The Reshaping of
Abilities
You may be asking, "When you accepted the shaping of the Master Potter, did He enhance your abilities? Did He change your abilities? Did He give you a larger platform on which to perform with the abilities He gave you?"
I cannot say I was a better singer or a better actress. But I certainly had incredible inner peace, and that changed the way I performed.
During the twenty years I was an entertainer on radio and in westerns I never lost my fear of going on stage in public appearances. I always worried sick about how I would perform, be accepted. I'd have to say that for all my bravado, I was basically an insecure entertainer.
Then I committed my life to the Master Potter. I remember the first time after my commitment to Him that I was asked to sing in front of a church audience. Our church had a radio ministry every Sunday afternoon, and I was glad to go on the air for them. When I felt the fright coming on, I stopped and prayed that God would work through me, that I would feel within
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myself that He was speaking and singing through me as His agent. The sense of relaxation and freedom that came over me is indescribable. I felt no fear, no nervousness whatsoever.
I had little time to rehearse for that program. Some of the roles I played were far more difficult than anything I had done before. I was amazed at what came out of me when I listened to the rebroadcasts. Obviously we become more effective communicators when we are no longer controlled by fear; so you might say the Master Potter enhanced my ability to communicate in song.
Enhanced Ability
Remember Peter, the Galilean fisherman? He left his nets to follow Jesus, but when Jesus sent the disciples to Galilee, telling them that He would meet them there, Peter went back to fishing. That's what he had honed his skills on before Jesus called him. When Jesus appeared on the shore after His resurrection, this highly experienced fisherman had to admit that they had fished all night and caught nothing. So then Jesus, the ex-carpenter, said: "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some" (John 21:6).
The result of obedience? "So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish" (John 21:6).
I have been truly astonished what people have been able to accomplish when they put themselves unreservedly under the hand of the Master Potter.
Or think of Dr. Luke, who left his practice to become the apostle Paul's traveling companion and witness for Jesus Christ. Did God ditch Dr. Luke's
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training and abilities and simply turn him into a positive witness for Jesus Christ? On the contrary, God used his medical knowledge to help keep the apostle Paul on the road despite incredibly difficult traveling conditions.
More than that, when you read the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, you will, if you look, find him making detailed notes of the medical conditions of people who approached Jesus. Luke's writing is a genuine repository of medical information from that day, reflecting his training. It is Dr. Luke who provides the stories of the healing of Peter's mother-in-law (Luke 4:38), a leper (5:12), a paralyzed man (5:28), and a deformed hand (6:6).
Reshaped Abilities
So when Luke committed himself to the Master Potter, He not only reshaped Luke's abilities by turning him into a historian, but He also used Luke's knowledge of medicine in ministry outreach.
Similarly, the Master Potter did not cast aside my abilities when He took over. Although Republic Studios initially brought in another leading lady to star in the movies opposite Roy after our marriage, fans of Roy soon let management know this was a mistake. So I was invited to rejoin Roy in the movies and continue to use my already-developed abilities. But that did not last long.
Roy had been with Republic Studios for fourteen years, starring in about ninety movies. About a year after Robin's birth, his contract was up for renewal. But this time, television was gaining strength and had to be factored into Roy's future. So he told the head of
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Republic Studios that he would sign only if he had television privileges. Mr. Yates hit the roof, for the moviemakers of the day were still fighting television. Roy refused to budge, insisting on television rights.
Mr. Yates adamantly refused, but Roy moved into television despite him, where he and I could work together. The Master Potter was moving both of us into a whole new use of our abilities, for now we were in control of our programming and could tailor the message we wanted to communicate. We now were also able to develop our own shows for the rodeo circuit and major cities as well.
Latent Abilities Reshaped
God not only reshaped our opportunities in entertainment, but He also gave me success in a totally unexpected arena. You'll remember that I had fancied myself a short story writer while still in my teens, but I had seen only rejection slips. But when God took us through the major reshaping of our priorities, of our focus on what is important through Robin, He also reshaped my abilities as a writer.
