 06:30AM, do they need to register anything or just show up? Just show up. So 06:30 in the morning, Bill Miller's 281-1604 right there at that intersection. It's the only Bill Miller's right around there.
Craig:Easy to find.
Rick:And we're doing the book of Acts, so that's amazing.
Craig:Yeah, that's fantastic. So Rick, you've had an interesting life and career has been a big part of that. What was the full time job before you retired? What were you doing?
Rick:I was a sales rep, sold insurance, but it was a very niche type insurance. I worked for a company called Church Mutual, and we just sold insurance to churches, Christian schools, Christian camps. Covered a very large territory, part of San Antonio, all the way down to Brownsville.
Craig:That's a huge territory.
Rick:And it goes West to Del Rio and Southeast to Victoria, more or less, Cuero.
Craig:Yeah, you covered half of Texas, which is in normal people language, it's four states.
Rick:That's right. Well, I'm grateful for company cars because I pick up a brand new car with about 10 miles maybe. Sixteen months later it was back in the shop with getting a new one because I'd already put 60 to 70,000 miles.
Craig:My goodness. That's a lot of seat time
Rick:Craig, that you I'm here to tell you how it was during that time I believed God was preparing me.
Craig:Yeah, how so?
Rick:Well, I was one of those that, and I'm sure there are a lot of people out there, you're driving along, you got the music going or something going, and you're like, That doesn't sound good. You change the channel. And you just keep chained till you find something. I was one of those. And I could vividly feel or hear the voice of God says, Turn it off.
Rick:You're not gonna be satisfied. Listen to me. And that was huge for me. There were those times when I would just turn the radio off, and I started carrying a little book with prayer requests, I would just spend that time praying. Probably more importantly for me, was like, Lord, what do you want from me?
Rick:I felt like I was doing your work. I was helping churches with their insurance needs, explaining to them their holes in their coverages, and at the same time I had the opportunity to sit and talk with pastors. Probably most importantly was the biggest thing, God gave me the opportunity to sit with somebody and pray with them. You know me, and you mentioned I'm a great encourager, and I would just sit there to encourage them in their ministry to don't be faint of heart, just keep going.
Craig:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you were really successful with Church Mutual?
Rick:Yes. And that's another part of my story. Yes, was very successful rep of the year, rep for the division, got all these nice trips and everything.
Craig:Yeah, and I think that hits towards kind of your personality though, Rick, is I think you were successful with Church Mutual not because you're selling insurance. It's because I think you're caring for people. And the product that you have is necessary and needed, but the care that you're able to provide for the church as a whole with insurance. Insurance is necessary and needed for all churches. Our church has insurance, yet at the same time, the way that you were able to care for pastors, to sit with them in their offices and pray I for
Rick:will tell you, Craig, I think one of the biggest things that, like I said, listening to God during this time of driving, because I was with Church Mutual for twenty five plus years, And I struggled, and what I mean by that is, sales, anybody that's in sales knows, you're only as good as your last sale. And you always had goals to meet and things to achieve to see how you're productive into the next year. And I was one of those, I strived and worked at that, but it was during that time when I started learning to turn the radio off and listen, and God says, Rick, I've gifted you. I've gifted you with administration, exhortation, encouragement, help, service. So it was like, how can I use that to glorify you in my job?
Rick:And I could hear my boss saying, You gotta get so many sales, you gotta do so many all those things. But one of the neatest things was, and I think you kinda mentioned what God gave me that opportunity, it wasn't about the sale. It was about getting to hear the pastor or whether it be board members, what is their heart and their desire for their church? And that was the most important thing because understanding their needs and their desires, then I could help plan an insurance program that would help that, but to remind them never stop focusing on what God's called them to do as a church. I'm just a small component of that, but there's more to that.
Rick:So I'm here to help fill that part while you're concentrating on the church. So that was probably the biggest change in my life in my career that made it, I believe, more because it wasn't me, it was me serving them, but getting to know them. That's why I've always said, and people know me, this is one of, I call them my Rickisms, People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Craig:And
Rick:that's been a big part of my life.
