Last week was a whirlwind for me. Monday I moved into my new home in southwest Florida; Tuesday I did a radio show for a dynamic minister in Washington D.C.; Wednesday I flew to California and spoke at a prayer breakfast on Thursday morning, and then headed over to Tucson to meet with a potential funder and his wife for the Jesus Alliance over dinner that night. Then on Friday I made my way to Tallahassee Florida to finish moving furniture to my new home in Sarasota Florida. My wife met me there and after loading the final truck I drove to Sarasota and spent the weekend finishing up with our move. Whew!
Though the younger helpers did the heavy lifting, I’m very tired and I’m very sore. Still I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and could not sleep another minute. I tossed and turned and finally just got up and came into my office.
I was reviewing my schedule for this week and I have several meetings in this area and then towards the end of the week off to a prison ministry event. I have hundreds of e-mails, calls, and texts to return and I’m sure by weeks end there will be more. Ugh!
Ahhhh sweet retirement . . . Somehow this is not what I envisioned for my “golden” years. It sounds like a royal pain in the neck, but to tell the truth it is exciting. I especially enjoy the speaking part because people are receiving Christ every time I offer my testimony. Also with each day of hard work the Jesus Alliance is one step closer to having a global impact in unifying believers and giving us a worldwide platform to preach the gospel, disciple the nations, and positively affect change in the culture. The Jesus Alliance is a huge mind-boggling ministry that will affect hundreds of millions of people and I praise God every single day for allowing me to be a part of it.
I would be remiss to say that all is bliss all of the time. It is not. Like all of the world it is messy. I get discouraged, tired, frustrated, and downright surly at times. Satan of course does not want me to succeed at anything. He relentlessly attacks Jesus and His church with gusto.
Every year at least once I insert this poem into Words for the Day and today it seems appropriate to remind myself and you about fighting our way through the wearisome snags of this world and the constant discouragement fed to us by our demonic oppressor(s):
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit –
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
In spite of that stinking snake I don’t ever want to retire. I’m fighting the good fight to the end. I have all of eternity to kick back and enjoy all the wonders God has gone on ahead to prepare for me (and for you) and I eagerly anticipate walking those golden streets and resting in the Lord.
And as I think about my life, I am amazed by the fact that I get to experience the joy of being part of the laborers of the harvest and reaping what I did not sow as in leading others to Christ, (something that I rate as the greatest experience one can ever have in this lifetime). And then, paradoxically, I get a reward for it when I enter heaven.
Huh? Is God full of grace or what?????
1 Cor. 9:24
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable . . .
May 16, 2016 – Click here to listen