Amazingly, God used another negative experience to begin that reshaping. The day after Robin's funeral, feeling like I was on the ragged edge of a nervous breakdown, I was sitting in the kitchen, trying to regroup. The back door burst open and two strange women walked in. One of them said, "Mrs. Rogers, I know this is a bad time to come to your house, right after your baby's death, but my aunt is here from the East and she simply has to meet you and your husband and see your house before she goes back."
I was stunned at their audacity.
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Were we celebrities to be gawked at like three-legged calves or baubles in a jeweler's window? I dabbed my eyes with a napkin and said as civilly as I could, "You are right; this is not the time to see our home, and I'm not up to showing it to you. Roy is in the the den, if you want to see him." They pushed past me into the den. What Roy said, I never bothered to ask, but they rushed out of the house in too much of a hurry to say good-bye.
The next day I was thinking of Robin's death, the uncivil intrusion, and its implications. I looked up at an etching of Robin and recalled Roy's words, "She looks like a small-size sleeping angel." Suddenly the Holy Spirit reminded me of Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (KJV).
Like the sun breaking through the clouds, it became clear to me that Robin had been a little ministering angel to our family, teaching us badly needed lessons about the true values of life. Her handicaps were the Master Potter's audiovisual lessons to teach us that the strength of the Lord is made perfect in weakness. For two years she had been the Master Potter's instrument to teach us humility, patience, gratitude to God for what He has given us, and dependence upon God.
Impulsively I reached out for a pen and began to write. I wrote so quickly that after an hour my hand began to cramp. I stopped and looked down in disbelief at the little pile of paper on the desk. I couldn't believe I had written so much so quickly.
Some days later, while Roy and I were on a radio broadcast, I was able to rest for a few moments away from the mike. I closed my eyes and began to pray
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about Robin's message. I suddenly felt strongly moved again to write her story.
For weeks I couldn't shake the urging I felt. As I wrote, Robins' story poured forth. I really believe God gave me the words to write. I kept a tablet and a pencil handy and jotted down notes and thoughts as they came to me. If no tablet was handy, I made notes on the backs of envelopes, script sheets, the margins of newspapers. Three months later the book, Robin and God's book, was finished. Mine was the hand that the Master Potter used.
We left for appearances in New York via Dallas, where, as I shared earlier, we visited Hope Cottage and adopted Dodie. The press conferences and appearance in New York were extremely rough. I was still so emotionally upset over Robin's death that I could not make sense to anyone. I would pray every step of the way from our dressing rooms to the chutes, and during the show asked God to steady me as Roy and I shook hands with the children in the stands, as we always did at the end of our show. Each night I made it, dry-eyed, back to the hotel.
After ten days I was an emotional wreck. I had slept little, and when I did I had nightmares in which I saw Robin in her casket, sitting up and looking at me with questioning eyes. I would wake up crying and try to pray. I felt my prayers went no higher than the ceiling.
I began to wonder if Robin had been just a mistake of nature, if God really knew or cared. I questioned whether the book I had been guided to write was simply my desire to get an affliction off my chest, after hiding Robin's Down's syndrome condition from the public for two years.
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The tenth morning, hollow-eyed and shaking from shattered nerves, I said to Roy, "I'm going out in Central Park and sit there on a bench until God tells me something. I can't go on like this. I just have to have some rest and assurance that He is directing me with Robin's book. He simply has to help me."
I took my Bible and walked out into the lovely autumn sunshine to a stone bench near the Central Park Zoo. I bowed my head and prayed, "Thy will be done, Lord. Not my will, but thine! Butplease give me a word. Please give me peace about Robin and her book. Is it Your will that I seek a publisher for it? Will it help Your cause? Will it help children like Robin — and their parents? Please."
