Tonight I look to the future and wonder…
What will be my mission in the new decade… what is He going to ask of me… what do I need to do to be ready…
In this that could be the last decade of my life on Earth… help me make it count… help me fight the good fight…help me to have the courage to do that which is right… and good… and true…
I have been given so much… but have I given back enough… have I lifted up as many as I was given to lift up… and I wonder… what is this mystery that we live… a life for something… Oh God, how much time have I given to nothing?… How much time have I failed to use…
I remember a time when life seemed to stretch on forever… there was time for everything… there was time to accomplish all that you asked… and everything that I wanted… now that I am older I understand
the debt of time…
as we will be asked as were the men to who talents were given…. what have you done… and I despair a bit…
I am one of that fortunate generation who saw the passage of a decade that was also a century that was also a millenneum… the passage of a thousand years…
But what of my 58… and what of the next decade if I am allowed it…
I greatly fear making a vow… for I am human…
I owe a great debt… a debt of time given…
did I repay it in full…
did I bring the time back with nothing to give my Lord… wasted time… lost life…
did I bring the time back exactly as it was given… saying Lord I took this greatest of gifts and I hid it and here it is as you gave it to me…
Or did i bring the time back with the debt paid, and with interest… with the Masters plan fulfilled… his mission accomplished… to hand him his incomparable gift of the time he has given me with a good report…
Can I not enter the next decade devoted to the idea of turning all my talents, all my wisdom, all my experience to his use…
Can I not enter the next decade clean as the new snow… unblemished as drifts of the brilliant whiteness of the driven snow… as shimmering as ice….
Can I not live my live ecclesiastical…. worshipful… thankful… as an example…
Can I not live my life in such a way that all around me will say I want that life…
Father, I have to tell you that I am afraid… I feel weak… I fear being unable to do your incomparable will and the mission you give me for the debt of time I owe you…
It weighs heavily on my Father… Oh God…
I am thankful for many, many friends who stood with me in the last year….
I am thankful for the time I was given to minister to youth…
Thank you Father for the time I have been able to pray with people in church and in life…
Thank you Father for friends who seem to be finding their way…
Thank you Father for kids gaining new independence…
Thank you Father for kids who were stopped…
Thank you Father for 13 kids I was blessed to baptise in the new decade…
Thank you Father for sending people to me who could answer the needs of kids I could not answer…
Thank you Father for Charlie… who ministered to the broken kids… who held them up but told them how it was..who has always been there in ministry when I needed him… for so much… for his shoulder that I have made wet with tears…
Thank you Father for Diane who trusted her children to the ministry you gave me and who stood with me as a fellow minister… helping the girls so much… and the boys…. who loves with a love as pure as anyone can imagine…
Thank you Father for Cody who worked beside me in the baptistery… who was able to get to kids who were rational, kids of technology… who held me up at many, many times…
Thank you Father for Teresa…wife of Cody… a couple I married… who was always there with that special insight…that wisdom that saw what needed to be said to a hurting kid…
Thank you Father for John and Lynda… who also entrusted their children to me… who helped in so many ways… and are now carrying on….
Thank you for KASE and Opportunity Academy and all the kids in them… even on the difficult days….
thanks so much for JoEtta Darby who leads with example… and whose friendship gives me strength…
thanks for the team of teachers with whom I work…
thank you for the school district that took me back to work with kids who I love…. the ones who really need.
Thank you Father for giving me a band of brothers in the Quest Ministry who are real men of God…thank you father for true change that we have seen….
thank you father for Jim Lewis…my mentor in so many ways…
thank you Father for Joel Osteen another mentor and true servant of God
And for my wonderful friend Ronald Jordan and true servant of God
And for Pat my best friend in life, in ministry, in the service of God\
And thank you father for bringing Kenn back into my life, my best friend also…
Father I thank you that the ideas are going to come to pass in the new decade…
I thank you for the new kids who are in the ministry….
I don’t know what you will have for me in the coming decade… I just want to be able to accomplish it… I just want to serve you… and to bring
the debt of time allowed back to you with good interest….
Daily Graces 