Reunions

It’s been fifteen years since the three of us have been in the same place together. What a gift it was to see Jake (left) and Paul (center) during our recent family trip to Ohio. Whenever I think about Engaging, Equipping and Empowering people for the work of the ministry, whenever I think about the difficult work of discipleship, these are the two guys I think about first! Maybe you’ve read Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This process requires heat and pressure and that’s what God did in my life with these guys. God turned up the heat on me and applied pressure to me in the best sense of the word. All for the purpose of making me into the man I was created to be. Here’s the quick version of the “long haul” work God began that night. 

I had recruited Jake and Paul to be in a discipleship group with me during my first pastoral job. After a few meetings, I was convinced that I needed to cancel our future times together. I didn’t think it was going as prescribed and wanted to salvage our friendship for the future. On the drive there, God impressed on me that I should open up to my friends and be honest about the hurts, hangups and habits in my life. It was an uncomfortable twenty minutes for me, but it was a clear moment of literally feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit in my life. I walked into the room scared to death! What would these guys think about me when I was done? I had never told anyone everything about me. What happened is something that we talked about even after fifteen years of being apart. God began a transformation in each one of us that night! Openness and vulnerability led to openness and vulnerability which led to openness and vulnerability. Stepping into the uncomfortable place God was calling me too, destroyed any and all barriers to our conversations from that day forward. In the freedom of the forgiveness of Christ and empowered by God’s Spirit, we began to hold each other accountable to living out our faith in ways that honored God and blessed others. Fifteen years later, each of us continues to live into that same space with others. Each of us more equipped than we would’ve ever been, had I taken the easy road and simply canceled our time together. Keep pressing on friends!