A treasured blessing from our Father's love...old acquaintances. And at my age most of them are. Sadly some of those choice acquaintances left earth's scene without the "old" bit. This back-in-the dark-ages wedding photo of a college roommate and his beautiful bride flooded my storehouse with memories of Philippians 1:3 quality. Jim, the groom, entered glory from a dirt road in the Ivory Coast leaving his bride and two young children. Stu (far left) and Ken (far right), both college buddies, in the purposes of God finished their faithful labors earlier than most...good men all. Check out the ears standing between the couple and you might recognize a familiar face. Then recently we attended a memorial service for a brother whose walk with God most followers of Jesus would label weird. Outside the neat theological boxes created by those who insist on a manageable God, my brother stared faith in the face and never flinched. Daring, when most of us would duck, reckless spiritually...no obstacle daunted him, fearless of any foe (no doubt Satan cringed at our brother on his knees), generous to his last penny, loving beyond any sin laden soul or self righteous saint, an easy laugh and joyfully holding on to faithfulness unto death...a servant of the first order because the Lord Jesus captured his heart He was a man who lived for His Lord in construction clothes, not a clerical collar.
No saint though, just real and free of the scourge blighting much of the Western church where "niceness" equals "Christian". Matthew 15 records an encounter of Jesus with "nice" folks who possessed more Biblical knowledge than most of us, people whose traditions outweighed Biblical obedience. Jesus surveyed that crowd of safety first, live by their unwritten rules, bound by their spiritual culture (which they knew was THE way) and said, "That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God," Not saying unless you are weird you aren't spiritual. But those few folks free of the shackles of performance based acceptance and not stuffed in the theological/procedural box of how you must do the Christian life, are a spiritual breathe of fresh air to me. And not easily forgotten.
Oswald Chambers has a word for it: RECKLESS ABANDONMENT TO JESUS CHRIST.
Been enriched by a number of such "old acquaintances." More than that, challenged, made to realize how comfortable a manageable Christian life can be. Stirred. Thank you, you unforgotten friends. Your wide place in my life is missed.
1 comment:
Beautifully (but not "nicely") said. Love the way you preach through your pen. I read this out loud to Sam, and we were both deeply moved.
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