My New Family

He explained it to me with great passion. His face—the one I had only seen a few moments before at the conclusion of my children’s closing celebration of Vacation Bible School—lit up as he told me about the place. It was so evident that it brought him such happiness to be there and to have the pleasure of sharing how wonderful it was with me. I got excited for him as I listened.

He told me the environment was fantastic. Everyone liked being there. No gossip or “backstabbing” that he could see or had experienced before. He looked forward to getting up to be there. The people were positive. They had welcomed him with “open arms” when he first arrived. In fact, he went as far as to call it a real “family.”

He shared an example to illustrate his point.

“You know, I’ve been there since February. I had been somewhere else for about two years before going there. All of sudden, about eight weeks ago, a man there was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was so fast between the time he found out and when the doctors operated on him to remove about eight inches of his colon. When he got home, several of the people set up a rotation to take food to him and his family. Guys volunteered to cut his grass for several weeks. We did anything that we knew he would not be able to take care of while recovering. I tell you, it was absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that. It just keeps reminding me over and over how glad I am to be there. It’s great. As far as I’m concerned, I’m never going anywhere else. I’d be crazy to!”

Was this his new church? No. It was his new job.

Dear Father, let me “work” to love others and to be a part of a movement so powerful and attractive in my life that it would be even better than my new friend’s work place.


Books4InsideYourHead

Worship in the Wilderness by Bob Kauflin (check out http://www.covlife.org/, click growth resources, then click sermons and scroll down to November 5.) No, this is not a book but a sermon. Kauflin is Worship Pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland and works with Sovereign Grace Ministries. If you have ever found yourself in a "wilderness" circumstance, this sermon on Psalm 63 reminds us of what is the core of things even in what appears (or is) to be the worst of times. Let me tell you, mark http://www.covelife.org/ in your web favorites and go to the sermons here often. I have found them all to be great drink in a very dry and thirsty land. On a fluffy Christian landscape, Covenant Life Church and those that preach there provide real meat and potatoes. Joshua Harris, known for I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Stop Dating the Church is pastor there. Faithful and soul edifying biblical exposition is found in abundance. Download a sermon and be challenged, encouraged, convicted and grown by the Spirit of God.

I have a theory. Sportswriters may be some of the best around. I’ve been known to shed a few tears after reading an article in Sports Illustrated. Let me offer you two. I just finished Open: Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2003) by John Feinstein. Feinstein can take seemingly unimportant things and make them sound great. This is about the 2002 US Open from the dream of putting it on at a New York Municipal course—Tiger, of course won—to clean up.

Everyone loves a great father-son story. The best father-son story I’ve ever read and the best bargain book I ever bought—paid $1 for it at, you guessed it, Dollar General Store—is The Last Magic Summer (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996) by Peter Gent. Gent is best known as the author of North Dallas Forty which was made into a movie that had Mack Davis and Bert Reynolds (I think) in the 70's. The Last Magic Summer is at a time where Gent is nearly bankrupt and physically broken after a long career of boose and football. The story is his last shot of redemption in coaching his son during his final summer of baseball. It is great. A good lesson for what dad should not do.