Craig:And so you were with Church Mutual twenty five years, I would say?
Rick:A little over twenty five years.
Craig:That's incredible. The fact that you can be with a company that long and be successful and still have good things to say about it whenever you're finished with them is always fun. The career was starting to wind down, how old are you right now, Rick, by the
Rick:just turned 70 in January.
Craig:Oh my goodness. Just turned 70. I remember you celebrated your birthday and I talked with my daughter and I was like, Mr. Rick is 70 today. And she said, No,
Rick:he's not.
Craig:There's no way that Mr. Rick is 70. But you've been retired now for how long? Five years. Five years retired, right at 65.
Craig:In those last kind of two years, three years of work life, as you're looking towards retirement, what's that looking like for you? There's obviously the financial side of, Oh, the paychecks are going to stop sometime. Can we still make it? There's that piece of it. But talk to me about just the emotional side of the identity piece of work.
Rick:And I'm glad you asked that. I will say, I think, again, going back to at age 60, that got ahold of me, because truly my identity, If you asked me, Who are you? I would have said, Well, I work for Church Mutual, I'm a sales rep, and I'm very successful, blah, blah, blah, and I could give you all the good stories, but I think God started working on me and realizing, Rick, that's not really who you are.
Craig:Was there a specific event that really brought Yes, that
Rick:and I will remember this as I always tell people I have three births. My physical birth of January 17, the day I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior at 10/30/1989, but it was 11/23/2016. 60 years old, just kind of struggling because I'm already planning, what am I going to do in retirement? I don't play golf. I don't have an extra skill of welding or anything like that.
Rick:So I'm anxious.
Craig:You've been on the road at this point And I've for been on quite a yeah. And so there's that piece of you're losing a piece of kind of that identity of the travel aspect And of you're going to be at home with Blanca now, which is a shift and a change in that
Rick:all those things were crushing. How am I gonna navigate retirement? And so anyway, going back to 11/23/2016, I had business down in Brownsville, Texas with some of my churches and did, I had completed the damn work. It was early. And I thought, you know what?
Rick:I'm going to the beach. I'm twenty minutes from South Potter Island. Absolutely. And I'm there, who's at the beach on November? It's so
Craig:And
Rick:I think that's where I had my wrestling with God. Trying to figure out, And that was when he reminded me of one thing and one thing most important. And that was the hardest thing was, Rick, you're the most selfish person I know.
Craig:Oof, that's one of those, I don't wanna hear that.
Rick:I don't wanna hear that. Lord, and I'm there. He says, You're always worried about you and what you're gonna do and what's gonna happen next. Don't you trust me? And there's a lot to that story, but I sat there and just cried.
Rick:Because I felt I was successful, but all of sudden I'm not gonna be because my recognition or my identity was, I I was on the brochures of Church Mutual for my accomplishments. People knew me. Would ask me to mean, whenever we'd have division meetings, they'd ask me to talk. So that was Rick.
Craig:You're seeing that the awards and the plaques and the trophies are about to cease in the next Yep. Five
Rick:So it was during that time that God reminded me, and this is a story I tell everybody. When I came to know Jesus at age 33 and 89, I attended a large church, and I met people who were my age now, 70 years old.
Craig:How'd you feel about them back then?
Rick:Back then I was like, were old. Were old. It's like, And oh my I love these men because they received me. But something I noticed at that where there were a lot of them who, for me, like joy. It was like, I've been doing this for forty years and I'm just existing.
Rick:And I remember praying to the Lord at 33, and I said, Lord, if this is real, if this is real, I don't want to be like that. That's why now I fast forward at age 60, I'm getting close to retirement, and I think I was becoming that seven year old person already. Meaning, man, I've been serving the Lord for twenty seven years, been on mission trips, had done deaconing, all these kinds of things. It's like, I wanna enjoy. Plan, I believe, real well for retirement.
Rick:I paid off my house. I knew that I was gonna lose a company car, so I needed to make sure I got another car. When I retired, I didn't wanna have any debt. That was my key. But again, that goes back to it was all about Rick.
