Summer Reflections: Blessed Be The Tie That Binds
May
Bob and I kicked off the summer with a group of lifetime friends in a beautiful home tucked among towering trees high in the the Smoky Mountains. The eighteen of us, pioneers at heart, have followed and participated with God in the mission of God in all kinds of places around the world. We’ve grown up and grown older together having experienced, along the way, the best of times and worst of times.
In the mornings and the evenings we would circle up on the big back deck and encourage one another from the Word and talk about the God we love. Often in the evenings we exchanged stories—memories of unforgettable, inexplicable moments that upon reflection were powerful and transformative moves of God. We reminisced about the far away places where we once lived and served—Thailand, China, the Former Soviet Union, Germany, Rome—memories that made us laugh and made us cry.
Our love for God combined with our rich history, shared experience, and commitment to the mission are the threads that pull us together.
June
A few weeks later we made the trek to Cambridge, England for a Kirby Laing Centre (KLC) event. We joined scholars and students, publishers and philosophers, journalists, artists, and authors from the UK, Europe, South Africa, Latin America, North America, and India.
The theme, First Things First, provided the plumb~line for both the main and smaller group sessions. We experienced KLC’s high value of spiritual formation and a surprising invitation to embrace obscurity.
One of most memorable aspects of the gathering was a walking tour of Cambridge that took us to colleges, memorial centers, and churches. We walked in the footsteps of pastors and philanthropists, visionaries, and aristocrats-turned-missionaries who went before us from as far back as the twelfth century.
The gospel is threaded across the centuries and, by faith, binds us together with those who have gone before us.
July
Then, in July, I attended a commissioning service for David Robbins, now Cru’s third President. Seventy three years ago, Bill and Vonette Bright founded Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) on UCLA’s campus along with Henrietta Mears and a God-given vision to help fulfill the Great Commission. Remarkably, David was welcomed to his role by thousands of Cru leaders and staff from all around the world.
As the baton was passed to David and Meg that morning, I stood with many of my ministry friends, most of whom, like me, joined Cru staff in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Over the years, many of us, like those I mentioned above, have led as regional, national, and international directors and true to Bright’s vision, we have been raising up leaders and passing batons for a long time. This time, however, as Steve Sellers passed the baton of leadership to David and Meg, I felt as sense of anticipation. They represent a new generation of leaders.
David’s gift to Cru is God’s call to lead us into the future in ways my generation cannot. The gift to David is an organization filled with leaders and one that has been tethered to the Great Commission for seventy three years. But, let us not forget, that in a deeper and more significant way, we are all connected to God’s Great Commission that began “in the beginning” and is enlivened by the missio Dei from Creation to New Creation.
The Great Commission binds together every nation—every tongue and tribe—under the rule and reign of the Triune God.
August
We traveled to the Pacific Northwest early in August to visit family and ministry partners in Oregon and Washington. In Portland we stayed with Bob’s brother and slept in the same twin beds that Bob and his brother slept in when they were kids. If you know where to look you’ll find the scratchings of a little man carved into what was once Bob’s bed-frame. I’m sure he got into some trouble for defacing his bed, but it makes us all laugh still today.
We drove from Portland to Waitsburg, Washington to visit my 93 year old Aunt Anita and three cousins. Waitsburg is a quintessential small town in eastern Washington surrounded by golden brown wheat fields as far as the eye can see. When I was a kid I spent time there during the summertime, and the mention of Waitsburg immediately surfaces memories of the Green Giant Pea Cannery at the north end of town that filled the summer breeze with the earthy smell of freshly cooked peas.
Seeing my aunt reminds me of my mom and grandmother who both passed away in 1988 within months of each other. I love seeing glimmers of my mom’s face in my aunt’s.
Whenever we’re together as a family we proudly remind each other that we are descendants of the Mayflower. We are mysteriously tied together by strands of DNA to believers, fighters, adventurers, and most assuredly, quite ordinary people like us, but by our people nonetheless.
Almost September
I’m wrapping up this post from the Atlanta airport. I’m returning home from FamilyLife meetings held in Rome, Georgia, where for a few short days, we engaged in robust and candid conversations. Together we committed to trusting the Spirit’s leading as we forge ahead with our purpose: “We exist to help families grow together and impact their corner of the world.”
My favorite part of the time was listening to people’s stories of faith on the bus and over meals. It never ceases to amaze me how God’s call to follow is so particularly tailored to us as individuals, and is also so similar and communal that we instantly recognize the work of God in each other’s stories.
One evening as the last rays of the sun turned the sky a beautiful purply pink, I took a walk around a big pond that, like a mirror, reflected the sunset’s glow. I spent time praying, worshiping God, walking in wonder at the gift he gives us in each other—families—bound together by blood and by The Blood.
What I’m getting at is the wondrous realization that we are inextricably connected by the gospel of God as the family of God. This gospel is strong and flexible and continues to be strung along, knotted together, in often puzzling ways through unlikely people in the power of God’s Spirit from everywhere to everywhere.
