Mark Marshall

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How I became Open Minded…

How I became Open Minded…

As God has blessed me, I have lived a humble but fruitful life. I have had the  opportunity to be a part of many notable miracles, served under some mighty men and women of God. Have had great success in the Business world, but my greatest of all achievements is definitely my family and who they have become as people.

I remember the night that the new Texas Stadium opened up, I think that they hosted an OU vs BYU football game, I’m not sure.  At halftime they asked Jerry Jones the Guru and owner of all of that monstrosity; “Jerry is this your crowning achievement?” His reply was no, my greatest crowning achievement of my life is not this Billion dollar stadium, but the 7th grade season in football I got to coach my son, THAT Jerry says, was my crowning achievement.”

That rang true for me. We moved to Michigan in the summer of 2000, in a strange land, with no family, support, or friends. We went on faith and hope. I can say it was totally a God thing the whole way, I made friends for life.  One thing I was blessed with as an independent business owner, is being in control of my schedule.  The boys were in the 4th grade when we moved there. I always played and still love all sports. My boys were so awesome at it. I began volunteering on the fourth grade team in football. After football then came baseball, I volunteered. Then after that came summer basketball, I became a coach as well. You see I was blessed to not only attend, every single sporting event for my boys, from 4th grade to college, I was blessed the opportunity to coach them as well.  I was able to move from little league, to Jr High, to High School, which I count as a huge blessing. If I died today I would be a fulfilled and happy man believe me, I have been given so many blessings and opportunities that most will never see in a lifetime.

My greatest blessing to date is knowing all of my sons, and wife are all humanitarians, full of love for all mankind. They have no judgement in their hearts, and are not prejudice in any way. This I am the proudest of in all my life. This brings me to reality that brought us to this path. Since the fall and winter of 1999 I was  invited by force, to become a mystic with an open mind.  My wife and 3 young sons had lost all of our income through ministry. We were betrayed and rejected by prominent ministry friends.  At the time for a few months after we lost all of our house and cars, we were living in a two bedroom apartment on the campus at Stillwater OSU.  We had no car, my wife took a taxi to work to cook at a sorority house, and I caught rides to work part time remodeling a kitchen for an awesome friend. We were paying 25.00 a month for rent, because of the graciousness of an amazing woman who still thought I was a man of God in spite of what others thought. I mean I have no way to convey to you the history, the magnitude of being lied about on a daily basis, etc…but all the while maintaining an amazing walk with God that honestly I havent seen the like since.

I believe open mindedness is truly achieved through a series of events that force no other course of action. As long as your ducks or in a row ( or appear to be to all those around you) Im sure you think Im nuts; honestly you are supposed to, move on and we will see you later on. If you think I’m crazy, or a loose cannon it’s all good, you are just not ready.  But to those who have been through some things that don’t fit any of your models of training, not understanding of what has happened, then you are at the right place and the right time. Let me tell you the magnitude of events that may cause you to ‘Open your eyes NEO’, from the Matrix movie. We had a prominant minister friend steal my data base of all of the contacts I had, they had spread damning lies about me and my ministry team. Consequently all of the meetings I had booked for two years straight for every weekend was cancelled. Every single pastor cancelled, without the exception of two, which are still great friends of mine for life. Not one single person called to see how we were doing, or etc.

Believe this………..EVERYONE LOVES you when you are winning…….. NO ONE wants to be associated with a shady loser….You will find your friends when you have nothing to offer them by way of fame or recognition, or pay….believe me, and if there is a great call on your life you may walk the same shoes.

The beauty of the whole story is; it created an open spirit and mind within my heart! I began to question everything and every one that I believed in. My criteria for love, and truth and for what was important changed dramatically. I began the journey of the open mind / open heart.