Rick:And that's where God got ahold of me, and just rocked my And I struggled with that, Craig, I'm telling you, was difficult. But when I came to the realization, because one of the things he said, Rick, I'm not really Lord of your life. You pray that I be saved and that you are saved and I'm the Lord of your life, but you really didn't do that. And so that's what changed me. That's what I started saying, Okay, Lord, how will you use me?
Rick:I'm willing to submit, surrender, and sacrifice now. And that was hard. Let's face it, at 60, we're pretty much set in our ways.
Craig:It's old dog, new tricks.
Rick:Absolutely. Because my idea of retirement was, hey, I knew enough pastors, I knew people, I'd go by and maybe offer advice to them or do these kinds of things. But one of the things, as I got closer to retirement, I could hear the Lord telling me, Rick, get to know your wife. Get to know Blanket. I'm like, We've been married.
Rick:I've been living in the same house. I worked out of the home, so I would get up, have my time with the Lord, then sit and talk with her for a little bit, go into my office, and then go on whatever I needed to do. And I come home and we'd have dinner, we'd pray and we'd watch TV. Lord, what more? He says, No, you need to know her.
Rick:Understand her. You've seen the Again, because it's about you. Get to know. So that was a different, I started realizing, yeah, because I was doing so many other things. When was the time I had said, Hey, let's just go for dinner.
Rick:Or, Hey, let me do the dishes for you. Those type of things to ease that. And that was that selfish part.
Craig:Yeah. So this is self pas de. You're 60 years old. Is it instantly a change or is it a slower process?
Rick:It was a slow process and it was painful.
Craig:Yeah, I asked that question because that's most likely how it happens with most of us is God reveals something that is within our hearts. And it's like, okay, I understand that. And then I leave. And as James said, I I leave unchanged. I I look in the mirror.
Craig:I see the flaw. Yep. And I turn around. I'm like, there's a flaw and I I don't do anything about it. I don't let let God through the power of his spirit change me.
Craig:It it takes for me I'm hardheaded most often, and it takes multiple times of of God repeating the same things and showing showing me my own lack continually before change really starts to set in for me. For you, I'm assuming it's the same type of a thing for you.
Rick:Trust me, you said one thing that sticks, I talk about this all the time as I teach and disciple men. We all have flaws, and those flaws is what keeps us away from being with Him. And my biggest flaw, and I'm open about it, is the need for validation, And that's part of that, because my validation would be, Rick's the top salesperson. Rick's this, Rick's that, all these things. The validation was important to me.
Rick:And that goes back even as a kid. So, there's so much that was so strong, and that was what was keeping me in until I fully realized that and understood that. Because it wasn't so much just the selfishness, it was the valid was what really had the grip on me that helped change me, and that was the part that took a while. Because along with validation, the flaw, there was triggers that would cause wanting those validations. Absolutely.
Rick:I'm feeling good. But he reminded me, Rick, I've already validated you. I validated you. Trust me. Lean into me.
Rick:That's where he said, Let me become truly Lord of your life. And I talk about Lordship salvation. It's not another way of saying it, but just Lordship, his presence. And so that was part of the process. So I will tell you, after that struggle, one of the things that had to change was the way I spend my time with him.
Rick:And one of it was, and Michael agreed to this, my routine every morning at 05:30, 06:00 up in the morning, off to the gym, go workout, but I was listening to podcasts. I was listening to great sermons, Christian music, and then I'm off doing my work. Once in a while I do devotional or whatever. Hey, I'm going to church, I'm hearing the message, so that's good. And that's where, to me, the sacrifice he said, you've surrendered now, you're surrendering yourself, you're realizing, what are you willing to sacrifice to spend time with me?
Rick:And that was difficult. Well, okay, I'll do time during a lunch hour or when I get home from work. Well, if any of you guys travel a lot or drive on your car a lot, when you get home, you just wanna sit
Craig:in
Rick:front of
Craig:the TV. The day is done.
