GROWING SEEDS: Remember

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.” 

—John 15:13

It's Memorial Day.  

As Americans, we know it as the first long holiday weekend to grill burgers on the dock, fire up the Jetski and to sleep late on Monday.  But why do most of us head into the Tuesday after Memorial Day without having given an ounce of thought to the meaning behind the significance of this weekend?

I'm guilty of this. I've never had a friend or relative come back in a pine box from war. I've not stood with a young widow at the foot of her husband's grave while holding the hand of her small child. I've just seen it on the news and read about it in books. It's never been a reality in my personal little world....fortunately.

Growing up, my Mom dragged us kids to the cemetery every chance she got. She would open up the trunk of the Buick, pull out her bottle of Windex and paper towels, knee down in front of the tombstone of her parents, and proceed to spray the granite with vigor. She would tell stories of her parents as us kids used the concrete curb around the family plots as a balance beam....yawned in boredom.....and waited impatiently for her to finish this ritual.  

My Mom knew the importance of Remembering.

And as Christians, we should have the importance of remembering etched solidly in our hearts. After all, Christians are "memorial people" because our whole faith depends on remembering. "Those who persevere into the future are those who remember the gracious past."* That's why God has surrounded us with memorials. The entire Bible is a Memorial.....Sabbath, the Lord's Supper, Baptism, Christmas, Easter.......

So friends, as we Remember on this Memorial Day....do it with overflowing gratitude for the men and women who sacrificed everything they had....who hugged their families goodbye and never returned. And remember how Christ did the very same thing for you. It's called Grace.

Let us make every day, as long as it is called Today, a Memorial Day.

* Jon Bloom

GROWING SEEDS: The Greatest Gift

Last weekend, my Dad's side of the family gathered together at a Riverwalk hotel in San Antonio for a Family Reunion.....a reunion that hadn't taken place since 1991.  My dad and his brother, Ray, are the last surviving siblings from a poor Alabama family of seven.  But what made this reunion even more special was.... it was the cousins of this family of seven siblings that reconnected last weekend after 27 years.  Last time we saw each other we were young.....and now we're old.

It was an amazing Gift bringing our common DNA thread under one roof. 

"On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place".  

Acts 2:1

As I was reading today's scripture on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, I couldn't help but think about its similarity to last weeks Calloway Family Reunion.  The early Christians received the unfathomable gift of the Holy Spirit as they gathered together under one roof in Jerusalem....and so did the Calloway family on the 15th floor of the La Quinta.

We didn't see tongues of fire hovering over our heads or feel the rush of wind through our hair as they did in Jerusalem that day, but what we did see and feel were non-Christians sharing a pizza with Christians.....and what we felt was a merged love as we cried together watching old family videos.  

We felt the common thread of family that connected us as one....even with our many differences.  

And just as the early Christians spoke in languages unknown to them that day so others could understand, I pray I spoke in a way to my non-Christian family that they could understand my Christian language. 

The significance of Pentecost......what a powerful gift!

GROWING SEEDS: Mothers Day

Dorothy Calloway was a timid, insecure precious woman who lacked self-confidence ....yet....somehow she taught her own kids to stand up straight, be strong and pumped them full of boldness and self-assurance.  She never left the house without a scarf around her neck because she felt the wisdom-wrinkles occupying real estate on her neck were too unattractive.....yet.....she never failed to remind her chubby youngest daughter with a patch over her left eye from an eye disease that she was the most beautiful little girl ever.

Dorothy Calloway was a Mom.  She gave more of herself than she ever received and she always stepped back so others could shine.  She never had a new car.....she sweated in the summers working in a hot warehouse.....and her clothes didn't come from Macys but rather from Walmart.  She sacrificed so her kids didn't have to.

Dorothy Calloway was my Best Friend.  She was my first call about Anything.....she was the maid-of-honor at my wedding....

She was my Mom.

And when old age had its way with her, it was those very kids she infused confidence in....that she taught to be strong and bold and courageous and that she sacrificed for....who held the spoon that fed her when she no longer could.  As we tied the scarf around those wisdom-wrinkles one last time, kissed her good-bye and closed the lid on her life on this earth, we smiled and said, "Happy Mothers Day", Mom.

"I used to say that I was the apple and my mom was the tree and I certainly didn't fall very far.  

But that's not entirely accurate.  

If my Mom is the tree, then I'm the bird that grew up in its branches.  

I flew because of her."

GROWING SEEDS: Let Me Teach You Thankfulness

"LET ME TEACH YOU THANKFULNESS. 

Begin by acknowledging that everything - 

all your possessions and all that you are - 

belong to Me.  

The dawning of each new day is a gift from Me, not to be taken for granted.  

If you slow down your pace of life, you can find Me anywhere.  

The secret of being Thankful is learning to see everything....from My perspective." * 

GOD

Exactly six months ago this very day, a 51 year old man by the name of Glen Simmons went to work.....came home.....ate supper....watched TV with his kids.....talked to his neighbors and called his mom.  He and his wife of 30 years, Kristin, had the next chapters of their lives all mapped out.....once the kids were grown, they were going to travel, spoil grandchildren and grow old together.  But the next day, he learned he had Stage 4 liver cancer and very little time left to say what needed to be said.  Glen died on April 29. 

Life doesn't always go the way we planned.  Sometimes chapters are skipped in this book of our life and go straight to the last page of the book in an instant.  We are left wondering why......and wishing for more time.  But Glen and his family lived Thankfulness even....no, especially....through the last painful 6 months.   They were Thankful for the time they were given to say the things we put off saying till tomorrow cause we are too busy living today.  They were Thankful for just enough strength for Glen to walk his daughter down the aisle in January.  They were Thankful for a host of friends who loved them big and for family who told him he made a difference during his time on earth.....as they watched him fade.  I learned a lot watching this Simmons family walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  

Everything that Glen was.....belonged to God.  He knew that the dawning of each new day was a GIFT from God.....not to be taken for granted.....but rather, to be cherished and handled gently and carefully.   

He didn't ask "Why Me?" but rather....."Why Not Me?".  

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

In Me you have everything you need, 

both for this life and for the life yet to come."

*Jesus Calling, April 29