Randy Wray’s Blog

Tonight I’m thinking of my friend Marc as he and his family struggle with the loss of his mother. Sunday night she lost her battle.

Many great things will be said about her, she was just that kind of person. One thing, maybe even the most important thing, to be said about her is that she believed and trusted in Jesus Christ. This means that also on Sunday night she gained her victory.

So, I’m thinking about my friend Marc, bringing him and his family before God.

I’m thinking of what else I can do to help my friend.

I’m thinking about my own fears – facing the reality of one day losing my own parents.

I’m thinking of the trials and troubles of this life.

I’m thinking of the pain and sadness we bear.

I’m thinking of the grief we carry and the tears we shed.

Mostly, tonight, I’m thinking of heaven.

“Now God’s presence is with people, and he will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because all the old ways are gone.” (Revelation 21:3b-4 NCV)

Please, pray for my friend Marc today.

What a tremendous day we had today! I’m humbled by the response of those of you who stood up to hold our church family accountable in reaching and helping those who cannot help themselves. Thank you so much for your encouragement and your commitment to Jesus Christ. I believe we will look back on this day with joy — recognizing once again — the work of God in our midst.

For those who were unable to be in our assembly this morning, I have included the main idea of my message, taken from the story of the poor widow of Mark 12 for this Sunday night blog.

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Had the religious people of Jesus’ day been doing their job, the poor widow of Mark 12 would not have been the “poor” widow of Mark 12! The religious people, with the heritage, the tradition, the history, and the words of God – closed their hearts to the plight of this woman. The poor widow, with nothing save two small coins, opened her heart to God and gave all she had.

How blessed are those who give from their necessity! How cursed are those who, in their abundance, turn a blind eye to the suffering of others.

This is why Jesus warned his followers to avoid the mistakes of the religious leaders, (Mark 12:38-40). It would be quite easy, and quite convenient for us to jump on the religious leaders of Jesus’ day – talk about their mistakes, talk about how they were wrong. In this way, we would just be trying to let ourselves off the hook.

So the issue is not that the religious people of Jesus’ day were not doing their jobs, the issue is “are we doing our job?” What is our response to the stranger, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow? What plan do we have to help those who are near to the heart of God?

A barrier, at least in my own life, in helping the helpless is the endless debate of who really needs help and who really does not heed help. The result of the debate? More time spent debating and less time spent helping. I can talk myself out of helping a lot of people because of my own determination that they are somehow not worthy of help. That somehow my helping them would be enabling not equipping. In the words of my grandfather . . . hogwash!

Yes, the Bible says, if a person will not work they should not eat. Yes, the Bible talks about the peril of laziness. Yes, the Bible says all this and it is quite true! The Bible, however, also points out the mistake in closing our own heart to the need of someone else, (James 4:17). James had a few things to say about the way we treat the rich, the way we treat the poor. He had a few things to say about “words” based outreach programs – he was not a big fan! (James 2:15-16).

I’ve been prayerfully searching to understand and grasp the plan God has for our own church family, the purpose God has in mind for us, the role God needs us to play in our own community. I’ve been asking God to make His purpose for our church family evident.

Part of the picture is becoming quite clear: God expects us, as his people – as his arms and legs, to share his heart with the stranger, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow.

Part of our purpose as a church must be to help those who are unable to help themselves. Part of the plan God has for us relates to the job we must do for the immigrants, the aliens, the poor within our own church family. Part of the plan God has for us relates to the job we must do reaching out to the immigrant, the alien, the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the homeless in our community.

This is not just the expectation of God for an individual believer, this is the expectation God has for any group proclaiming itself to be a church OF Christ! We who wear the name of Christ must not shrink back from the cause of Christ. We must live up to our name, live up to our calling. Our uniqueness as a church cannot rest in our tradition but in our response to those whom society discards.

Ultimately this is exactly what it means to love God will all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Precisely what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. To love as Christ loved, to serve as Christ served is the mission of his church.

Rebecca, a loyal reader of my blog, (hey, when you’ve only posted two blogs it’s easy to garner loyalty!) sent me an email with the following thought:

“Here’s something I was thinking about today. I read somewhere that up until the 20th century people spent a majority of their time cooking and doing manual chores and other manual labor in order to make things run smoothly. Then labor-saving appliances began to happen thereby freeing up much of that time. Now we have about a million things we can do like send emails like this, call each other watch tv and many other things. Some people feel that they *need* to do a number of these things everyday. So my question which is just something to ponder is whether we’re really saving time and thereby getting more of an opportunity to improve ourselves and our communities or if we’re just figuring out more things that we feel are essential for a normal life.”

There’s a great deal of truth in what Rebecca is saying. I freely admit a tendency in my own life to get involved doing a lot of things that are not always the most important things. I imagine there are more of you who feel the same way.

I’m not sure if T.F. Tenney was the original author of this quote, though he did publish a book with this title:

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

As a believer in God, I would say the main thing in my life is to keep focused on my relationship with God, that I might love him, follow him, and serve him with an uncluttered heart. This is why the writer of Hebrews encouraged us to:

“. . . remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.” (Hebrews 12:1 NCV)

I certainly do not need anything else in my life that will get in the way of the main thing. Even my goal for this blog spot is not to create just another thing for us all to do.

I’m interested in discovering and sharing a journey with you — that process which invites the power of God into my life, that sweeps away the clutter and fills me with his presence — so I can be the person God needs me to be — for my family, for those to whom I minister, and for you.

Madison, my daughter, has a gift for writing notes. Not the kind that will get you in trouble at school — the kind that will make you smile, the kind that will make you feel loved. Writing notes is one of her preferred ways to express her love for us.

We have a dresser in the hallway right outside her door. The dresser is filled with towels, but when I pass the dresser in the morning it’s not really a towel that I’m looking for but a note from Madison.

Often, right before she goes to sleep, Madison will write a note and leave it on that dresser. The note will say something like “Mom, wake me up early” or “Mom, thanks for being a great softball coach” or “Dad, thanks for helping me with my project.‚Äù Sometimes the notes express her heart as she apologizes for something she said or did.

I love getting those notes. I love the fact that she has an outlet to express herself.

Yesterday, I got an elaborate three page note from Madison as she shared with me some things I had done recently to help some people. She talked about how I was her hero and how special I was to her. She talked about wanting to grow up and be just like me.

I’m happy and thrilled and humbled and somewhat intimidated that Madison would want to grow up and be like me. What really needs to happen is for me to grow up and be more like her.

What does it say that my first blog would be about a funeral?

I was sitting on the bench listening to the people sharing and was struck by two things:

First, one of the family members talked about going through the things of the dearly departed and I’m thinking, “yikes, I’d better go clean out my desk!” This particular person, the one who died, was following a daily reading plan and her marker had been left in 1 Corinthians 13 — the place she would have been on the reading plan the day before she died. Not a bad place to end — certainly a great place for the rest of us to start.

Second, such great things were said about this life-long believer in Jesus Christ. Such nice things were expressed and it made me realize that those who speak at a time like this do not necessarily speak their own words. They are speaking the words of the one who died. They are speaking the life of the one who died. We decide what will be said about us when that time comes by how we treat others, by how we live.

Perhaps we should pay more attention to what we leave behind.