re: Church Family Blessings

I was reading Kelly Kang’s latest post Church Family Blessings, and I had to pause for a moment and think about my own life. As I mentioned before, I came to this church a long time ago, almost 20 years now, which means, yeah, I was only 6. I think about my memories with my friends growing up here, learning Bible stories, singing songs, memorizing verses, playing at church, going on trips, etc. And I remember many of my old teachers from the Children’s Dept, now called Joyland, and how I just could not wait to go to church each week. It wasn’t just because it was fun, but it was because as I grew older, I saw that this was like my second family.

I’m so thankful that my parents raised me in the church and that my family is Christian. I don’t think that I fully even understand the blessing and the amount of protection that God has brought to my life through this. And yet, like the prodigal son, I did break away from this many years down the line. It is so true as Kelly said that people in the midst of blessing don’t realize what blessings they have. But still, at one point, I foolishly considered these blessings a curse and I threw it away for the cheap lies of this world. I ran away from God and I ran away from the people he placed in my life. Though physically, I was here every Sunday, every activity, etc., spiritually and emotionally, I had run away. And like the prodigal son, I had made a mess out of my life. But through the grace of God and the many sleepless nights and prayers of others, I finally came back home. And you know, I think about Isaiah 1, at the heart of God and how much he must weep over people like me and so many others that hurt him or run away in rebellion.. I’ll never fully understand that pain I think until perhaps I have a kid of of my own and he/she does the same..or until in loving someone, they decide to do the same thing. But sometimes I feel a small picture of it when I look at our kids or our youth and I just really want to tell them to not make the same mistakes I made. To not run away from this blessing that they might not see right now in their lives. I know that for one of them to read this now it’s like, “Ok, that’s nice. That was you, and this is me.” But man, the pain from my past regrets and decisions sometimes feel fresh if you know what I mean..

But in the end, I am so thankful that I am here, so thankful that God has kept me safe and near to this family. Now that I’m much older, and my old teachers and the staff of this church have grown older too, I can now labor with them in loving others and creating the kind of community that I myself grew up in. It’s kind of funny but my old teachers and people I once thought were SO OLD, they’re not only my spiritual mentors but people that I fully trust and people I want to keep growing older with. And I hope that I can really pass along this life lesson that I have learned the hard way to the younger ones at Gracepoint. In some ways, I can’t wait to have kids of my own so they can experience the kind of life that so many of our children at GFC are experiencing now. It is my prayer that our children and youth can really one day see just how blessed they are.

Below is a picture of the Children’s Dept. many many years ago. We used to have what was called Family Retreats which took place every Memorial Day weekend at Mt. Gilead. I’m in the second row from the top, 4th one over. Not sure what I was looking at but I guess I wasn’t good at paying attention back then too..