Rick:But I can hear, Are you willing to give up your workouts? And the people who know me, that was important to me.
Craig:Yeah, absolutely.
Rick:When you've been doing it all your life, and I mean truly all my life, since I was a kid, But I did, and I would get up. What I decided to do is truly understand who my God is. I decided to read a Psalm a day for the next one hundred and fifty days. But I remember starting out with when I first started giving up my morning work, I'd go sit on it. I had to find a place where I would sit all the time.
Rick:I think it's important. Consistency. Consistency
Craig:was That's my reading chair. Absolutely.
Rick:So you can go to my house, you can go to the kitchen table and you'll see I have my stuff there. I have to clean it off every time I'm company company,
Craig:that's my place.
Rick:But I got, it was I had to understand because I grew up in the Catholic faith and just my idea of God was a killjoy, unfortunately.
Craig:Was rules
Rick:and Rules and routines, and if you did bad, go to confession.
Craig:But
Rick:I needed to know who my God was, so I decided to read a Psalm a day. I started out with, okay, Lord, I'm going to give you twenty minutes, thirty minutes. Well, here to say twenty, thirty minutes turned into an hour to two hours.
Craig:You hit Psalm 119, you're
Rick:like days. Story. But anyway, I decided to do a Psalm a day. Why? To understand who my God is.
Rick:God is faithful, he is just, yes, he punishes, but he loves, he's forgiving, everything that I couldn't understand about who he was. I understood Jesus, what he did for me, but truly who was God the Father. And that is what I had to do. I had to understand who God is in my life to fully understand what he's calling me to do. And as I'm reading then is of course Rick the planner.
Rick:Psalm 119 is coming up soon. So I start thinking, I'm going to break it down, you know, this many chapters verses and then this many everything. God is an infinite wisdom, as I call him a hilarious God, Psalm 119 falls on a Saturday. And guess what? It's Rick, what are you going to do?
Rick:You got all day. That means giving up sports on TV, going out and enjoying the day and everything. And that's who my God is. He loved me enough that when I was trying to make my decisions, he said, I'll show you. I love you, I'm gonna show you that you can plan all you want, but I got you.
Rick:Trust me. And that's where it became that true trusting faith. We have the saving faith, but the trusting faith is so important. And so that is what has trajected me to where I am, because he became truly Lord of my life starting 11/23/2016. That's been a journey.
Rick:We're talking here ten years later. Absolutely.
Craig:Yeah. And so take a step back here. We're of reaching that time of retirement. What plans did you have for Rick?
Rick:My plans? Oh, man. Travel the world.
Craig:Okay. What's number one destination that you wanted to go to?
Rick:Actually, I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but we did And achieve I live here. And of course, going overseas to London, England, places like that. So anyway, that was part of the plan. Like I said, I had met a lot of different pastors and I always told them, like, if you have any guys that are wanting to do men's, they knew my heart. I said, I'd be willing to come and visit with them and talk with them and encourage them or whatever.
Rick:So, I had all these things I would be doing on the side. Since I didn't, I even thought, well, I'll just get a part time job just to do something. Then it hit me again. You're supposed to spend time with Blanca. So, had to reevaluate those things.
Rick:I said, Okay, Lord, what do you want from me?
Craig:Yeah. And you had some physical setbacks, like as soon as you retired as well. Walk us through those.
Rick:So I retire My retirement was in May, but my job ended it 01/29/2020 We're in twenty sixth, so '21. I retired. After I turned 65, but because I would've come long enough, my ex retirement was May. So I had an option of either taking a full paycheck that gave out or continue. I said, keep me on the payroll.
Rick:I got to keep the car a little bit longer. Yeah, absolutely. But anyway, so if everybody remember '21, we had Snowmageddon. Oh, yes. Okay.
Rick:So, my first week of that is we're locked up. And I'm like, seriously, retirement locked up.
Craig:Welcome to retirement.
Rick:You Can't can't do do anything.
Craig:Did you guys have power during that timeframe?
