All Things New

I spent a good part of last week with my wife and the ladies she works with at Perpetual Help Home at the Christian Community Development Association Conference in New Orleans.  Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) is an organization of ministries that seek to help the disadvantaged by giving a hand up not a hand out. 

Most of the over one thousand attendants were young Millennial generation Christians who are passionate about Jesus and ready to change the world.  They don't always look or dress like your average Christian conference attendees.  I saw more dreadlocks and piercings than at any other gathering of believers of which I have been a part.  They were from all over the country and some from other countries. They are incredibly ethnically diverse.

I heard a business man from China tell how he was using his new found wealth from a successful business venture to support mission work around the world.  Imagine that - the Chinese are now sending out money for missions.  I heard former Perpetual resident Sara Waters tell her story of restoration from addiction.  I think everyone there for that session cried.  I heard some amazing stories of what God is doing in some pretty hopeless situations.

It was an incredibly renewing experience.  It gives an old Baby Boomer like me a deep hope for the future to see all these young, creative, energetic Christians so eager and earnest to bring the hope of Jesus to people in ways and through ministries I would never have dreamed up.

On top of all that, I found New Orleans cleaner and more restored than I imagined it would be.  I will be honest, the only other time I was in New Orleans in 1990, I was not impressed.  This time despite my hesitancy, I found myself appreciating all the things I could tell had been done since Katrina.  The city has been renewed.

I also have to be honest that it still has its seedy side.  A walk down a portion of Bourbon Street before noon one day still caused me to have a hard time of knowing where to look. Every direction I turned I thought, "OH, can't look there."  I think Bourbon Street is worse, not better.  It did not flood in Katrina.  What would it look like now if it had?  I don't know.

I do know I came home with an awe of God's renewing power in people through generations, of His ability to change people's lives and  of His ability to change a community in ruin.  He really can "make all things new."  Even me.  Even you.

For the journey...

Tim

If only...

If only...

I have had several friends in ministry that have spoken about how those two words speak with so much regret, so much remorse.  "If only I had not spent so much time at work, maybe my marriage would have worked out."  "If only I had put my daughter in a different school, maybe she wouldn't be in the trouble she is in today."  "If only we had walked closer with the Lord, we would not have made the bad decisions that we made."  "If only we had not gotten in so much debt, may be we could have retired by now."  "If only..."

Those words do echo with sadness.  But Paul had a different direction in his "if only" statement.  It is in Acts 20:24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only..."  Sounds pretty bleak doesn't it, but look at what comes next.  "...if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."  Instead of an "if only" that looked back, his looked ahead.  His "if only" was his life focus - his life mission, not his life regret.

I read these words and I decided this week, this is a great focus for me in mid-life.  I need to memorize them and make sure that my "if only" looks ahead, not back.  I need keep my focus on the truth that life has meaning and purpose if only we focus on the task that God has given each of us - "to testify to the gospel of God's grace."

This Sunday we are going to look at what does it mean to be on mission?  Each of us has a story to tell.  Each of us has a task before us.  How will you choose your "if only" for the rest of your life?  Looking back or looking ahead?  With an "if only" from regret in something you did or with an "if only" that leads to renewal in something God is doing?

For the journey...
Tim