Tyler's life choices miracle..part one

​I know this story has to be for someone, as I've wanted to tell it for weeks. This is one of the most amazing of our family miracles, as God reached out and in His perfect timing, gave the desires of the heart.

I told you earlier my son Tyler had a band all throughout high school, and we spent our weekends traveling all over, setting up, singing, tearing down, meeting incredible people and watch...ing these young boys grow into men. Their senior year, the band broke up, and it was almost like a divorce. It left all of them a little adrift, "the plan" having not come to fruition. Tyler Davis, who is now a very successful musician, began to do music on his own, and some of the other boys tried to form another band. These new bands just didn't have the "magic" of the old one, and it was a struggle, both musically and in getting gigs. The whole senior year was spent trying one new thing after another, kind of going nowhere.

About that same time period, we were trying to figure out where Tyler was going to go to school. We had visited this incredible Christian university in Nashville, Belmont, and I really had my heart set on him going there. He was wanting to get a degree in music recording, and they had a great program. We also looked at some engineering schools, University of Cincinnatti, WVU-Tech, as we always thought he would be an engineer. He was building things from the time he was about two years old - no lie. He took one of Talia's baby buggies, the one that had the full bed thing with the little canopy over it, he tore that apart, screwed it into a skateboard, and then he would get in that baby buggy, lay down and take off down the driveway toward the Bowlbys' house, not able to see a thing (he was about five or so then).

Fred and Betty Clark, our incredible next door neighbors, used to say the whole neighborhood was taking bets on whether Tyler would live to be an adult. He had gone through a period of motorcycle racing and could tear his motorcycle apart and rebuild it. One year, he asked for a welding machine for Christmas (he was about 14). So long story short, he had that "building and designing thing" in his genes. Grandpa Roy had taught him so much about engines and how motors work, and he had a knack for it.

As spring came and high school graduation occurred, we knew we needed to get a plan for college. I had nagged and talked and pleaded all spring for a decision so we could get deposits and things sent in, and Ty would just hold me off, he didn't know, he wasn't sure, this band may be playing somewhere, blah, blah, blah. About June came showdown time - we needed to get this going or he was going to miss his spot and not be able to go, and a decision had to be made. We planned a camping trip, just Tom and I and Tyler and his girlfriend (now wonderful wife:) Molli. We went to Summersville where we had our camper, spent the weekend at the lake and had a good time. Tom and I had decided that the decision was getting made this weekend, and we were going to spend this time hashing it out. We tried discussing it time and time again, and each time we brought it up, Tyler kept saying, "I have a call to play music, I'm not going, I just need to play." We, of course, were bringing up the realities of the situation, that all that sounds great and glamourous, but it does not pay the bills. I'm saying that Belmont, this incredible university in Nashville where several huge stars have gone, is the perfect place to hook up with talented musicians and form another band and see where it goes while you are also getting an education. No luck, no moving him an inch.

On the way home in the car, we had reached an impasse, and no decision had been made. I bring it up again and Tyler is so frustrated, he begins to cry, and he says, "Mom, you are not hearing me. I have a CALL from God, a CALL to play music - you of all people should appreciate that, should care that God has CALLED me to do this and I have to do it!" Well, then I'm crying and yelling back with as much frustration, "That's all well and good, and I do want you to follow your call, but your reality is that the band you are in right now is going NOWHERE and fast, and as the parent, I have the responsibility to make decisions for you when you do not seem capable of making a good one for yourself, so you are going to Belmont. What kid would turn down an education in Nashville at one of the most prestigious music colleges in the entire United States that is going to cost us an absolute fortune? Who would be that ungrateful?" You can imagine the scene, both of us crying and yelling, Tom and Molli silent, tension building that has been brewing all weekend. He says, "I'm not going, I won't do it, it will be a waste of your money and I don't want it and that's it. I'm sorry, mom, but I'm not doing it."

I was truly beside myself. Tyler had been our easy kid, really (other than all the danger and things like coming home to find him on the roof the day Tom's father had been dying and they had come to church to get us to go to the hospital, so we send the children home with someone else to stay alone while we went to the hospital - come home and he is on the roof! "Oh, I was hitting tennis balls against the side of the garage door and one of them went on the roof and I just knew you would be mad if you came home and found a ball on the roof." Right, like we would be less mad to find our ten-year-old on the roof......

