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SO HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? Join me in unpacking one of my favorite family weekends…I hope yours was awesome as well! Still recovering a bit from a very busy weekend. Many of you know our daughter Rachel leads a mission to the Roma Gypsy families in Romania called FORGET ME NOT Ministries. Her daughter Bella is with us working towards immigration, but this past weekend, Rachel and Izaiah made the trip over to America for the next 6 weeks so they can be here for her BENEFIT on September 14th. This trip, however, we thought we’d cut the 3rd flight off their itinerary and add a couple activities as a family. Worked out great. But I am definitely gonna need a nap most every day this week! Now I’d like to analyze our trip in “spiritual eyes” if you’ll let me. It can broken down into 5 phases, which works well for our Monday thru Friday devotional focus…how about that! Most every trip needs a PURPOSE, some ENCOURAGEMENT, a BIG CROWD event, a HOLY moment, and a SHARED moment. Here we go, here we go, here we go….. MONDAY…”The Mission”
When we left last Thursday we knew our mission well….to get our daughter and grandson at the Atlanta airport. Gassed up, oil had been changed, and brakes checked. I even vacuumed it out! You can’t be too careful when you rely on a “grandpa minivan” with 188k! Our goal was clear….get there on time, get our daughter and grandson…get to the motel….get some rest before the next day’s events. It all worked like a charm. OK, except for 1 thing. I might have missed the distinction of signs for which airport terminal I’d wind up at. Yep. There apparently is a difference between the DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL. Thought sure I followed the right sign! Three miles away I’m guessing. But we got them. Got their stuff all loaded. Now on to the motel. Have you ever noticed that details really matter when we’re on a mission? Jesus invited us to join Him on His mission. And He left plenty of details to help us do it right. In Matthew 28, He says we are to, “Go into the world and reach people with the gospel, making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us to do.” Now the best way to help them OBSERVE and OBEY commandments is to OBSERVE and OBEY them ourselves! Like giving and forgiving. Loving and truth-telling. Honoring and respecting. In Luke 15, Jesus told 3 stories about LOST things. A lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. In each story, the value went up a little more. The shepherd with the 99 sheep still in the pen went on a mission to get the one who was lost. And when he found him they rejoiced. Jesus said at that point, that it’s like that in heaven. When a sinner comes to faith, all the angels rejoice! The woman who lost the coin went on a mission to recover what was precious to her. And there was celebration when it was recovered. And the Prodigal Son….well everybody celebrated when he came home…except his older brother….and the fattened calf, I guess. The loving Father didn’t “run after” his young son. Because sometimes the best “pursuit” is a “prayer on the porch”. So today maybe you’re leaving the pen…or searching the house…or praying on the porch for a family member. You’re on a mission. Don’t miss the signs like I did and wind up at the wrong terminal. Make your search….pray your prayer….finish your MISSION! TUESDAY…”the Encouragement”
I have to confess, when you take a trip the expenses accumulate quicker than you can anticipate. So I was looking forward to a “prepaid” breakfast (motels call them complimentary) where we were staying the first night after the “load ‘em up” moment at the airport. OK, I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the breakfast itself, just the thought of it being free was what sounded good. But in the meantime, Rachel contacted a friend about us meeting them for breakfast since they lived less than an hour from the airport. So we immediately adjusted and they recommended a place hear the airport. Now let me say 3 things about the breakfast. #1 is Jeff and Lisa, our friends we met with for breakfast, are the sweetest couple. They have brought and led teams for our daughter’s ministry for several years. They are “SALT OF THE EARTH” people and servants in the Kingdom. They are coming back this fall leading another team for what will be an incredible week of ministry as it always is. When you sit down with people who have gone out of their way to meet you, it becomes so encouraging. They know you. They know your heart. They know your family’s ministry. They have stories. They have a history of making an IMPACT and do things that only teams with great hearts can do. So this breakfast meeting was one of the most encouraging moments our daughter could have. And when your family is blessed, you are blessed. Now the 2nd thing about getting together with them that day was they picked the place for breakfast. 