A New Chapter in Life

“Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating for us growing old.” - Mary H. Waldrip
I am only three days into the life of being a new grandfather and I am still overwhelmed by the whole experience. I am not sure there are words that really define the joy and the sense of pride that comes with my new role in life. Grandpa, or Poppa as Everly will call me, seems like it should be someone else’s title. However, it’s mine and I would not have it any other way. I held her the first day and have not been able to put her down since. All the clichés that come along with a grandchild fit perfectly and yet fall so short of describing the sense of pride I feel. I am way too young, at least my wife thinks so, but am so ready for this new chapter of our lives! Baby Everly, you are simply amazing!

My prayer over her life is that she will grow up healthy and experience Jesus at an early age. That she will have a heart full of adventure and a deep sense of purpose for her existence on this planet. I want her to laugh often in life and cry tears of joy in the presence of the Lord. I can only imagine what she will do in life for the cause of Christ with parents who love God deeply, and aunt who adores her, not to mention grandparents who are stunned that God would ever trust us in this role. As we turn the page in this chapter of our lives, it’s with great expectancy and a renewed realization of the great privilege and greater responsibility God has given us. Grandparents, we are so blessed!

Give God Room to Work

In the early 1990’s, I had been working with a group of inner city students in Central Kentucky. God gave unusual favor in the project areas of our city for our church to minister to at-risk kids. As several of the teens came to Christ and began winning their friends, they challenged me to start a club at our only high school in the county. I was at first reluctant, not knowing how it would be received, but after prayerfully considering the need, I took the challenge and approached the school administration.

I was surprised at how receptive they were to the idea and how with a teacher sponsor, I could even read from the Bible on campus. The day came for our first meeting that had been announced the evening before. We had been given a small classroom to begin with, seating up to twenty five students. When I arrived they informed me that the classroom was needed and I would have to meet in the auditorium. I was a little bummed because room dynamics plays a huge role in atmosphere, but had no other choice than to comply.

I remember that day waiting, expecting my core students to show up and get underway when the bell sounded. As I waited I could not believe what I was seeing. Students came and kept coming for the entire break between bells. When I started, I began our first meeting with 265 students and the momentum just kept going from there. I was able to invite a University of Kentucky Basketball player who served as team chaplain, and over 600 students came out. During that year, over 100 students accepted Christ and the Life Club is still talked about today by those who experienced it.

I only share this to encourage you to be careful not to allow intimidation or fear to cause you to lose sight of the greatness of our God. He shows up in ways that often astound us and cause us to remember His power and faithfulness. You could be just one step away from a step of faith that will impact the course of your life forever. What opportunities have you backed away from for fear or insecurity? I challenge you as my students challenged me; give God something to work with. Make a bold move with your life that requires His intervention and assistance to succeed. Our God is more than able!

The Big Blue Bus

I accepted Christ at the age of 18 a year after graduating from high school in 1983. It’s kind of strange, but I knew from the first day that if I obeyed God with my life, I would take a lead role in reaching people who are lost and far from God. I attended a conference in Lexington, KY in the fall of 1984. It was there that God spoke directly into my life about starting a ministry to the project areas in the small community in which I lived. This was a small city but a large percentage of the families lived in lower income housing and under the poverty scale.

Behind our church sat a big blue school bus that was used once a year to take a few senior adults to camp meeting. I felt burdened to start with this bus and pick up kids for Sunday school. The burden was so intense I wept for hours that day and many hours over the next fourteen years. I had heard many people talk about these pockets of poverty in our community and how drug traffic and crime made them unsafe for anyone but law enforcement. It’s kind of odd looking back how so many people could identify and see the problem but no one could see themselves or their churches as being part of the solution. There was a huge need for Jesus among these people and God called me and the small church where I served to “be the answer.”

What started one Sunday with one bus and seven children eventually became a ministry to several hundred kids and included 4 full sized buses bringing whole families and kids to Jesus! It is possible that the reason you can so easily identify and are burdened for a need in your community, school or church is because God is calling you to become part of the answer. James writes in chapter 2 verse 17, “faith by itself if not accompanied by action, is dead.” Faith that is not active and lived out by making a difference in our world is not really faith at all.

Listen and look carefully around you today. It’s possible that there is a big blue bus with your name on it. This could be a place of usefulness where you know that God is at work in your life, where you have chosen to follow him and “be the answer” for His cause and kingdom.

Be The Answer

Have you ever prayed over a specific thing only to battle an immediate onslaught of doubt and unbelief? Did I have enough faith when I prayed? This will take a miracle and I did not pray with a miracle kind of faith. Why would God answer that prayer for me? Each one of us has certainly faced a need so great that it required divine intervention. When we do require intervention, it’s these types of prayers that are usually the most heartfelt and sincere. We go to God with a sense of, “If you don’t move God, then it’s not going to be good.”

It’s possible that when we pray for an answer, God will call us to become part of the answer. If your child is rebellious and you are praying for a change of heart and attitude, God may speak to you to give up some overtime hours at the office and spend a little time at the ballpark with your son. You may pray for more intimacy in your marriage and God may speak to you to turn off the television for a season and begin to re-connect with simple conversation and coffee. Maybe you are praying for the church you attend to experience a renewed passion for people and Jesus, and to step it up with the programming and make excellence the benchmark to aim for, because after all, this is God’s work.

Be careful what you pray for because as part of the process, God may require that you become the answer - or at least part of it.

Over the next few weeks I will share how in my own life God has called me to “be the answer.” As I reflect and walk down memory lane for a while, I trust that God will speak to you in a new and profound way. Be careful to listen, God may be calling you to a new place of accountability and responsibility for the answer you are praying and believing for.