It’s Thanksgiving Weekend 2004. Quite late in the Weekend I must admit. Still I cannot let the clock run off the closing hours of this final day without some sort of public acknowledgement of the abundance I and those I love enjoy.
Our lives truly have been full. We really do enjoy the status of “highly favored.” Our God continues to reveal himself to us in more and more profound ways. We are routinely enriched with deeper and ever more enlightening knowledge of him. His purposes for our race seem clearer and clearer to us. Our Family is growing and giving us much joy. We are being challenged and are growing professionally. Our circle of influence is expanding. New friendships are being formed regularly.
Jesus said, “This is life! More and better life than anything humans can imagine. This is life that exceeds the bounds of mortality. Knowing you Father God. Knowing me the rescuer; the consummate human being whom you have personally sent, from beyond time, into time and space, where, for now, all humans live.” I take that to mean that the greatest achievement in this life we live is to know God. Any insight our Father provides into his nature and ways is invaluable to me. So I am especially thankful this Weekend for three insights he is making more and more clear to me as this year progresses.
The first is a statement Dallas Willard makes in his book, “The Divine Conspiracy.” It is nothing new. I have quite likely claimed more than once to believe it myself. These days, though, it has become the stuff of conviction. Willard says that we must come, “to the point,” as apprentices of Jesus the supreme Teacher, “where (we) dearly love and constantly delight in that ‘heavenly Father’ made real to earth in Jesus and are quite certain that there is no ‘catch,’ no limit to the goodness of his intentions or to his power to carry them out.” We probably all agree that this is something we ought to have believed early in our faith journey. Now though I’m beginning to get it. To believe that our God is a “heavenly Father,” of the kind Jesus talked about incessantly while he was here, and portrayed so poignantly in the story of the Prodigal, means we believe he is good. We are convinced he desires nothing but “good” for us and has all the power necessary to insure it will be so.
The second insight I’m grateful for is one I’ve held onto for a long time. Jesus said it. St. John records it in the 10th chapter of his biography. It’s part of the 10th verse of that chapter. THE MESSAGE interpretation of it is especially clear. “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” “They,” of course are you and I. It is readily apparent how closely this assertion of Jesus and the statement Willard has made are to each other. In short they insist that, regardless of how it may appear, our life, under the rule of the God we see most completely in Jesus, will be supremely right for us. Do we really believe this?
The third insight comes from the writings of Isaiah. One of the most articulate of the Hebrew prophets whose words are recorded in the Judeo Christian Scriptures, Isaiah is bringing a Divine scolding to Israel for their incorrigible insistence on managing their own destiny. He summarizes God’s alternative for them this way. “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength … .” (Isaiah 30:15)
As I’ve engaged in thoughtful meditation on these three insights over the past year the message becomes increasingly pointed. God, our Supreme Sovereign is determined that we experience nothing but well being. Any need we may have to qualify or modify that idea is presumptive. Much like a nation, that has been assured of his protection, running out and finding alliances with other nations they believe to be more powerful and therefore able to insure their security. Repenting of such arrogance and resting in his assurances will lead to our deliverance from any evil real or imagined. Choosing to cease resisting or protesting and waiting quietly we find a new strength and courage emerging. “Those persons who wait on God,” really do find, “their strength being renewed in ever increasing degrees.”
Of all the things I am thankful for today, these insights are at the top of the list.
Hot on the heels of my gratitude for this growing intimacy with Father God is heart swelling thankfulness for Family. Shirley, my Wife of nearly 37 years, is not only the most important human being in my life. She is the most devoted, loving, and giving person I’ve ever known. We’ve come through some very dense and dark woods this year. We’ve stumbled into most of them because of choices I have made. She has walked through every valley and over every treacherous mountain with me. When it has been appropriate she has challenged my decisions and insisted on changes where changes need to be made. I do not always feel worthy of her loyalty. But she offers it tirelessly. I thank God for my Wife. And together we thank God for our three Sons, their Wives, and their kids. This year two new Grandkids came into our lives. Ethan was born on March 22. Jonah came along 3 months and 8 days later. Sitting around the Thanksgiving table in our youngest Son’s Home this past Thursday our only regret was that our England contingent, the Jim Denison Jr. Family, was missing. Knowing they are carrying out the mission our Lord has for them in this season of their lives softens the “missing them” enough to make it tolerable.
This has been a year of professional growth for us as well. With the onset of 2004 we entered the second year of life without a formal assignment. The obvious first implication of that for us was the absence of a contract and assured income. Our belief in God’s best intentions for us was tested as week after week obligations piled up with no idea of how they would be met. Repeatedly we submitted resumes, wrote letters of intent, telephoned contact people we thought might have leads for us, and stormed the gates of heaven pleading for guidance to our Father’s next assignment. While this search was going on a small group of friends with whom we’ve met for the past nearly 10 years kept pushing us to establish an independent organization through which to continue our work. Mel & Marcia, Larry & Carol, we thank our Lord for you guys!
Reluctantly we began the process of gathering a group of people who would become our Board of Directors and assist in the launching and initial support for this ministry. We first made our proposal to eight men. After they had prayerfully pondered our proposal for one month I personally met with them to discuss our proposal. Seven of them, and one of their wives, agreed to become the Board of Directors for destiny:Life! This Team has provided literally thousands of dollars worth of legal, marketing, advertising, and web design services as well as several thousand dollars in support. They are developing an expanding support base. They have given us invaluable prayer support. They are providing a level of accountability that we are finding immeasurably helpful. Mel, Larry, JT, Tim, Gene, Steve, Denny & Jill, we are thanking God for you daily and especially on this Thanksgiving Weekend.
“destiny:Life!” has already enlarged the scope of our influence. Our parish is now, literally, international. This past Summer I was privileged to speak at a Family Camp in North Central Ontario, Canada. The Severn Bridge Camp is located within an easy day’s drive of my boyhood home. Being there among the lush forests of maple, oak, elm, and conifer, mineral rich rock formations jutting randomly out of the soil, I felt as if I’d come home. Scores of new friendships were formed during the 12 days I was there. And I am confident our Lord used my efforts to enrich their lives just as they did mine. Shirley and I, together, returned to South Eastern Ontario in late August to work in a Youth Camp where I have spoken every third year since 1987. Few things I do are more rewarding than working at Echo Lake Camp. This year was no exception. Anyone who fears the future of the modern West needs only to be around the kids we hung out with for that week to have their hope in our Young and their capacity to make our world a better place under the Lordship of Jesus Christ restored. Just two Weekends ago Shirley and I conducted a Marriage Conference near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. We presented a view of Christian Marriage that we believe puts this primary relationship back on the level our Lord intended when he first established it. “A Covenant of Intimacy: Jesus’ Design for Your Marriage,” is a medium we intend to use in a variety of venues over the next several years. Our aim is to demonstrate how, in this aspect of our life together Jesus really does offer us something, “more and better than (we’ve) ever dreamed.” In Pennsylvania November 12 – 14 we experienced just how powerfully that can be accomplished. And we are thankful.
Much remains to be accomplished through “destiny:Life!” but we are trusting our Lord to empower every aspect of what it is and will become in the days, and months, and years ahead.
We are, of all people, most richly blessed. In the words of a guest speaker we heard at Church on the Way a few weeks ago, we are, “Wonderfully well, and blessed, and highly favored of the Lord!”
Our gratitude, this Thanksgiving 2004, is passionately and profoundly felt!
No comments:
Post a Comment