I looked up after that prayer. Walking toward me was a little Down's syndrome girl about six years old, holding the hand of a middle-aged woman whose face showed the scars of mental anguish. The child had all the characteristics of Down's syndrome: the slanted eyes, weak and out of control; tiny ears and little square hands; thick tongue, drooling; the unsteady, labored walk.
There were hundreds of people in the park walking in the noon sunshine, but I really did not see them. I only saw that child walking toward me. Suddenly it hit me. I had asked God for a word, and He had sent it in this child. He had spoken to me! He was saying, "I have taken Robin so that you can speak of Me to children like this, and to mothers like this. Robin is safe in the Everlasting Arms. Now tell others how she has blessed your life in giving you an awareness of Me, and how all the other Down's syndrome children in the world can bless all these other mothers."
I fairly ran back through the park to the hotel
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room, burst into our suite, and shouted to Roy, "He did it! God did it! He spoke to me!"
God's Ally
As though guided by God's hand, I picked up the phone and called Marble Collegiate Church and asked for an appointment with Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who had written the book that had helped me so much, A Guide to Confident Living. From the secretary I got the answer I had expected: Dr. Peale was a very busy man with a tight schedule. People made appointments weeks ahead of time, and she rather doubted I could see him. But she would check and see. She checked, and God opened the door. Fifteen minutes later I walked into his office.
"Dr. Peale, I have written a little book about my baby. May I read just a little of it to you?"
Famous last words — how may writers have said the same thing to authors who are successful!
"Of course," Dr. Peale said gently. "But first, we'll pray."
We prayed — on our knees. I got a tight hold on my emotions, fought back tears, and read what God had given me. Then I looked up at him; he had not said a word during the reading. I was almost afraid I was boring him. He returned my look through glistening eyes and said, "It's beautiful! I will help you get it published."
But I guess the Master Potter decided He had to teach me more about humility, trust, and dependence on Him. Dr. Peale's publisher already was launching a book about a little girl with cerebral palsy and so was not interested in my book.
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Dr. Peale sent me to another publisher's office. They were very kind, but wary of my "presumption that the soul of a two-year-old should have such scope of spiritual understanding." They doubted that "God would talk that way to a baby — or the baby to God."
Two blows in a row! Yet after that Central Park experience I was not let down or discouraged. After this latest news had just sunk in, I had a call from Dr. Frank S. Mead, editor-in-chief at Fleming H. Revell. He had been in the publisher's office after I had left the building and wanted to read my manuscript on his way to Chicago on a business trip. Later he called from Chicago and said, "We want it!"
I wept — this time for joy. No more rejection letters; the Master Potter had reshaped my abilities to fit His purpose.
God Plus Abilities Equals Success
The next spring I had one of my periodic physical breakdowns from overwork. When I came home from the hospital I found an abundance of mail from people who were reading Angel Unaware. Revell released it just before Easter 1953, and in a short time it was on the best-seller list. I took a series of potent iron shots to stimulate my very low hemoglobin, and went at the mountain of mail.
When I realized that this book was a true best-seller, I started wondering about the royalties. Having written the book to help other little "Robins," I came to see that my royalties, as well as my energies, should go toward helping such children. A lot of money was needed for research and the publicity
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needed to acquaint the public with this desperate need. At the time I knew of no national organization specifically founded for such a purpose. I was at a loss just where to allocate the funds, so I prayed and God answered.
About a month after the release of the book, Roy and I were doing a radio broadcast at NBC when we were approached by a man and two women. They wanted to take a publicity picture of us for use in a fund drive for the Exceptional Children's Foundation in Los Angeles. Exceptional children! I liked that. I liked it even better when they explained that his foundation was a branch of the National Association for Retarded Children. Started in 1950, the year Robin was born, the Association was headquartered in New York.
