Blessed–Life has come full circle

About 30 years ago, I visited a church in St. Charles, Missouri. The church was St. Charles Presbyterian. I was curious about God. I found the church in a phone book and went with my mom. In front of me there was a very friendly young woman name Jolyn. Jolyn greeted us warmly. She was the first person I met and she was so welcoming that she created a comfort zone for me to want to come back. And I did…and I did…and I did.

It became my home. God touched me through it in so many ways. It would take a book to explain it all. Suffice to say, I worked, wept, learned, laughed, and lived there in so many ways. Right now I am feeling an amazing depth of life lived and gratitude because God has brought the history of my life full circle in ways that are astounding to me. I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s move on to roughly 20 years ago….

About 20 years ago, I loved a bunch of kids. They were a youth group in my home church, St. Charles Presbyterian Church in St. Charles, Missouri. I had been away to college a couple of years and came home. I worked with the youth. I had a mission statement for my life at that time. I wrote down these words, “My mission is to love these kids, so that they know some day God loved them.” I didn’t know anything about youth ministry. I just loved God and I did my best to love these kids. There was a small cluster who were in junior high, that I started an activity called “supper club” with. We ate in one another’s homes meals based around fun themes. I took them roller skating countless Friday or Saturday nights. I led Bible Studies with them. I just simply loved them and gave them as much time as I knew to give.

There were a couple of kids I was especially close to, Craig and Angie. I can’t tell you how many hours we spent together. Craig and I did a couple of insane bike rides. We shared and talked about everything imaginable. They let me into their adolescent angst. We celebrated life’s ups and downs. I graduated from college and moved on. They graduated from High School and did the same.

Years roll on. I run off to seminary. I find a beautiful, talented and intelligent wife, Susan. We have two equally awesome kids who are now 12 and 15 years old. We have pastored in churches in a variety of configurations, solo, co-associates and co-pastors. We have been through all of the joys and hurts that ministry brings. I have questioned many times the viability of what I am doing, but somehow God keeps calling me back to it. Over those years I have made several efforts to find Angie and Craig. A few years ago I caught up with Craig. He had married and became an educator like his parents. It was good to talk.

Where was Angie? I couldn’t find her. I made several concerted efforts but always struck out. About three hours ago an email came in. It was her wondering if I was the John Arnold she had been looking for. A blur of email, chat and phone calls reconnects us. We both have a happiness that we can’t put words to. After a little catching up on the phone, I reluctantly hang up because I am bubbling over with joy and want so much more time now that we have finally reconnected, but have other demands.

I pour through Angie’s profile and find that she has come back to SCPC and now has her own family. She is a vibrant part of it’s life. I look at her flair, photos, wall and a smattering of other pieces of her facebook page and I see she has grown into the beautiful Godly woman I so hoped she would be. She has an obvious love of God, her church and her family. It fills me with joy and peace and gratitude. I am so very proud of her. She is an answer to prayers uttered repeatedly twenty years ago. The story doesn’t quite end there.

I hang up the phone from speaking to Angie. I go back to my computer because i want to write down her phone number from the online chat we were having before I called her. When I flip open my mac, next to Angie’s chat box is a new box open and waiting for a response from me. Guess who it is…………………………………..
Jolyn and she is chatting with Angie. They are friends at church together in SCPC!

Words seem so inadequate for the overwhelming senses of God’s providential hand on my life. Using generations to touch generations and bringing them full circle back into one another’s lives.

I don’t know how you do all of this God. I don’t know how you make these circles of life that keep coming back around in beautiful and mysterious circles but I am so grateful for them. Please continue to use me in whatever way you can, God. Return my heart gently back daily to that place of just loving people so that someday they will know you love them.

I am grateful for my life. I hope that I have another 40 or 50 years plus to live, love and serve, but if I don’t and something happens far sooner than that, then I can truly say my life is so very complete as it is.

My kids and wife are amazing. I am in a church with good Godly people. I am surrounded with loving friends both past and present. I know that God is a God of grace because the richness of my life cannot be accounted for by the person I am or even the choices I have made. All that I have, seen and experienced surpasses merit and hopes.

Praise God in Jesus Christ from whom every blessing flows.

p.s. I said it wasn’t the end of the story. Guess what it’s never the end of the story. That’s the beauty of eternity. That’s the beauty of God. Even as I write this we are at a new beginning.