9:00 worked for us all. And they chose the “BBQ KITCHEN”. It was beyond “down home”. It was an upgrade cuisine (more lard in their cooking) than the Crack House (CB) and none of the “shopping entrapments”! I went with the fried pork chop with a biscuit & gravy, and I wish I could have come back for a late lunch with collard greens and sweet potato pie! The service was sweet & friendly, food was great and the encouragement from these “FAITHFUL TO THE MISSION friends” was what put the moment over the top. Sometimes you don’t realize how much your family has poured out until someone unexpectedly “pours in” to your heart and life. Now the final thing was, it was a GOD-LED MOMENT not on the itinerary. Who cares if you save a few bucks by eating powdered eggs and warmed up “pre-cooked” cooked sausage at a motel free breakfast? There are moments to let God put people in your path for YOUR BLESSING. I’m reminded of after Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, the Bible says that the angels came and “ministered to Him”. Paul told Philemon to receive his “runaway slave”, named Onesimus as a brother, since he was now a new believer and in doing so, he would REFRESH HIS HEART IN CHRIST. We need all the refreshment we can get spiritually. We need to, of course, give but we also need to receive. I know you see the point to all this coming….. So WHO has God put ON your heart or IN your path for you to GIVE encouragement to….or RECEIVE encouragement from? I can’t tell you how many times I went to do the encouraging and wound up being the RECIPIENT! Our family was all blessed big time by Jeff and Lisa. Take a moment and pray a prayer of direction….”Lord, are you prompting me o give….or receive HOLY ENCOURAGEMENT today? To whom? From whom? Now keep your eyes and hearts WIDE OPEN! Love you guys….. WEDNESDAY…”the Big Crowd Event”
So it turns out that Rachel has become a diehard fan of ENGLISH SOCCER. Now they call it football, but I just can’t quite yet. I’m working on it though. She is sympathetic to me and Nate, though, because she’s gotten me RED ZONE the last 2 years for my birthday. In case you don’t know, that’s SUNDAY AFTERNOON FOOTBALL at its highest level of addiction! So her team, MANCHESTER UNITED was playing in Columbia, SC at their big stadium this past Saturday night and we thought this is our chance to get her to a game in person! Now the fact that it’s only 3 ½ hours further is really of no consideration. Nor is the 5 inches of rain (documented….no exaggeration) that poured down on the way to the game! And let me tell you, I was ready! I got our 5 ponchos from the DOLLAR STORE here in Jeff the day before we travelled. $1.29 apiece…..now that’s a steal! Nor is it incidental that we were 10 rows from the top and I mean the TOP looking at 77k other “fans”! And I use the term loosely about “fans”. I know 3 names of the players on her favorite team! But HER FAVORITE TEAM is MY FAVORITE TEAM and we had a ball. It had been a while since I had been around a SEA OF HUMANITY like that! And it just hit me…who all of them is going to heaven? Not who all WANTS to go to heaven or who all EXPECTS THEY DESERVE to go. But how many have a genuine faith and trust in the FINISHED work of Jesus on the cross and claim HIS VICTORY as their only hope? The Bible says that Jesus LOOKED AT JERUSALEM and wept over the fact that He longed to “gather them in His arms” as a mother hen does, but they weren’t willing to be embraced. Now I didn’t have that kind of moment initially. Truth be told I was out of breath from the climbing of the steps and the ramp for a while. But when I settled in, it hit me. How many of the 77k could quote Hebrews 11:6 which says, “That without FAITH, it is impossible to please God. For whoever comes to Him must BELIEVE that He exists and that He rewards those who DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM.” How many people there that night would sing the words to the old hymn, “ROCK OF AGES”, which says, “nothing in my hand I bring….simply to Thy cross I cling”. Of course, we don’t have to be around that many people to feel the “sea of humanity”. You can feel that at Meijers, or Jay C, on I-65 when its congested, and on early morning that’s backed up at Coffee Crossing or a hot day in the drive thru at Chillers or Zestos! Everywhere we go there are people, people, people. Now the next day is when we would all go to church (Sunday morning) and I’ll tell you about that holy moment. But the soccer game had an odd effect on me. I heard a pastor say years ago that “we need to remember that there is no one on earth that we lock eyes with that God didn’t create and Jesus didn’t die for.” I used to remember that so well. Especially when we lived in Las Vegas. But sometimes…. sometimes….I forget. Especially since I retired a year ago. Maybe you’re like me and you do too, every once in a while. Well maybe we can REMIND each other that we are still here for God’s glory, still here to love our family and spiritually nurture them, and still here for that SEA OF HUMANITY that broke Jesus’ heart at a glance as He knew they were lost without Him. May we HELP HIM CORRECT THAT while we can….together. THURSDAY…”the Holy Moment”
Ah…..then there was Sunday! This trip has been a blast. We’ve got our missionary daughter and grandson we haven’t seen in 7 months. We’ve been encouraged SO well by “friends of the ministry”. We’ve caught a big time soccer game that came with a reminder that we live in a HUGE mission field of seemingly good people (even the Liverpool fans) that MAY OR MAY NOT be ready to face eternity. And now, it’s time for CHURCH! Not just any church. We’re driving another hour and a half before an 8 hour drive home afterwards, just to get to ELEVATION Church with Steven Furtick. And we’re going to the “mother ship” in Charlotte. No satellite campus for us on a trip like this! Now that means there are EARLY ARRIVAL IMPLICATIONS. And our daughter’s 8 year old son, Izaiah likes to sleep in more than his grandpa! And we have to leave all packed and checked out by 7:00 AM to get there in time to get a seat at their 1 live service where the preacher isn’t on a screen. Well he IS on a screen but he’s also there live if you know what I