Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


9.22.2005  

Blessings

He asked me if he could pray for me. That almost never, ever, ever happens. But last night it did, and it blessed me.

Bryce seemed to be much like any other person at the fair last night: young, dressed in a t-shirt and semi-wrinkled khakis from American Eagle, and excited about the Lord. He started out asking me about Boyce, and I went into my refined spiel about Boyce College and its myriad benefits. After listening intently for several moments, he continued on with several more questions. Then, after listening to me ramble on a little while longer, he asked me what Boyce College was really like, and what the students were like who graduated from the institution.

I love questions like that. They make me smile. They also reveal that the persons asking such questions really want to know about Boyce, and that they are the type of persons who are not satisfied with what's seen on the outside. Rather, they show a rare desire to get to the heart of things. Such people remind me of the Lord, for just as they are not satisfied with mere appearances, so the Lord is most interested in the heart.

I told Bryce that Boyce is just like any other gathering of sinners, particular the Church. As much as I'd like to say that each and every Boyce graduate will go on to a long life of fruitful ministry, I'd be lying if I said that I believe with all my heart that that will be the case. I related to him the story that Dr. Akin (I think) told us once in chapel. A young man had become disenchanted with the Church, and with certain ministers he had once looked up to. He saw around him a plethora of disappointment: pastors in adulterous relationships, friends consistently engaged in unscrupulous activity, and even failure within his own life. Life, it seemed, was disappointing him into defeat. This young man went to see one of his professors, to let him know of his frustration. The professor listened to the young man as he poured out the pains of his heart. At the end of his litany, the professor responded in kind, himself agreeing that life was full of disappointment, and that he, too, keenly felt the pains and disappointment of ministry. Then the professor said something else. He said that while many men had disappointed him, and that he himself had disappointed many others, that was still not the primary matter at hand. Why? As he looked back over the course of his life, he could not once recall any point at which he could say that the Lord Jesus Christ had disappointed him. The professor then asked if Christ had ever disappointed the young man. Christ's perfection is the primary reason for our faith, not our own performance.

As I related that story to Bryce, I finished by saying that I see in myself my own failures; all too keenly, and yet not keenly enough, I think. I also see the disappointment that others have rendered. Many are the times when I've shaken my head in disbelief over the wretchedness of Man. But what I told Bryce was that I could not once remember when Christ had disappointed. That was what counted most.

He looked at me and smiled. He said that I seemed to be a genuine person. I kind of chuckled at that, and I said that I hoped he was right. Bryce then asked if he could pray for me. That, more than any other moment on my adventurous and tumultuous trip to the country of Texas, blessed me.

posted by Bolo | 8:29 PM
1 speakage
Free Hit
Counters
Dell Coupons
Daily
Read
Listen
Visualize
Blogging Buddies
Old School
Me
Bug Me
Yore
Factuality
Quotatious