Monday, October 3, 2011

Our hope is...

My 8-year-old grandson, Gabe, had a play this past weekend as well as appearing in the "court" of his new school in a parade. I missed it.

The grand kids sent me a present they had bought for my birthday. I had missed weekend after weekend in training for prison ministry that we did this past weekend. Oh, did I mention my birthday was in late July?

I have to go to a "reunion" next Saturday for the prison ministry that was held this past weekend. I won't see any of the grand kids then.

The Bible says, "Train yourself for a holy life! While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come. This saying is reliable and deserves complete acceptance. We work and struggle for this: Our hope is set on the living God, who is savior to all people, especially those who believe."

Lot of good stuff there, but we'll center on this: We work and struggle for this: Our hope is set on the living God...

Three men had me pray over their incarcerated lives, accepting Jesus as their Savior, including one man who called himself or had inside himself Muslim roots or something in that order. All I know is he said he wanted Jesus, and that is good enough -- in fact great enough -- for me.

Balancing that with missing plays is a difficult thing for me. Will Gabe understand? Probably not. He's eight. He only knows that Pawpaw wasn't there, again.

I pray that someday he will understand that a man gave his life for him, allowed himself to be beaten, stabbed, poked and prodded. Allowed himself to be hung from a cross. Allowed his blood to be shed. Allowed his life to be taken. Allowed. Just for Gabe, and Pawpaw.

I know I need to be there for him, and his brother, and his cousins. I know. But sometimes I must be there for the stranger, the imprisoned, the hurting, the blind, the deaf, the hospitalized and the ones who simply are lost. I must. I don't see where scripture says differently. I give it all because Christ gave it all. What more can I, we, do?

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