Labour Day

If you are like my computer spell checker, which underlined it, you are thinking that the first word in the title of this article is misspelled. Well, it may be or may not be depending on your perspective. If your perspective is from south of Detroit, yeah that would be Canada, well it looks just fine. We have kept a lot of the spelling of the language from the country we were established by; but, not as much as our friends to the north. So, how you spell it depends on your home country.

We often lose sight of this. The six years we lived up in Edmonton (and I do mean up, 300 miles north of Montana is up there) helped form my perspective of things. It is kind of like stepping outside of a situation to get a different view of it. When we are in the middle of something we can get so caught up in it that we lose sight of the bigger picture. It is common, it is understandable, it is normal.

Living here we can lose sight of things. Now, I’m not talking about in Southeast Michigan, or even Michigan in general. I’m also not talking about living in the Unites States or even in North America. I’m referring to this sphere, this planet that spins around as it circles our star the sun. It is kind of hard to step outside of it and look back at it. Only 12 men have stood on another sphere and looked back at this sphere we fly through space on. As a point of national pride we could say they are all American, but that would be losing sight of the point I would like to make.

Depending on your definition of space, 553 to 562 people have actually had the opportunity to look back on this planet from there. But I am not talking about those fortunate few who have had that experience, but we who have had the fortunate encounter with God’s love through Christ. Though we live our lives within the gravity of this world, we have the opportunity to look at things from a different, an outside view. Our perspective should be that of Christ’s, who saw things from an eternal point of view.

It is hard to step outside of one’s sphere and see a view different than what is around us. But that is what we are called to do. How else could we go two miles when only ordered to go one? How else could we take the narrow path when everyone else is taking the wider, easier path? How else could we die to self in service to others around us? With everything that is thrown at us each day, it is also hard to remember that we need to see things with the eyes of Christ. It is just hard at times.

This brings us back to Labor Day, or Labour Day if you will. When you hear those two words or are enjoying the long weekend, remember the different spellings and remember to see things from a different perspective: God’s eternal one. See people and problems through God's eyes. Also, remember that the holiday came about because laborers were there for each other fighting for a common cause. Hmm, kind of sounds like the church. Take some time this weekend to not only think a little differently, but also say a prayer for your fellow workers, the body of Christ.

Labouring with you,

Randy

Under Twenty

I went to a soccer match at South Lyon High the other day to watch our neighbor’s son play. I stood with his dad and some other dads along the fence as we watched. (You know how dads always stand up at the fence rather than sitting down!) As we watched, the football team practicing in the distance, it took me back to when I played that kind of football growing up. I remember those practices, the Friday nights with the lights on in the cool of the fall evenings.

The kids on the field and in the distance practicing were all in high school, all under twenty years of age. I started thinking: If they live to be eighty, they still have over three-quarters of their lives ahead of them. What will these next sixty to seventy years of their lives bring? What will they have accomplished as they someday stand alongside a fence watching their children or grandchildren?

We are told in scripture that almost all of the people who saw God powerfully rescue them from Egypt were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. (Numbers 13-14, 32:11). The only people to enter from that generation were Joshua and Caleb. Everyone else who entered was under twenty when God’s people left Egypt. It wasn’t the generation that left Egypt that did the great things through the power of God as they crossed over into the land God had promised to a few generations earlier. It was the younger generation, the generation that “was to come.”

Our society calls the generation that is slowly passing away, the greatest generation of all time. And on the world’s stage, they had some tremendous accomplishments, from putting an end to the Nazi aggression to giving birth to the Baby Boomers! It is hard to argue with what that generation experienced and did.

What about this next generation, those out on the field, in the classroom on the stage at school? They may not be able to accomplish what the “greatest generation” did in the world, but what about that which is beyond this world? What can they do for the kingdom of God? What great things can be done through their abilities, their talents? What can this generation accomplish?

One thing we need to be doing for this generation is preparing them for their service in the kingdom. It starts with prayer, for them and for their parents. Next Sunday, we will be praying for our kids as they head back to school, but really we need to be praying for them daily. Pray for what they can accomplish and how they can change the world for our Heavenly Father.

Praying for the Next Great Generation!

Randy

ALl The Way

Everyone has a different journey to God. Some people have a “come to Jesus” moment like Saul on the road to Damascus and it is dramatic and measurable. Others were born on a Tuesday and were brought to church the following Sunday, so it is difficult to define when they began loving God.

SHEILA STAMPER is one of those who just about went from the hospital to the church building when she was born. In fact, one of her earliest memories is of playing in a roped-off area with other children while their parents helped build an addition to the Centerline Church of Christ in Warren, MI. She has very happy memories of the friendships she made both at Centerline and later at Echo Meadows Church of Christ where her family began attending when her father was transferred to Toledo when Sheila was eight years old.

But her spiritual journey took some unexpected turns. When Sheila was eleven, her mother went to work outside of the home and with this change, they did not attend church as regularly. Even as a young child, she just “felt a need to go to church” and she and her brother would walk a mile to a church of Christ together. God was working in her young heart even then.

By her freshman year in high school, Sheila still had an inconsistent relationship with the Lord. The Lord, however, continued calling out to her. She was with friends one day and someone asked, “Do you believe in God?” Just to go along with the crowd, Sheila said, “No.” To this day she remembers that moment and feels ashamed. But her journey to God was not over yet.

When her family moved to Temperance, MI they found a nearby Methodist Church where Sheila attended as an adult until her daughter, Angel, was two. Sheila admits that as a mother she did not make church a priority and her girls attended various churches with friends and on bus programs. She is grateful for the influence of Christian grandparents who gave her daughters a strong spiritual background at a time when Sheila did not—a time she wishes she could go back and change. But there is one thing all of our journeys have in common: we can only move forward.

Many years later, Sheila’s family moved to New Hudson where her daughter, Angel, found the South Lyon Church of Christ. Sheila attended when she could, but she worked a lot on Sundays. God was still whispering to her heart. It was the love for God that Sheila saw in Angel’s life that began to change her. She admits that this influence should have been the other way around; but, God works through others on our journeys and Sheila says, “At least I found my way.”

For Sheila there were many curves, stop signs, and detours on the road to God, but He never left her unattended on her journey. After all these years, Sheila now has this to say:

My life is so much richer and happier since I let God in all the way. He has been there for me in so many ways and blessed me when I needed it. I am humbled before Him.

And now Sheila is the grandmother who is spiritually influencing the next generation.