Happy holy-mackerel-life-can-be-a-roller-coaster Sunday, friends!
I did not write a Saturday Pondering on August 2 because I was on the road early heading to Valley Mills, Texas where I spent 4 days in revival services with the First Baptist Church.
My longtime friend, Adam Hailes, is the pastor there and it was such an incredible blessing to get to spend the time with him and his family.
I met Adam and Suzie when they were fresh out of college and came to seminary with two little girls—a toddler and one that wasn’t even walking yet.
We brought Adam on staff at Eagle Mountain Baptist Church (where I was senior pastor) as our associate pastor for students. Their number three daughter was born while they were with us at EMBC.
Those little girls (1 & 2) are grown up and married and are about to make Adam and Suzie grandparents for the second and third time. Number 3 is entering her senior year of college.
And to keep them young, their son (born in Africa while they were missionaries there) is 11.
What a treat for me to get to be with all of them!
Mrs. Sweetie was supposed to make the trip with me, but decided to stay home because her sister was in the hospital and not doing well.
God knew where she needed to be, as her sister took a downward turn during the week and passed away in the wee hours of the morning on August 8.
I made it home the previous afternoon and we were in the hospital room singing over Ellen as she passed into the presence of Jesus.
We were singing “I Can Only Imagine” as she took her final breath.
Ellen was an organ donor, so we left the room quickly to allow the surgeon to do her work. We went outside to a very moving flag raising at the hospital in honor of her gift of life.
I didn’t manage a Saturday pondering the day after that because we were still recovering from lack of sleep and I just didn’t have words put together yet.
I started this week’s pondering yesterday on the plane home from an incredible weekend in Austin where I got to be part of the 50th Anniversary Concert of the Singing Men of Texas.
All six SMOT chapters were represented in the 350 voice choir and 40 piece orchestra. It was an incredible night of worship! (Mrs. Sweetie’s video of my solo)
Yesterday’s trip home was filled with the adventure of flight delays, numerous rescheduling, a pair of reading glasses that fell off at the door of the plane and dropped to the tarmac (we did NOT attempt a retrieval), and everything that goes with travel that combines wheelchairs, rental cars, and airplanes.
Have I mentioned that life can be a roller coaster?
Through it all, we have laughed a lot, cried some, and had one consistent prayer—that we would wear Jesus beautifully.
Your roller coaster probably doesn’t look very much like mine.
But for those of us who are followers of Jesus, we all live in contexts where people are drawing conclusions, as they observe us, about the faith we proclaim and the Jesus we follow.
This is a challenging and humbling opportunity—to realize that we are wearing Jesus in our best and worst moments.
Wear Him beautifully and be amazing today, my friend.
