Daughters

Heavenly 4-Year-Old Heart

/ johngregoryjr / Leave a comment

Last year I started working part time for a church staffing agency. It’s quite an interesting opportunity to meet candidates from all over the United States. They are in that “wonderful” season of ministry job searching. Been there, done that. So it’s easy to relate to their emotions and thoughts.

Yesterday I was interviewing a candidate for a position where the church has included this statement in the profile of the lead pastor they hope to join their team to be sent out to plant a church: “A pastor is one who has the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the skin of a rhinoceros.”

I’ve enjoyed sharing this with the candidates and asking them where they believe they fit in those three images. This candidate totally embraced the sentiment and spoke honestly. His answer about the heart of a child had all the things. Read below.

I have been watching my 4-year-old closely for the past couple of years, and there was something that stood out to me last year. Just this absolute, like unconditional love that she has for every single person around her. Every single person, you know.

Like, at some point in time something gets ingrained in all of us that there’s social economic classes. There’s racial classes. There’s all this kind of stuff, and I’m just watching my 4-year-old daughter, like she doesn’t care about any of that. All she cares about is, “Do I get to hang out with my friends today.”

No matter what family background they have, or no matter, you know, what their skin color is, anything like that. She doesn’t even care whether or not they believe the same thing that she believes, at this point. And there’s just something that is so heavenly about that that I 100% agree. And I would love to be more like my daughter in that sense, that I can just see people, and we’re like, “Cool. How do I love you well, today?” 

Photo by Jonas Kakaroto on Unsplash

Serving Frank

/ johngregoryjr / 6 Comments

Two weeks ago I received an email from a stranger. It was Thursday after a rather trying Wednesday. The email was from a daughter who had an urgent request. Her 86-year-old father was dying from liver cancer, living alone in Bradenton while she and her brother lived in other states. A few weeks earlier she and her husband had visited her dad and had brought him to church that Sunday.  I had spoken that Sunday; therefore her reason to reach out to a stranger with her request.

It was a simple request…Go visit her dad and talk to him about spiritual things. Truthfully, my first thought was, “I’m doing my best to keep up with what’s already on my to do list. I’m drained, but I’ll try to go by.” As it turned out, her dad Frank lived less than two miles from me. I told myself, “There’s no excuse to not go by on your way home.” 

Today, four visits later, I’m so glad I did. What a genuine, rich spirit! We could have visited for hours each time, but his strength required short visits. Thursday we said goodbye. His children came to take him with them for his final earthly trip before his eternal trip.

This interaction is on my mind for many reasons, but one has to do with the reading plan I started this week on @youversion. Author Brittany Rust penned a seven-day plan entitled Pouring Into Others When You Feel Empty. Day two’s devotional included this thought:

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are stronger than you know. Helping others isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary to stretch the limits of your capacity to discover the limitless strength found in God. God has made you capable of bearing the burdens of others–will you open yourself up to be used by Him to do so?

The verse she connected to her devotional was from Romans:

“Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:1‬ ‭CSB‬‬

There are days we don’t feel strong. On those days, God often gives us an opportunity to meet a “Frank.” My prayer is that I don’t miss anymore Holy Spirit moments, that I choose to bear the weaknesses of those who need to be served, and that I reject to please myself in order to serve future “Franks.”