You would think...but you would be wrong!

                You would think that as Christ transforms us our natural self with its’ desires of self-satisfaction, self-service and self-gratification would fade like a cowboy riding off into the sunset. You would think…but you would be wrong. You would think that an act of compassion towards another would overwhelm that natural inclination to think and talk about oneself. You would think…but you would be wrong. You would think that a selfless act would put us over the top in Kingdom righteousness and bury once and for all the selfishness that is within us. You would think…but you would be wrong.

                You would think that folks would forget themselves and focus on others in a time of grief or tragedy. You would think… (You know the rest). It is so easy to point the proverbial finger at others but consider your own actions and words of a conversation. You know the one where you went to console a friend following the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or some other traumatic event. What did you talk about? Did you allow them to talk more or be silent more or was the conversation slowly revolving around you and your situation or your experience? You would think the nature of our compassion would focus us on our friend/loved one. You would think…but you would be wrong.

                Focus on anything other than ourselves seems easy on the surface but it is so difficult. When taking students on a trip we used to play a game. Each person was given two clothes pins (do you remember what a clothes pin looks like?), the object of the game was to end with the most clothes pins attached to your clothes. The game was played by excluding the pronoun “I” from our speech. When you heard a player use the word “I” you could take their clothes pins from them, all of them. Several strategies emerged. One was to stop talking. Almost no one could do that over time as the other players would exploit that with simple questions. Another strategy was to substitute I with me or some other inappropriate pronoun. “Me needs to go to the bathroom.” “Me is hungry.” It makes you sound like a three year old learning to talk but it saves clothes pins. People would try to monitor their words but would always slip up. It seemed the most successful strategy was one of few very well-chosen words. You would think it would be easy…but it was hard.

                We are our favorite subject. Our emotions, our feelings, our dreams and desires us, us, us. When Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments into what we call the Great Commandment he did not include anything about loving ourselves. He said love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. You would think that would be easy…but you would be wrong. It is fundamental change. Not just on the surface but DNA change to consider God and others more than our selves. It requires a supernatural change of our thoughts, words and deeds. There is only one way to begin to deal with “I” and that is death. Dying to ourselves daily, repeatedly and purposely being made alive by Jesus. You would think we would know that by now…but you would be wrong. Sin is centered with “I.” Love has no such vowel. You would think…          

In HIS service and yours,                                          

BroG

Who do you know?

               I want to thank you all for your kind words, food, thoughts and prayers for me and my family following my Mother’s death. She is whole and holy now like she has never been before. We are grateful for the words and prayers. In the midst of travel some of my family had weather delays etc. It became comical as to what more would happen. One of my Aunt’s labeled our family adventures as National Lampoon’s Bonnie’s Funeral Adventure. Yes, it was just that comical. One of my cousins works for a hotel chain and was able to secure rooms at significantly discounted rates. However, in the quest for discounted rates and being unfamiliar with the area their lodging was cheap but spread out Pt. Wentworth, Richmond Hill and the best Hinesville. Yes, Hinesville when we were operating out of Rincon. That stuff just happens. All of that led to tails of epic proportions for car time and location. In the end we were together and having a good time enjoying the company.

                Any more it seems only weddings and funerals bring families together. The cousin I mentioned above I have not seen in 40 years. I guess the last time was when we were 12 or 13 years old. It is sad to say that but unfortunately true. He lives in Austin, Texas and me in Georgia now but really. I do find this is common to so many families and friends. Wakes bring back together for a brief moment friends who live in the same area yet busy, complicated lives contribute to the failure to see each other. Life becomes so important and it is yet life together is the most important. It is in the moments of loss or great gain that we take stock of what is of real value.

                So many of us place value in what we do be it on the job, ball field or church and yet fail to see that who we are is of far more value. Yet not just who we are but who we are with and sharing the moments of life. We were made for community/family. To live together with family and or friends this time spent on the planet called earth. That is what is of value not what we do. Our worth is not measured by what we do. Although you and I (a big I here) get so easily entangled in that false belief, that does not make it true.

                Because we were created by a loving God we have value. All lives have value due to our creator. The value is so great that while we were yet sinners Christ died for ALL of us. That means, at least in my mind, while I was ignorant of God or just stubborn to his presence maybe even hostile to him and those who love him, Christ died for me. That means I must be important to him. Recently I read a rant from an individual who was done doing good for others. Those who had been helped had been ungrateful and unchanged by the good done for them. They had not changed or been changed by the act of kindness and so the writer was DONE. That could be said of me with regard to my relationship with God before Christ. I was unchanged, unrepentant, un-phased yet Christ died anyway. My value was/is not based on what I could do, would do or might do but on what He did, who He is and how much He loves. Thank God for that. With that as an example, maybe I need to respond to others based upon who I am, who God is making me into and not who they are or what they deserve.         

                               

In HIS service and yours,                                         

BroG

What week is it?

                Last week is a blur. This week is almost a blur. I know I wrote that a few weeks ago but it is still true. I had the opportunity to spend Wednesday–Saturday with over 600 students and adults at Super Wow in Toccoa. The camp is held at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in north Georgia. We had a great time with great students, speakers and fun. Superwow has been in existence since 1983. It is a production of the student ministries of the Georgia Mission Board. Baptists all across Georgia help support this ministry as well as the conference center in Toccoa. Together we do this good.

                Of course to be gone for a few days I have to be ahead of my regular weekly duties before I go. That is the bummer about being an adult. All the preparation to go on a trip and all the clean-up after you get home. I did not know how good I had it when I was a kid. I guess none of us really does. We never consider all that went into the trip that we never see. We never consider the people who paved the way before us even when they had no idea how they would impact us in the future. As I write this I am in south Mississippi at the Pabst family home. This legacy thing has been on my mind these last few days of another whirlwind trip away from home.

                We are a product of those who have come before. Not just our parents but Grands, Great Grands and generations before that. I would guess those generations before hoped that others in their line would follow but they did not know for sure. Yet their character has been instilled genetically into their descendants. We come from their stock and at the same time are forging our future generations by our character development and design. That is a legacy.

                Of course we want to see that right now. I think as our lives draw to a close some of those deep fundamental individual traits surface in the simplest moments. One such moment was etched into my mind as I spoke to my Mother. She had not been having good days and been asleep for most of this one when I came into the room. She woke up and proceeded to ask me questions. How was I? How was Barb? How were Carolyn, Geoffrey, and Elizabeth? Then she asked how was that teenager? I was confused. I did not know which teenager she was speaking of. As I sat down it occurred to me she was asking about Jami Bassett. A student of ours who was in an auto accident, paralyzed from the waist down and currently in rehab at the Shepherd Center. Mom wanted to know all of the details as to her condition and recovery. Jami is working hard and may be released in a few weeks to come home. I was struck by this.

                My mother is dying. Hospice is caring for her and here she wants to know how all of these people are doing. She even asked about Jami whom I don’t believe Mom has met. She may have met Jami’s mom Jennifer but I am not sure. I realized in that moment this is the stock I come from. That is who my Mother is and has been. That’s the example of loving God and loving others. She has the right to be self-absorbed in her own situation and some moments is. But, at that moment she was thinking of others. Maybe there is hope for me yet, her legacy.              

In HIS service and yours,                                         

BroG