Category: Random Thoughts

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Blessing and Blessed

I had the honor and privilege last Wednesday of being part of a baptism event that involved about 35 men. What was most amazing to me was where this baptism took place. It was inside Lino Lakes prison. The men being baptized were offenders who are serving their time for crimes they have committed. They are all a part of the IFI program run at Lino.

I was blessed by the courage these men showed, by their obedience to scripture, and by the transformation that God is doing in them. They are turning their back on who they were and are now focusing on who they are and who they are becoming. Many of the men thanked me and share with me how we volunteers were a blessing to them. What a join it is to be a blessing and in return be blessed myself.
I have enjoyed my last 1 1/2 years of serving the men in IFI and I look forward to continuing serving them and blessing them in what ever way God leads.
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Our Storied Life

If we take time to sit back and listen to other peoples stories we can learn a lot from them, about them, and in some cases how God is working trough them or in them. I have really been struck the last couple of months as I have been reading and writing about online community and community in general and how important our stories are. NT Wright says that we are all storied beings, stories waiting to be told, experienced, or pondered. I had the privilege the other day of writing a blessing for a man who has mentored be for a lot of years. What may have been a struggle for some was for me not difficult because I knew the stories of this man’s life. I knew the stories of his professional career, his ministry passion, and his devotion to family.

God used stories (The Bible) to share with us His power, His wisdom, His love, His plan, and His purpose for our life. The Bible begins with the creation narrative and ends with a narrative about our eternal home. In between these stories we see stories of disobedience, consequences, redemption, blessing, God’s people, God’s church, etc. This stories taken together are what should shape our life, give us hope, give us purpose, and transform us into the women and men God is calling us to be.
My encouragement to you is to take time out of your busy day and immerse yourself into the stories that God has given us; get to know God just a little bit better. Then take a little more time and start to listen to the stories of people you meet. Take an interest in what is happening in their life and be prepared to offer them the hope that we have though Jesus Christ.
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Leaving a Legacy

We spent the last couple of days in Grand Rapids, MN, a place we called home for more than 10 years. It was a fun time, building a house, helping build a church (Grand Rapids Alliance Church), adding to our family, and growing in the Lord. I often wonder what impact I may have had in my time there. I was given a glimpse of the legacy, the mark that I had left on the church we were a part of for so many years. The mark I left that is still going strong today is a Monday morning mens prayer breakfast. It came to be after an elder’s retreat in a deer shack in the woods. I was prompted to pray and invite others into this time also. Pastor Randy believes that all the great things that have happened at the church (and there are a lot) is a result of this group of faithful men praying on Monday mornings. Some 15 years later (11 since we have left) there are still a dozen or so men who still get together and pray and God is still at work in this church, reaching Northern Minnesota for God.

I often wonder where my passion for prayer has gone. I often engage in conversational prayer and pondering prayer, but I seem to have lost that desire to pray for those specific things for my church, my work, etc. I need to pray that God my reenergize this area of my life.
Its funny I had been pondering on this the last few weeks and now God has presented me with an answer from a very unexpected place. But a place where this passion once was very strong.