greenwayj's blog

Friends,

This week is Holy Week—the time when Jesus lived into his destiny, laid down His life and bought salvation for us all. I recently came across an affirmation of faith that stirred my heart and set my resolve to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow after Jesus. This affirmation—which was posted on the wall of his house by a young African pastor—speaks to living a life sold out for God. May it be our testimony as well:     MORE 

I love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Singing...dancing…marching bands...floats ...balloons...kids of all ages...clowns on bicycles...excitement. It’s a slice of Americana . Macy’s is often in the center of all we celebrate this time of year. While watching the parade this year, I noticed that on their building—in back of the performing area—was a large sign that simply had one word on it: BELIEVE.

How do you feel as you approach the end the journey to Christmas? Exhilarated or exhausted? The weeks that have led up to Christmas have all the potential to make us tired and weary…weak and empty…wilted and drained…kind of like this guy…

Saturday, December 19, was my parent's 51st wedding anniversary – and the first one they did not spend together. Dad is in heaven now, and the rest of us are trying to figure out how we live with this huge hole in our lives. Mom arrived at our home on Saturday morning, and we are sharing some good time together.

At one point on their anniversary, she said through tears, "I am so glad your Dad went first – because I would never want him to hurt this much." I cried.

Beth and the girls were up and out the door at 4 AM the day after Thanksgiving--they were hunting. They were not quite as quiet as they could have been while leaving, and I was up, too! I didn't go hunting with them (they hunt in packs--I hunt alone). So, I spent the pre-dawn hours of Black Friday knocking off items on my "honey do" list. My most significant and important "to do" was to bring all of the Christmas decorations out of storage and distribute the boxes to their respective rooms--probably about 20 storage boxes!

When I was being interviewed about coming to serve Reynoldsburg , the first line of questioning went like this: "So, you’re from Pennsylvania ?" I replied, "Yes." “Well, who are you going to root for during college football season?" I responded, "I will root for the home team all but one weekend a year...and that will NOT be the weekend when they play the team that shall not be named from up north!" We laughed and moved on in the conversation to more substantive things.

We live in a world filled with broken and hurting people—people for whom Christ has died—people to whom we are called—people who live all around us, yet far away from God.

These individuals are precious to God—who sent Jesus for them. He would have come for them even if there was only one of them to love. We are called to be Jesus to them.

Do we love them?

For the last several years, I have prayed three prayers every day:
1) At the beginning of the day, I ask Jesus to be my Savior and Lord again.
2) I ask that God would be at work in my life so that I will be more like
Jesus tonight when I go to bed than I was when I woke up in the morning.
3) I pray that God would give our church a heart for people who live far
away from God, and that He would send us people that nobody wants.

What do you pray for every day?

We all receive our kids as a gift from God. We love them. We care for them. We raise them. We educate them. We prepare them for life—all with an eye looking forward to the day they will leave.

One of the things that happen is that our kids own a part of our hearts; but we know that, someday, a portion of their hearts that belong to us—as their primary human love relationship—will be won by another. We raise them to give them in deep, life-forming, trajectory-altering relationships.

It's a simple word that conjures strong feelings. Some people recall warmth and love. Others feel convicted. Still others have powerful negative emotions. The recent months have given Beth and me the opportunity to reflect about home from multiple perspectives.