Anyway, Tyler had not been the child to defy us, to just totally go against everything we said - we had had those children, but that's another story:) Before we left on this camping trip, we had had a sort of bad thing happen - I had been somewhere and a young man stopped me and said, "Mrs. Evans, I need to tell you something. I really like you and your family, and there is this guy I work with that just got out of prison, and he hates you and says he's going to destroy your husband and your family, and I'm kind of afraid for you and just wanted you to know." Tom had had death threats before (I'll tell the black widow death threat story some day - that's a good one). Anyway, I forgot to tell Tom about it until we left for the trip, so he calls and gets the law enforcement figuring out who this is and whether it's a credible threat or not, and we leave town.

Our house had been an open door (literally) for my children's entire lives. I had run the youth group for years and wanted any of the kids from the church or my children's friends to always know they had a place to come if they needed to waste time after school or just needed a ride somewhere or something to eat, an ear to listen, so it was always chaos. I came home from work one day to hear the shower running but no one home, and I ask through the bathroom door, "Who's there, " and this voice comes back, "It's Dustin" or some name I was not familiar with. He says, "Tyler said I could come up." No problem - that was how we lived. But when we have these safety situations, it gets a little weird, so we sat Tyler down after we got home, told him that law enforcement had found out about this guy and he was someone really bad, had burned someone's house down and several other crimes, so we needed to start locking doors, know who is in the house, all that.

We go to bed, and I realize, I am literally sleeping with Granny Clampett - shotgun by the bed, pistol on the nightstand....oh my. I lay in bed and tell Tom, "I don't know what to do, I cannot bear the fact that he is not going to go to college. I feel like we're failing him. How can we convince him what a mistake he's making?" Tom says, "Let it go, just let it go. So he wastes five years playing music? He'll be fine. Tyler is not lazy, he is smart and hard working, and he needs to work this out for himself." That was true - both of my kids had worked since they were little. Tyler had mowed yards since he was 12, spent the entire summer covered with sweat and grass clippings. They both saved money for their first vehicle, and we matched their savings as our contribution.

I fell asleep praying for peace, praying for God to let me KNOW that I should back off and not push him to Belmont, decide for him when he couldn't seem to get his head on straight. Went to sleep, and in the middle of the night, I can feel someone in the room. I open my eyes and - no joke - Tyler is bent over my face, about two inches from my nose. He sees me open my eyes and he says, "Mom, it's me, Tyler." I say, "Yes, I know, I can I see you. What are you doing?" He says, "I need you. Can you get up?" Well, Tom next to me hears us talking, jumps up, says, "What's going on? Is someone in the house?" Ty says, "No, it's fine, I just need mom."

I get up and we go outside the bedroom door, and I say, 'What is going on? You scared me to death." He says, "I just got a call (it is 3:00 am.) from a Christian band that is on a national tour and they lost their drummer and they want me." I was like, "What? Is this a joke?" He's like, "No, it is no joke, I need to leave with them tomorrow night." I start to cry and I'm like, "What is this? Is this God? It's too much - this cannot be happening." We go downstairs and he calls this band up on the computer and we listen to their music, and it was good - really good. They were playing in California in two weeks at a huge event called Spirit West Coast, and he needed to leave with them and wouldn't be home for more than 30 days as they were playing all over Oregon and California and Washington State, several places before they came home.

Both of us were crying. We went into the living room of our house and got down by the couch on our knees, in the stillness of the night, and we began to cry out to the Lord for wisdom and thanksgiving and direction and peace.......only God, only God, can reach out into the conflict of your life, can reach down and show you His hand of mercy, of righteousness, of grace......

The next day, we packed our son up, with his drums and clothes for 30 days, drove him to Huntington to meet up with these men in this band, and handed him over to them. Two weeks later, Molli and I flew to California to watch him play at an event with bands such as Leeland, Toby Mac, Third Day, The Afters...truly unbelievable. I have wondered so many times what would have happened if I had intervened, if I had forced MY will into this situation....

There is much more to this story, and I will continue it in the next post. But I would ask you: Is there a call on your life? Do you KNOW God has called you to something and you've ignored it? Are you afraid to step out? Afraid He can't keep you and can't provide for you? Our God can do ANYTHING, and this story is proof that if you obey the call he WILL give you the desires of your heart and He will provide more than you could ever ever imagine...trust Him!