mean. But we did it! Somehow the Lord got us up and out the door…..OK the FREE breakfast was good and there were a few crumbs on my shirt but we did it…got there….and got in line. Now sometimes, God gives a simple blessing and other times He goes out of His was for a CASCADE of BLESSINGS. This was the cascade. Everything was great. No hitches. Even met a guy named Jonathan as we stood in line who somehow asked us why we were there….we said the obvious….our daughter’s a missionary in Romania and here for 6 weeks…we love to catch your service on online when we can….being this close we didn’t want to miss it! He was very encouraging….and to our surprise, he was actually the host of the service, so when he got up to welcome everyone and mentioned he’d met a missionary from Romania, well it just was a blessing. (OK, this is a Dad talking here.) Their service was powerful. Spirit-led. Incredible worship. And one of the COOLEST things is, REGGI BEASLEY, who grew up partly at Northside was one of the Worship Leaders that day. He’s Rachel and Kenny McWhirter’s son, who I think many of our Finishing Well Family might remember. What a great kid and what a great worship time we had! And then Steven preached for an hour, which didn’t feel anywhere close to that. But I am a pastor who was never known for being “TIME CONSCIOUS”. He taught the passage of David’s ministry not yet being fully engaged, even though his anointing had already happened, and we’re not to be impatient when we find ourselves IN A CAVE from time to time wondering why God hasn’t put us where we think He should have us by now! God does a mighty work in us in the CAVE. It made me think about a few caves of my own thru the years. Actually our family was able to think thru some of our recent & present kinds of “caves”. What is God saying? What is He doing? What does He want us to LEARN from Him right now? Then to top it off, we went to the 1ST TIME VISITORS tent outside. OK, I don’t want them to guess….yes, I’m a 3X if we’re talking T Shirts. But the coolest thing happened. The lady at the tent was named CATALINA, which I’d never heard of as a personal name, only a French salad dressing or an island. She asked us where we were from and our usual answer is Southern Indiana and Romania. Turns out SHE’s from Romania. Her jaw dropped, she went speechless….and then she spoke with Rachel in Romanian like she hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to anyone in her native language in a long, long time! And I’ll guarantee you, Catalina was most likely the ONLY LADY AT THE 1ST TIME VISITOR TENT there that day that could have carried on a conversation like that….and NEEDED a conversation like that! God always SHOW UP….but sometimes He SHOW OFF! And I love it when He does. It was a holy-away-from-home MOMENT. So take a moment and thank God right now if you’ve had a HOLY MOMENT recently. One that you know you couldn’t have orchestrated now matter HOW HARD you tried. And tell a friend about it….just like I’m telling you as a friend about my holy moment God did something meaningful for us as a family. May He create many more moments for us to HEAR His voice and SHARE His love! Talk to you tomorrow…. FRIDAY…”the Family Moment”
Now the ride home was long. And if you’ve done many road trips, you know on day 4, the gas station food catches up with you. But I’ll get back on the wagon Monday….no, Tuesday, it’ll be too soon and that’ll be too hard! Tuesday it is!
We slept in a little but not much. But the neat part was getting all 5 of our grandkids, Nate & Ruthie and their 3 (Lily, Carter & Zeke) and Rachel’s 2 (Bella & Zai) together, since they’ve only been together for a couple months in their lives (all 5 that is) and that was last year. The blending of your family’s lives is a blessing that I will never take for granted! It is rare for most of us these days and unheard of for many. That’s when you tell the STORIES. That when you quote each other’s funny sayings, even if they’re only funny and memorable to you. Pizza may or may not be involved, but it actually was Monday night. It’s when the family dog goes a little crazy with so many kids running around. A lot of laughter and fun and then the respectful boundaries of bedtimes because Nate & Ruthie’s kids have school the next day. Of course, I’m nodding off a little myself. It just leaves you with this grateful, exhausted feeling that finally we’re all together again. I won’t be for long. But it will be as sweet as it gets for me and Sue Linn. Those of us trying our best to FINISH WELL know a little about the feelings of family being close and together and how precious that is. So we are grateful to God for this time we have. And we’re grateful for this brief opportunity to encourage you. So as we end this and as you take a moment to pray….thank God for your weekend. Maybe it wasn’t crazy like mine. Thank Him for that! And thank Him for the blessing of your family….even if there’s stress in it right now. All of our families have that. Not just from time to time….let’s be honest….MOST OF THE TIME! And that’s OK. Because God does some mighty works in us…..when we’re in a crazy season IF we allow Him to. Thanks for listening to the ramblings. I’d love to hear your “ramblings from a godly perspective” if you’d care to share them with me on this email address. And by the way, we’re planning our next Finishing Well EVENT which will hopefully be in December….another Christmas gathering and we hope to have more info for you next week. But until then…as always….I love you guys. george
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