Welcome to the Deep End

On Sunday Grace Bible Church voted to call me as their pastor. On Tuesday morning I was in the hospital, comforting a woman as she watched the doctors remove the respirator from her husband of 53 years, who was lying in a coma. My first sermon as pastor will be a funeral service. Welcome to the deep end.

But it's only in the deep end that you get to see Romans 8:28 really work. Only our great God could turn a day like that into a good thing. But He does. All the time. It was an opportunity to really minister to the flock He has placed in my charge. It was an opportunity to offer whatever comfort can be had in a time like that. It was an opportunity to show and tell the love of Christ. It was an opportunity to see God's peace surpass all human understanding yet again. And it was an opportunity to have the honor to see a hero -- a hero of our country and a hero of our faith -- enter his reward.

Praise the Lord for the wonderful, mysterious ways in which He works His will. Keep your forty-billion-served, numbers-centered, activity-focused, Bible-Belt McChristianity. This is ministry.