Share a story

While at family camp at Pine Cove this summer, my wife found a little gem of a gift to our family called Just Add Family.  The essence of it is little "recipes" for activities you can do as a family, whether traveling, at dinner (where we do most of ours), or any other number of scenarios.  Like I said, it's a great little gift to our family and always gives us something to talk about (just ask my middle one what Fat Cat is and then get ready for the silliness to ensue).

A night or two ago, our family activity called for talking about our spiritual stories and, if there was a particular verse or passage that stuck out in part of that story, to share part of the story and that verse.

Throughout my college years, I got to sit under and with a tremendous minister and his wife.  He is one of the most gifted communicators in the American evangelical scene right now and has been used by God to do mighty things, particularly among college students.  One of the more shaping conversations I got to have with him related to 1 Thessalonians 5.24.  And then I got to learn to believe it.

When I was trying to pay for a mission trip to South America and needed $1050 but only had $1000 allocated, I went ahead and sent the check for the full amount.  For those worrying, I had extra money so it wasn't going to be a hot check.  But that money was allocated for bills and school, not mission trip.  I walked the literal 25 feet from the blue box mail drop to my school PO box and, upon opening, found a check for...wait for it...$50.  Faithful is He who calls you; He will surely do it.

At 20 it's one thing.  At 35 it's different, right?

As we waited and waited and waited and waited on our paperwork to come through to adopt our daughter from China, paperwork delayed by Swine Flu and the Olympics and all sorts of other things, it was brutal on our family.  In a way, it was doubly so on me because not only did I carry my own pain but the pain of seeing my wife wounded and weeping when the next round of paperwork came out and we weren't included in the approved list.  The temptation to quit the process came from the Enemy daily.  Daily.  What I held onto in those days was, "Faithful is He who calls you; He will surely do it."

And I have many other stories about how I held to that truth and saw God move.  Thank you, Father, for being a faithful and amazing God who does what He promises without fail or fault.  Amen.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...