Rick:We did. But here's the funny thing in a way. The week before I my gating came, I had retired and Mike said, Hey, do you want to go to Corpus, visit the family? I said, Look, I love you. I want to go, but this is my first week.
Rick:Give me a chance to just catch my breath. And then I'll travel down there and I'll meet you down there. She said, Fine, that's great. So that was my intent. So obviously she goes down, snowmageddon hits, I think it starts on like that Saturday, Sunday, it starts and the roads start freezing.
Rick:I can't go. So we talk and say, well, when it clears up, I'll go. Well, it didn't clear for what a week?
Craig:Yes.
Rick:It took a long week. So in the meantime, after she's stuck down there, she can't even come back. I can't go down there. It's just constant. We didn't lose power, so that was great.
Rick:So when it finally cleared up, my biggest thing is the weather changed. It's great, it's beautiful outside. I have a Vespa.
Craig:Yes, you do.
Rick:I love to ride it. And I thought, You know what? I'm going out and enjoy this beautiful weather. I'm retired. It's daytime.
Rick:I don't have to be in an appointment. I get in my Vespa, take off, not realizing that with cold weather, tires shrink. Well, that didn't hit me. I decided to go out. I'm out of my driveway going down the road.
Rick:I hit a bump that I always hit, The vespa goes from underneath me. I fracture my right ankle. Welcome to retirement. Drive myself. Blanca's not around.
Rick:I drive myself to the ER.
Craig:Yeah, because we're men, this is what
Rick:That's we what we do, it's my don't right ask help. We don't ask for help, it's
Craig:We my do it right ourselves, well done.
Rick:Oh no, one more thing. Before that, I had heard that morning, that afternoon, we were all going as deacons and pastors. We were getting ready to go to the Shriners. We were going to walk around the And I'm walking hobbling, not thinking, it's just a sprain. But after that, I go back home and look at my foot.
Rick:I'm like, Oh no, it didn't look good. So I rushed to the ER, drove myself, sure enough, fractured my ankle in a boot for eight weeks. Blanca calls and I say, Hey, how are you? You coming home? Yeah, I'm coming.
Rick:I said, Oh, by the way, let me show you. So anyway, that was a start of mine. I'm like, honestly, I really felt maybe I should have just stayed at work. Yeah. Okay.
Rick:That goes down. September rolls around. Well, back up, going to a wedding to visit a nephew that was getting married in We drive up there, we're at an Airbnb, and I'm out with my brothers and everything. Blanca's with my sisters, and they were visiting and talking, she was walking, and she missed a step and fractures her wrist. That was on Friday.
Rick:No, that was Thursday. Friday is going to be the rehearsal dinner. Bottom line is we didn't get to do any of that. We drove back to San Antonio. She fractured the wrist.
Rick:She's got eight screws and a plate. So that's in August. September rolls around. I've always had kind of back problems. Yeah.
Rick:And it got to a point where I just couldn't stand it. So I get scheduled to have my back fused, my L4, L5 fused.
Craig:Yeah.
Rick:Blanca can't hold anything. I can't bend over.
Craig:Perfect couple.
Rick:Remember what I said, what God says? You got to get to know each other. What better way?
Craig:Yeah, let's force
Rick:it. That's right.
Craig:Let's make sure.
Rick:Rick, you're not going to do it. I'm going to show you. Craig, we laughed today. It was so funny because I would help her put her top parts on. She'd have to help me put my bottom part because I couldn't bend over.
Rick:We were cooking and it was like, you use one hand, I'll use the other hand. It was just boom.
Craig:Together you make up one person. Absolutely.
Rick:And that was the beauty. So that's how retirement started for me.
Craig:Yeah. That's not your plans for sure. It's not one of those things where it's like, you know what, I want to retire, I want to travel the world, and instead of doing any of that, it's like, hey, have some injuries and stay home.
Rick:That's right.
Craig:That's not what you expect whenever it comes to retirement.
Rick:Definitely not. So, it's been a beautiful thing, but one of the things that I If you remember, I said my prayer was, I don't want to be like that 70 year old, and God has continued to work on my heart and showing me that there's more to retirement than yourself.
