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Any of us involved in ministry and/or public speaking are well aware that no matter how well prepared we are for ‘ministry’, God can have other plans. Sometimes those plans remind us that it really isn’t about us, or our material. It’s about people and relationships.
I had the privilege of ministering at LIFE 24/7 again on Saturday night. Shortly into the service I became aware that the real ministry that night was not going to be the material prepared by Mike Fisk. The real ministry was going to be done by the Holy Spirit of God working through a bunch of ex-cons trying to make a new start in life.
LIFE 24/7, formerly Discipleship House, is a recovery home for men who are overcoming a variety of addictions and either just coming out of prison or landed at LIFE 24/7 instead of going to prison. Either way, these are guys who know the rough side of life and are all about second chances.
I recently listened to the testimonies of a few of these guys and was amazed at the stories of broken relationships, violence and dysfunctional families these guys had come from. These are guys that are living proof that Jesus Christ changes lives and that second chances are a normal part of his working in men.
Tonight’s service was led by Dillon. Dillon has a passion for Jesus and a desire to learn everything he can about the Bible, the Christian faith and how to help others change their lives. He has a passion for God and compassion for people. This was his first time leading the service. He was the fledgling Pastor Randy chose to be pushed out of his comfort zone and into the limelight. He handled it well and I now refer to him as ‘Pastor Dillon’. While he isn’t real comfortable in the position, he has something every minister needs to have in order to be effective. Dillon has passion, and passion beats technique every time.
After our time of Praise and Worship, and before I was to speak on how each of us can live ‘Grace-fully in God’s Silence’, Dillon asked Adah to come forward. He’d told me this was going to happen earlier, so I was expecting it. Adah was going to leave her position of ‘house mom’ at LIFE 24/7. What Dillon didn’t tell me (and he couldn’t know) was how emotional the ‘good byes’ would be.
One by one, each of the eleven guys thanked Adah for being the inspiration all of them needed to believe in themselves. For one man, Adah was the ‘mom I never had’. Another shared that his grandmother had died recently, and Adah was his ‘adopted’ grandma. Still another said thank you to Adah for ‘saving his nephew’s life’. I watched these guys say thank you one by one and there wasn’t a one of them that had a dry eye.
It was a stirring reminder that the real change in lives comes from the people in the background, doing the mundane things in life. We speakers/teachers/ pastors get the ‘upfront’ attention, but life change comes after the curtain falls.
So there I was all ready to speak about how God can seem silent and far away. But before I could get up to share that message, we’d all heard our Heavenly Father loud and clear, and through the life of his faithful servant, Adah, we’d seen His face.
Thanks to the guys of LIFE 24/7 and Adah for your ministry to me on Saturday night. I can’t wait to join with you once again!
It’s a bit of a cliche’ I know, but life is a journey. The advantage to most journey’s we take is that we have a destination and a map to guide us. Life isn’t like that. You get up in the morning with a plan and when you come to bed later that night you look back and realize you have no idea how you got where you did.
I think often of the ‘great men of faith’ like Abraham, Moses and David. Great men that accomplished mighty things. Yet a close look at thier lives show a series of potholes, wrong turns and detours before they finally reached thier destination. One of my favorite authors, Philip Yancey, taught me (through his books) to read between the lines of the Bible to catch the true story. Feel the emotion of failure, the thrill of victory, the agonizing struggle of confusion that our ‘Biblical Heroes’ felt.
That’s what Grace is about. It’s about the journey. It’s about falling down, picking yourself off, brushing off the cinders and moving on. It’s about arriving at the destination better than you were when you left, but bruised, battered and thankful just to be alive.
The struggle comes when we fall and just lay on the path, or drag ourselves into the bushes to lick our wounds. Fatique, failure and fear set in. Why did I try? I fell again today. I fell three times yesterday and those wounds haven’t healed yet. I’m done. I can’t get up. And if I do get up, I’ll just lose…again.
‘Built with Grace’ is my story. It’s not a flashy story of how I succeeded at everything I ever tried. It’s a story about learning to live daily with the realization that I may fail, but that failure says nothing about who I am. Another favorite author, John Eldredge, helped me see that God didn’t fall in love with me because I was awesome. He fell in love with me because HE is awesome.
And so, I pick myself up. Excited about the possibilities, fearful of failure and expecting resistance. But I’m moving. I probably won’t finish first, or even place. But I’ll finish. That is what life is about. Finishing well and knowing that I’m not junk. I’m BUILT WITH GRACE.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 