daily life as life goes on . . .

The word has come that my mother is not doing well.  She has had some seizures and possible mini-strokes – and has now contracted pneumonia.  For those who have dealt with this type of situation, the prognosis for a long life is not good.

So today I have been making arrangements (I am the executor and am trying to get a step or two ahead of things). 

More than that, I have been remembering. 

The times around the kitchen early in the morning as I unloaded the dishwasher and my mother prepared lunches.  Those were chat times that were short but always worth the encouragement, or instruction or funny comments that make for shared memories.

There was the day that my mother took me out shopping (I was just finishing grade 12) and “forced” me to chose my own shirt.  I did ask her advice but she was helping me grow up.  I’m not sure I’m yet able to do a good job of coordinating clothes, but I do have something on whenever I step out the door in the morning.

More memories will come!  I’m thankful for my mom – her love for God and for her husband, and for each one of us kids!

What a great heritage.

As we head into the rest of the Easter break, my wife and I are headed out in different directions.  By the time the week is done she will have ventured four hours northeast and I will have headed four hours southeast.  Separately.  Apart. On missions.

No, not church missions!

My wife will continue her chosen profession, painting walls and beautifying a house in Prince Albert.  I will head to Gravelbourg to visit my mother who has recently had some mini-strokes in the nursing home she inhabits.

While this may seem counterintuitive during a break, for both of us this will be part of family.  My wife will take my step son, and they will work on the painting job together – and I understand some nephews and nieces may show up.  I will visit with my sister, and together we will visit my mother.

While we could selfishly spend all our time together (which is one definition of smothering another person), instead we will increase our family connections.

Who knows, maybe there will be this coming together of a huge family reunion in years to come just because we are willing to be apart.

As a teen, I learned many evangelistic methods for telling others about Jesus.  Three that stand out are Evangelism Explosion, The Romans Road, and The Four Spiritual Laws.  A few years later I added Steps to Peace with God.

The interesting thing was that not all of my friends were as excited about these methods as I was (and we were an aggressive evangelistic group).  Their main concern was that these tools were too cut and dried – too stamped with “the man” and not open to The Man.

The Four Spiritual Laws, for all the truth contained therein, could often be used as a club to determine who was in or out, not to invite others into a warm and compassionate relationship with Jesus.

When the tool becomes a way to expose truth and not to hear the heart of the person sitting in front of you, I tend to think that you will have those who can understand your version of truth (con-version), and may even acquiesce to it, but will not be able to put this into practice in their own culture.

The author of the Four Spiritual Laws booklet, Bill Bright, would often tell stories of his use of the booklet.  He worked on college campuses, he was outgoing and, in his own way, heard what people were saying.  Before he dropped the Four Spiritual Laws on them.

Recently I came across a term that is gaining in popularity.  Cultural apologetics, in many ways, deals with the culture a person lives in first, before proclaiming the “cure” of Jesus. 

I think nowadays we need to help people to see their culture in a Christianly way.  They need to aspire to become like Christ.  That effort will spur them on to love and good deeds.

My last few years have been a search and research into a return to winsome evangelistic methods.  The resources are scattered (you would expect this with the diversity that is required to just be relational with people, to listen to them and then to address the needs that would lead them to Jesus).  I haven’t found a single gold nugget that is the cure all.  I have found many shining examples.

What are you finding?

A catholic friend had a symbol of a cross on the wall in their house.  A Pentecostal had a picture of fire on top of people’s heads.  Another Christian, evangelical by label, is more inclined to show an empty tomb.

Christians focus on Jesus.  Today is resurrection Sunday.  We will look into a grave and then watch Jesus appear to many – the living dead.

I have gone through various focus stages in my life. 

• As a youth, the importance of the cross was impressed upon my heart.  My sins are cared for, they are gone. 
• In my early adult years, I began to focus on Pentecost.  There Jesus gave power for service and Christian Living – directly through his Holy Spirit. 
• In my middle years the focus tended to be upon the resurrection – all these great ideas come to nothing if Jesus didn’t really die and come back to life. 
• And now, I am sensing a movement to the ascension and exaltation.  As my world becomes busy and stressed, I need constant intercession for me.  I realize that, as God in Jesus’ resurrection, honored Jesus by placing him at His right hand, so God honors me in like manner as a brother of Jesus.

I wonder, as I continue to grow up, which aspect of Jesus I will find surrounds my thoughts.

Harkening back to an earlier English, there is a never plumbed depth about Jesus that beckons me to focus on Him.