I was so overcome I could hardly speak. I immediately wrote to Revell and asked that they send all my royalties to the National Association for Retarded Children. Angel Unaware was on its way to helping many more children and parents than I had ever imagined possible. Today there is a school in Oklahoma called The Dale Rogers School for the Retarded. When the National Association for Retarded Children disbanded, I redirected the royalties to The Exceptional Children's Foundation in Los Angeles.
No Abortion Because of Angel Unaware
When the Master Potter reshapes our abilities, He can use then in truly amazing ways. More than one and a half million copies of Angel Unaware sold, and forty years later the book is still in print. I have met
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many people to whom this book ministered in very special ways.
Years later, a woman called with a story that touched me deeply. She had taken the drug thalidomide, and her doctors told her to abort her baby, since the child would be horribly deformed. Someone gave her a copy of Angel Unaware. After reading it, she decided she would trust God and have the baby.
This grateful mother called me because she wanted me to know that her little girl was born perfect. She thanked me for writing about our little Robin Elizabeth. The caller said, "If I had listened to all the frightening stories about abnormal children and gone through with the abortion, I would never have known the blessing of my beautiful little girl."
You'll remember my attempts at songwriting. When the Master Potter began reshaping my abilities, He gave me the song "The Bible Tells Me So" to use in one of our television episodes. Weeks later the song was featured on "Hit Parade," staying on it for many weeks. Later it was sung in churches and Sunday schools all over the country. When we put our abilities in the hands of the Master Potter, He uses them to lift up our heavenly Father, who gave them to us.
Joseph's Abilities Shaped
I think of Joseph, the young man so despised by his brothers that they sold him to slave traders on their way to Egypt. Out of sight, out of mind, was their idea. But the Master Potter took this super-confident young man and began shaping his abilities. First He placed him in the home of Potiphar, the highly placed Egyptian military officer, to learn how
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to manage a smaller household. Joseph did so well he became Potiphar's right-hand man — only to be falsely accused by Potiphar's wife.
Now notice that God begins reshaping his abilities in a new, less hospitable environment: prison. The Bible reports:
He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Jospeh's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look in to anything that was under Joseph's authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper. (Gen. 39:21-23)
Undoubtedly the politics of running the household of Potiphar and then prison management prepared Joseph for his biggest assignment: chief executive under the pharaoh. His assignment: to make the results of seven fruitful years last through seven lean years. A nomadic herdsman had become the most powerful man in Egypt beneath the pharaoh because he had let the Master Potter shape his abilities.
I have seen God do that kind of shaping, though possibly not as dramatic, in our children's lives. A good example is my son, Tom, whom God used so miraculously to bring me to my knees at the Master Potter's feet. After graduating from the University of Southern California, he joined the Army for two years. He was so good as a musician that he was invited to join the prestigious Air Force Band, the best band in the services at the time. It was a plum as far as
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postings go, but he turned it down because he did not feel God wanted him there.
When he reentered civilian life, Tom became a music teacher in the public school system, staying at that for twenty-seven years, teaching both choral and instrumental music. But he also directed music in churches. After a teacher strike in his school district, the Lord led him out of public school teaching into becoming "teacher" of worship in a full-time position as Minister of Music at Arcade Baptist Church in Sacramento.
For years Tom and Barbara gave a month to serve the Lord in special ways as part of their vacation. One time they went to Mexico to build churches. Then when their oldest daughter and her husband went to Amsterdam with Youth With A Mission, Tom and Barbara went there each summer to do street evangelism. Tom would play his flute and Barbara the keyboard.
When Tom reached retirement age, a long-cherished dream of full-time mission service became possible. A music teacher at the Black Forest Academy in Germany, a high school for children of missionaries, had to take a year off for health reasons. She had directed choirs, but now the school wanted someone who could teach instrumental music and lead orchestras. Tom fit that description, so he and Barbara went there for a year.
Tom leads two orchestras and directs the choirs at the school. But he also plays the clarinet in the town band during their festivals. He and Barbara just fit right in. The Master Potter had reshaped their abilities over the years so they could serve under very demanding conditions.
