(Personal information has been deleted, the actual names are unimportant, I have used the name "Bob" fictitiously it's the miracles that I would like to share!).
Dear Pastor XXXXXX and Pastor XXXX,
Here is what I already know about the both of you, who I have never met or spoken with before.
1.) You know the real deal when you see it!
2.) You step out in faith as God commands!
3.) You believe to your core in the redemptive power
of our Lord Jesus Christ!
4.) You have turned your lives over to Christ sufficiently*
that "his image" is reflected in your actions and deeds!
* the dictionary defines sufficiently "as what is needed without being in excess
" in other words we always have room to grow, but we have just enough to
get the job done! There is a tension there that I find inspiring.
Isn't that what its all about for a believer? To grow so much in Christ that people (the world) see his image and not ours, in us? To live with the love, power and hope of the cross? To invest ourselves in the lives of his children?
You see I am Bob's brother! Oh we may not have the same mother or dad but let me assure you he is indeed my brother, we have the same father and I am as proud of him today as I have always been, as the bible says "never ceasing". Bob and I were on Campus life staff while I attended the youth ministries program at North Park Seminary, Bob and I counseled together on a bike trip down to Florida that I organized, Bob and I shared the most intimate parts of our souls to each other and I fell in love with the image of Christ that I saw in Bob. Bob was one of the best men at my wedding and I have always had a heart for pastors!
You see I have a special insight into the life of a pastor as "PK's" often do. My father passed away 15 years ago this January and in that time in his second career he served the Covenant as a pastor in Joliet, Il. and Antioch, Ca. for over 25 years. Prior to that my father graduated from Trinity Seminary, just like Bob and he served in the XXXX as a pastor for over 20 years just like Bob, and he served as the president of the XXXX Church Ministerium for many years often dealing with the humanness of God's servants. Even more ironic the legendary pastor XXXXX of Bob's former church was a dear friend of my Dad's and I even once as a young boy climbed through a small window of his house when he locked himself out.
In 1997 when after Bob resigned for his church, I didn't get a call, you see I had moved to Vermont but occasionally traveled back to (city) on business. As I often did, I would make a surprise stop at Bob's church and offer to take him to lunch. Well on this day after his resignation the surprise was on me and I was crushed! Not that Bob had made a mistake but that I wasn't there to be a brother to him but somehow I tried as hard as I could to crawl through Bob's window when he was locked out! I located Bob and tried desperately to have him meet with a Pastor who was a Chaplin at XXXXX Hospital. I remember sitting at this Chaplain's kitchen table in tears worried about my brother Bob. I even contacted the President of the denomination with anger in my heart for the way Bob was being treated, like a "useless and dirty rag". When I spoke personally with the President, I invoked my father's name "Rev. Larry Larson would be ashamed of your actions my father would be on a plane for a face to face about Bob", my father never would give up on one of his fellow pastors! Then a few years ago I spoke with Bob over the phone after he had moved to (city), at the end of that conversation I hung up the phone in great sadness and disappointment. You see after speaking with Bob he had made it clear ministry was a thing of the past, that chapter of his life was over. To hear that pained me to no end and to be honest it even attacked my faith because I was mad a God!
Recently, I have been dealing with a close friend who is dying of cancer. I out of my weakness I had never witnessed to him, partly because he was at odds with trying to please a Catholic father who had never told him in his life that he loved him and his Pentecostal mother who was trying to "save" him. I knew there was anger and baggage against Christianity so I kept my mouth shut and failed to give testimony to the hope of Jesus Christ. Several weeks ago I became so convicted that I shared my darkest secrets, my human weaknesses with my friend and told him of the purpose and meaning that Christ had brought into my life. He said it was one of the most moving e-mails he had ever received and the door was opened! In the last week or two I sensed that time was drawing very near and I spoke with him on a Friday and said lets get together next week when I planned to try and find just the right words to break through the bitterness of his heart for the message of Christ.
On Saturday morning while sitting in bed around 6:30 am I listened to a powerful sermon where the pastor talked about never having his own father tell him that he loved him. I thought so much of my friend and his need to hear a message like this in the hopes that he would accept Christ before he dies. Latter that day I received a text from my friend asking what we were doing on a Saturday night and if we wanted we could come over. Keep in mind that Wednesdays are his Chemo days and he usually hibernates after his chemo typically not even speaking on the phone but preferring texting. So Juli and I grabbed a pizza and headed over to his house. When we got there his parents were just leaving and as we sat down with him he told Juli that his father had never told him that he loved him. Juli looked at me and I said to him, " I have a great sermon you should listen to sometime that really would be meaningful to you". I expected him to say that's nice send me the link but he didn't! He said "can you pull it up on my laptop quickly?" (he was expecting another friend to stop by and he didn't want to have her here at the same time, 5 minutes into the sermon she texted that she couldn't come) Several minutes latter we were listening to the sermon, we laughed together (way to many times for a sermon) and we cried together and at the end he said "I'm going to invite my Mom and Dad over to listen to this".
That night we spoke of his funeral and the tension between his loyalties between his Mom and his Dad. My friend had the notion that to accept Christ he had to accept the "Catholic version" or the "Pentecostal version" I explained to him that Christ doesn't wear a "Yankee's or Red Sox's hats" and that you didn't have to be a fan of either to accept Christ. I explained how accepting Christ was different than accepting a religion. Way to quickly it was 5 minutes to 11 and we had a 14 year old son to pick up at 11pm almost a half hour away. I looked at my friend and asked "can I pray before we go" he said yes and he bowed his head and I gave thanks for the message that we had listened to and I asked God to give peace and comfort to him.
As we drove to pick up our son I said to my wife, who would ever think that God would convict me to play a part to help open the door to my friend's heart when I didn't feel that I had the right words to say! Who would ever think that at 6:30 that morning I'd listen to a sermon by a brother who I thought was no longer even in the ministry. A sermon that not only demonstrates the message of the cross but so vividly proves the life changing and redemptive power of Jesus Christ! At 6:30 in the morning I had no idea of what Bob was up to or where he was at, but Christ knew and he knew that I didn't have the words but Bob did. What I had done is I had stepped out in Faith despite my fears and Christ used the words of a lost brother who had been found and restored miles away to climb through the window of my dying friend's heart and for that I Praise God!
So you see XXX and XXXXX I am eternally grateful for the difference you have made in Bob's life, for the faith you placed in him and your belief in the redemptive powers of our Lord because it is making a difference!!!
I'm not sure that you get it, your faith and actions moved mountains of despair and guilt and restored my brother and my brother's word's bailed me out when I failed to trust God. Did you ever think when you put Bob on your staff that his preaching would minister to someone dying of cancer in Vermont and serve to teach me such a valuable lesson?
XXXXX and XXXX I can't begin to thank you for the role that you have played in Bob's life and for the faith you placed in him when you placed him on your staff! However, I know one thing, my father is rejoicing in heaven along with everyone else. You see like both of you my father never saw a dirty rag, never, ....he only saw the dirt that was hiding the treasure within that need to be washed away! My father always said if the door to someone's heart seems locked, try an open window! I never quite understood the full impact of that till now!
Praise be to God!
Rand "Lars" Larson
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