Grace
Have been away for a week on a mission trip to Honduras. More on that later. I want to go back to a meal I had on July 3rd.
I wa invited to lunch by one of our wonderfull older adults, a woman nearing 100. She had been good to me in the past, giving me small gifts along the way during my time at Saint Mark. One of th ethings I have not done real well in my time here has been to tend to the older adults and shut ins of the church. I carry some guilt over that, and keep working on freeing up more time to do a better job in that area. When this good lady invited me to lunch I was more than happy to go, but I wasn't sure what the ocassion was.
It turned out that the reason for the visit was simply to spend some time with her preacher. She comes from the old school in terms of relating to preachers - she holds themm in high regard and wants to know hers as well as she can. And she has seen some good ones at Saint MArk since she came to the church back in the 1930's. She had her family there, and we had an absolutely wonderful lunch. Her people are old Atlanta - going back to the Civil War - and all of us had a good time sharing stories about the Atlanta we remembered from years gone by: things like Rich's and the Atlanta Crackers. It was a great experience. And at teh end, when I was getting ready to leave, she gave me a gift.
I thought when I left that I had just had a right powerful experience of grace. I had done very little to merit any gift from this good lady, hardly enough to get any attention from her. And yet here I was, leaving having had a wonderful meal/time and being given a tangible gift as well. I understand that some of that is rooted in my role as her pastor, but still......... Lots of folks would not have done what she did. Grace. I was grateful.
Jimmy
I wa invited to lunch by one of our wonderfull older adults, a woman nearing 100. She had been good to me in the past, giving me small gifts along the way during my time at Saint Mark. One of th ethings I have not done real well in my time here has been to tend to the older adults and shut ins of the church. I carry some guilt over that, and keep working on freeing up more time to do a better job in that area. When this good lady invited me to lunch I was more than happy to go, but I wasn't sure what the ocassion was.
It turned out that the reason for the visit was simply to spend some time with her preacher. She comes from the old school in terms of relating to preachers - she holds themm in high regard and wants to know hers as well as she can. And she has seen some good ones at Saint MArk since she came to the church back in the 1930's. She had her family there, and we had an absolutely wonderful lunch. Her people are old Atlanta - going back to the Civil War - and all of us had a good time sharing stories about the Atlanta we remembered from years gone by: things like Rich's and the Atlanta Crackers. It was a great experience. And at teh end, when I was getting ready to leave, she gave me a gift.
I thought when I left that I had just had a right powerful experience of grace. I had done very little to merit any gift from this good lady, hardly enough to get any attention from her. And yet here I was, leaving having had a wonderful meal/time and being given a tangible gift as well. I understand that some of that is rooted in my role as her pastor, but still......... Lots of folks would not have done what she did. Grace. I was grateful.
Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 9:05 PM
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