A little sunshine on a Rainy Lake

This past week I got the rare opportunity to get away and refuel my engines by doing something I truly love to do - fish. Fishing can take my mind to different places and it allows me to experience the beauty of God's creation. After a five hour drive into Canada, Rainy Lake produced some great fellowship along with some big fish!

I always come away with...

This Sunday after church I got the privilege to do a little "exit greeting" as people left our 10:00 service. I love exit greeting because it gives me the opportunity to mix and mingle with just about everybody (young and old - first time guest and veterans). But I also must add that exit greeting (for me) does come with some elements of risk.

For example, several years ago an elderly lady did not recognize me as the teaching pastor while I was exit greeting that Sunday and she wanted to know if "the guy" on stage (which was me) is really the pastor at this church? I said to her, "He's all we got." And she smirked at me and said, "I guess he'll have to do!" Not sure how to take that!

And just this week, a lady came out of the service and was moving pretty fast to the exit door when I asked her if she would like a Willowbrook magnet with our summer calendar on the front? She quickly looked at me and said, "I'm in a hurry because the speaker went long today!" Ouch! I must admit, I wasn't expecting that from my MOM! Anyhow....

In all truthfulness, I was truly blessed this Sunday following the service because I met a sixty-four year old woman who has been attending Willowbrook for her third weekend and as I handed her our summer magnet I noticed that she had written down a lot of information on her worship outline from my message. I joked with her and said, "I'm happy to see at least someone is using my sermon notes." And she responded,

"I always come away with a few nuggets of truth to apply to my life."

I just about melted!

Now, I'm not saying that 64 is old. So don't get me wrong with what I'm about to say - but here it goes:

I hope that when I'm 64 that I am still collecting nuggets!

I think that when most people get to be my age (31 ..., okay 44) we tend to think we know all of the answers. We tend to think we can't be surprised anymore. I think in many ways, sadly enough, we have been "tamed," like a circus animal. We don't live for the adventure of following Jesus. But not this lady. She is a nugget collector.

What about you?

Are you like a deer that pants for water when it comes to Jesus?
Do you have a passion for the truth?
And if so, how much energy are you willing to spend to find it?


Something to think about!