Meet Rick Phillips

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rick Phillips a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rick, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I think it comes from several sources. I was an Eagle Scout, and that took resilience to accomplish. My dad worked at a routine and repetitive job, and he stuck it out day after day. But I credit two women with where I got it.

The first is my wife. We have been married 46 years, and as we look back, we see that we have had many different marriages. We had the joy of our new marriage, the dedication of our working marriage, the children’s marriage, the marriage of an empty house as the kids went to college, and finally, our retirement marriage. Each of these marriages has been different, and not all have been easy. Toss in chronic illness and none of these marriages have been easy. My wife never, not even once, doubted that we could make it. She is like a rock. Incidentally, those who might know what they are going through should know this is the best marriage.

The other woman is my mom. My mom was so ill as I grew up. She had T1 diabetes, and because of our technology and misunderstanding of diabetes, she was sick, so she was near death many times from the time I was around 10. I never saw her wavier in her life. She wanted to live. She demanded she keep her feet; she insisted she could do at-home dialysis. My mom died when he was 48. Her entire life was dedicated to being at her child’s graduation from college, meeting her grandchildren, and going on a trip with my dad. My mom was a never-give-in sort of person. Diabetes would never win. I cannot remember the times she was near death and pulled back to life.

Talk about determination. She was amazing.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My life is full of three things.

First, of course, is my family. I love my wife more than anything. I am invested in our marriage, and Sheryl is invested just as much. We love our sons, and of course, we love our three grandchildren even more. So that is my life.

Second, I am invested in people with arthritis. In March 2024, I was recognized for my efforts by the Arthritis Foundation as a Champion of Yes. That means I was recognized for my efforts on behalf of people with arthritis. It is the second most meaningful thing I have ever done.

After 67 years of life, I am on track to be a commissioned minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I have found great comfort in my studies for this commission. I am presently attending Phillips Theology Seminary in Tulsa to become a lay minister. I will be commissioned later this year, and of course, I will have to work to achieve my status as a Lay Minister.

My commission will be for two things. First, it will be to minister to people with Chronic Illnesses. I am in a unique position to help people understand and answer for themselves that one question I and most of us have had for years: Why me? Why do I have a chronic illness? I have been searching for an answer to this question for over 49 years.

The second part of my commission is to help people in conflict find a way out. I love bargaining and hope to apply my skills to help people and groups in conflict.

I am still working on what this commission means, but I believe God has laid this on my heart. I know this is what God has in store for me, and now I am working on how to do it. Lord willing, I will find the situations that God has prepared for me. It is an exciting endeavor at age 67.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Keep trying. I may not be the most intelligent person in any situation, but I am the person who will outwork anyone. As a High School student, I was in the bottom third of my class. But I was determined to go to college, and I found a way. I graduated in 1979 with a GA of around 2.4. No one would have predicted I would have much more academic achievement.

However, I wanted to have a master’s degree, and in 1989, I was awarded an MPA. My GPA in the master’s program was around 3.8. I mean, it is amazing to think I could do that. But I still wanted to have a doctorate., After medically retiring in 2008, I went to school and earned an Ed.D. That shows incredible determination.

I tell people: if you see a goal, especially academic, never give up just keep going forward. you can make it. It will likely not happen as you think it should, but if you set it as a goal, you can do it.

Work-wise, I felt God called me to be the City controller of Kokomo. That was beyond me at the time, but I just knew I was meant to do that.  It took 30 years, but I did it. it was a repeating pattern in my life. Of setting goals and keep going. Never surrender your dream. Keep going.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am looking for people who understand the difficulty people with Chronic illness face with spirituality. I am not seeking to convert people to Christ. I am interested in finding groups that want to help people who are seeking answers to why good people have terrible things happen to them. This is a question almost all of us with chronic illness ask.

The answer is not always in Christianity. It is where I found my answer, but I understand each has to find their own way. I am interested in helping people find that reason. If an organization wants to help people connect their spirituality, I am interested in partnering.

I think I will find those groups and programs. If not, I will find individuals who are seeking these answers independently.

I don’t blame my disease on God. I did at first, but over time I realized the disease is a reality. I was asking the wrong question. The right question is, why not? Why shouldn’t I have this disease? I cannot fight my body. Instead, the answer is, what should I do now? Find my renewed purpose. God has a new purpose, I promise.

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