Craig:Yeah, absolutely.
Rick:What is going to be your legacy?
Craig:Yeah. It's one of those things where I think there's a great question of do Christians retire? And I think there's that aspect of ultimately no, we're never done. No. We might change jobs.
Craig:We might stop receiving a paycheck.
Rick:Right.
Craig:But my role as a follower of Christ is never to, as you mentioned, sit and soak. Right. That aspect. And you've seen that within your life. What's your day to day looking like right now in the age of retirement for you, Rick?
Rick:Man, it's been I don't want to sound selfish, I guess, or arrogant, but today, the day you talk about joy in your life. Retirement isn't about travel, because we've done some traveling, which is exactly what I wanted. It's knowing that I'm in the center of God's will, doing what he's called me to do. And I say that my day to day, first of all, I love discipleship, because it was during my time of growing in my faith, having someone poured into my life. So part of that, the day is, I will meet two or three guys, four guys a week sometimes, pouring into them because their desire to know Him better.
Rick:Or it's just struggle with life, spending time in His word every morning and preparing for our men's ministry teaching. Just always aware. But you know what? Even during that time, God has given me time, because there's days I just tell them, Hey, let's go up and have breakfast. The activities of meeting men and studying and doing can sometimes take up your time.
Rick:Absolutely. Have to learn balance, and he is showing me that. So it's those moments when I'm saying, I've been preparing for this lesson, or I'm doing this, or I'm meeting this guy, and I've been up. Some people tell me, Rick, why do you get up so early? You're
Craig:retired. You're retired, you sleep in, boss.
Rick:You sleep in, boss, yeah. But I can't. Part of what he's showing me that balance. So I spending those times, God, again, I remind men, we can't live life alone. We need each
Craig:other. Absolutely.
Rick:We need each other. And if I can encourage them in that respect, first and foremost, to develop conversations with other guys, getting
Craig:That to develop relationships and showing
Rick:is so important. And it's to see men, as I said, we have 15 guys to show up watching these men just grow in each other, discipling basically each other, meaning that they get to know each other. They pour into each other's life. And the neatest thing is now God has shown me, let them teach. So now I encourage them, hey, I've been doing it, You do this chapter, you do this.
Rick:And to see them willing, reluctantly, but they do it. But that's the beauty of that. But at the same time doing all that, I'm still finding that time, Hey, Blanca, let's do this. Let's do that. That's why I'm saying, being in the center of his will, excuse me for being emotional.
Rick:But there's joy, that's why I'm saying it's, I'm living my best life ever. Retirement isn't about just saying, I've done it for so long. It's time to take it easy. No. You got to still find joy in his word because he speaks to you.
Rick:They say it's a love letter. Okay. It's a love letter to me. So as I read it, I read it not so much with my eyes, but my heart saying, Lord, what are you showing me? What do you teach me?
Rick:What am I to learn? How am I to grow? How am I to let others know? And again, God continues to work. One of the things that Rick does, I walk every day, four miles.
Rick:But Rick was one of those, after retirement, start walking. Man, I'm gonna walk because I can't run. I've got a knee replacement. Trust me, I've got
Craig:more You're so bionic at
Rick:this point. Tell my kids and they go, Dad, you're so sick. But I said, You know, all you gotta do, my inheritance, just harvest me. I've got enough metal in me.
Craig:Absolutely.
Rick:I do. It's fun going through the scanners and everything. But anyway, when I retired, going to stay in shape. So I'm going to start walking. So I walk four miles.
Rick:But Rick again is one of those is I'm going to do a, Okay, I did fifteen minutes. I'm going to shoot for fourteen minute mile. I'm going to shoot for twelve minute mile. Competition. Competition with Rick.
Rick:And I'm walking in my neighborhood and other neighborhoods and everything. Again, when you're in the presence, when you spend time with him, you hear him. And I remember one time walking, he goes, you idiot. There are people around here in this neighborhood that are walking to, and you didn't even say hello or stop. It struck me.
