I was taught at a very young age to value my life; not just to experience it, but to treasure it, to use it for something better. How could I do that? By believing in and walking with Jesus Christ, I was told. By knowing Jesus and becoming like him. By seeking God always. By praying. By going to church weekly. By meditating on the Bible. And, especially, by loving people.
"Only one life, 'Twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ Will last."
That was a very long time ago. TVs were black and white then. Phones had dials on them and my phone number was AXminister 11031. If we ran out of milk on Sunday we had to get it at the liquor store because all other stores were closed. Cars had whitewall tires and no seatbelts. And fornication was a sin.
I’m old now and times have changed. Restaurant hosts don’t ask me any more if I’d like the senior menu, they just hand it to me. I’m done with skiing for fear my knees will give out, again. Conversations with my friends center more and more around sickness, surgeries and death. Public discourse is ruder and cruder. “Americans have lost their ability to blush,” someone recently observed. And fornication is no longer a sin.
But one thing hasn’t changed: I am still walking with Jesus Christ. That walk has meandered its way through decades now. I have a whole life of living with Jesus to look back on and a whole eternity of living with him to look forward to. What I have experienced has been grace upon grace upon grace. Jesus has given me wisdom to avoid the pitfalls of life, strength in times of severe hardship, courage to stand up for truth, discipline and loving reproof when I needed it, an organizing template for my marriage and family, and a life filled with purpose and meaning.
But my phone number is no longer AXminister 11031. It’s 1-303-880-8839.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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