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Humility the Key
What does it take to have our abilities shaped and reshaped through the years to fit the Master Potter's purposes? I'm convinced the key quality is humility. Nowhere is this more evident than in a wife and mother's life while her children are still young. It is so easy to let the voices in today's feminist world convince young women that their abilities are grossly underused if they stay home to care for their children. Yet that is exactly where, I believe, the Master Potter wants to reshape our abilities — unless, of course, economic setbacks make taking a job necessary.
For one thing, the Master Potter loves to reshape a young mother's creativity, let it develop fully in interaction with her children. As God's gift, children deserve the best we can offer them — and the best is theirs only if we let the Master Potter shape us.
Creativity in the Home
For example, we can teach our children to talk with God in uninhibited fashion. When our children were living at home, we had a family alter (actually an old radio and television console). There I encouraged them to pray and tell Jesus about their problems, thanking Him for their blessings. The altar was the focal point of the living room.
I draped different coverings over this console, keeping in mind the season of the year. I had the girls pick flowers to brighten it. We had an antique New England kneeling bench, covered with petit point, in front of this makeshift altar. Sometimes I would kneel down beside the children. At other times I would respect their desire
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to be alone with the Lord. Our organ sat at the opposite side of the room. Next to it was a glass door leading to the patio. In one of the panels of the door we placed a lovely picture of Jesus. When the light shone through the door, it illuminated the picture and lit up the whole room.
I share this example only to stimulate young mothers to think creatively of ways to develop an environment of thanksgiving and prayer in their home. When you let the Master Potter reshape your abilities in the home, He can honor you with opportunities in the church and in the community. Once your children are old enough for you to consider entering the work force again, you will be ready to apply your sharpened abilities in that environment.
Remember my story of the woman who turned down an opportunity in opera? She first developed her abilities at home. Then she served as music director for three weeks in a Christian children's camp, and later served as program director in another camp. Then she was given an opportunity to lead a choir in a small church.
These opportunities honed her skills so that she was invited to teach music in a Christian grammar school with a strong academic record even though she did not have a degree in music. Later she led a large choir in major oratorio presentations. All of this provided the shaping needed for the day when she auditioned for, and won, roles in operas years later.
Humility Not Easy to Attain
Humility: the willingness to endure the shaping by the Master Potter when you think your abilities call
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for better opportunities. Since I am strictly an "upfront" person in my thinking and actions, humility has been hard for me. My background in show business rates this quality quite low on the scale. In this profession, performance is based on ego, selling one's personality, and relying on the words of the critics for self-evaluation. One is either up or down, according to the box office receipts, media ratings, or public opinion. This is one of the major reasons why the entertainment business is a hard row for the Christian to hoe and keep his or her eyes on the Lord.
How is the Master Potter at work shaping and reshaping your abilities? He really does have a plan for you, if you accept what the psalmist writes in Psalm 139:16.
Your eyes saw my substance,
being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
Clearly, the psalmist believed that the shaping you are now experiencing may have long-range goals you cannot even dream about yet. So why not give Him full rein now?
In the next chapter, we will consider one more facet in which the Master Potter is at work: reshaping your relationships.
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Reflecting on the Shaping
1. How did the reshaping of ambitions affect Dale's ability to communicate as a singer when she was asked to sing Christian songs?
2. What can we learn from the incident in John 21 about the potential results of obeying God, even when our obedience seems unlikely to produce anything?
3. Luke, author of two books in the New Testament as well as an associate of Paul's, was originally a physician, but when he met the Master Potter, he developed a new skill: that of being a missionary (and historian) for Christ. Have you experienced a similar development of a second skill as Luke did when he became a full-time witness?
4. What does Dale's experience in writing the book Angel Unaware mean in terms of how God might use you in ways you hadn't expected? Are you willing to take the risks associated with the Master Potter's reshaping of your abilities?