Rick:It's no longer how fast I can go, it's who am I going to meet today? God has opened that door. I have three men in my neighborhood that I have disciple that don't know the Lord, that he's given me an opportunity because Rick stopped and said, Hey, how are you? My name's Rick. Who are you?
Rick:Hey, by the way, how about we go get a coffee down the street?
Craig:And
Rick:we meet. I have one guy constantly, Hey, we haven't met in a couple of weeks. Where are you? Which is beautiful. But I say that because, talking about living in the center of his will, doing those things, he is always working around.
Rick:So it's to the point now when I go walking, Blanc comes, I come home and she goes, Who did you meet today? Yeah, absolutely. But it's such a blessing, and I'm telling you, yes, I don't play golf like a lot of people in retirement. I'm not knocking that. I'm just saying, Lord, how will you use me?
Rick:Yeah, absolutely. Hey, you use my gift. Encouragement, exhortation, service helps, which created to believe shepherding teaching has been one of my top things. When that was down number 85 for like But that's why I say it. I'm living my best life ever right now.
Rick:I don't know, but it's also scary because again, you hit that 70. But then I think last year we did book of Deuteronomy, spent a whole year in Deuteronomy. And how does it end? Two things. God calls Moses the man of God, only place.
Rick:But it also says Moses at 160 or whatever he was, was still of great eyesight and health. And I'm like, no Lord. Rick, you're in good health. Keep going. When it would be easy to say, and it's my desire to one day be that man of God.
Rick:But I only can do that if I continue to let him work through me. And two things my prayer is each day in the morning is, Lord, don't use me today however you so desire to bring honor and glory to you. And number two, Lord, I don't want people to see Rick, but Christ through me. And I think that to me is why I love our church, because our church reflects that. Not only in scripture that every day, but the camaraderie, the welcoming, the desire to see other people grow.
Rick:That's what fuels me to say, Guys, come to our church. Come and see, for lack of a better way of saying it. And that's why I enjoy being a greeter. That's important to me. Everybody wants to be known.
Craig:To end our time, Rick, can you just give a charge, not just to the 65 plus crowd that are looking at kind of that fourth quarter, but just to our church as a whole, that your life experience is one of you had a desire to sit and soak, and God has completely flipped that aspect of your heart and of your life, and you've seen just the joy of it. So if you could just give a charge to our people at Stone Oak Bible Church to not sit and soak, but to pour themselves out, what would that be?
Rick:I think for me, one of the biggest things I think I can speak for a lot of people. Too many times, we get, we call it Bible fatigue. We've read the Bible over and over. And we know the stories, we hear the stories. But one thing that God showed me, the more I started reading with my heart, meaning as I read it, I asked the Lord, show me, teach me, lead me, you're the God that saved me.
Rick:But I know that I have to humble myself. So read it through the lens of Lord, where am I in this story? What are you calling me to do in this story? Where am I lacking in this story? What are you asking me to do?
Rick:And those are scary questions.
Craig:100%, because he He does
Rick:does it. As right now, shared with you earlier today before we started was, I feel God calling me again to something, and I'm like, No, I can't. But that's a beautiful thing, that's the joy. So I say, when you pick up scripture, I encourage you, even if you do it like I did, Lord, I'm gonna give you ten minutes. But if you do it, it's quantity not.
Rick:It's not quantity, it's quality. The quality of time. So you might read three or four verses and it speaks to you and you're gonna find out that, yeah, read for ten minutes, but I'm here reflecting for thirty or forty minutes realizing,
Craig:oh my gosh, he's really speaking to me. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Rick, it has been fantastic just to get to be with you to Thank you. Hear your story. Stonick Bible Church, hopefully, this was edifying to you.
Craig:Our heart here at Stonick Bible Church is to be the church. And a part of being the church is sitting and soaking at times, but also being poured out. If there's any way that we can serve you, anything you need from us as the church, reach out to us. You can shoot us an email. You can reach out to us on Sunday morning.
Craig:And church, we look forward to gathering with you together the next time we see you. Have a great day.