A Call To A Friend

Good Morning!

I received an email yesterday afternoon informing me of the death of my ex-boss’s wife. Roy will be 90 years old this coming August and had been married to Judith for over sixty years. I gave Roy a call last night and spent forty enjoyable minutes talking with him.

Roy was my mentor at Life of Georgia for over ten years. He has been retired for almost 22 years as of this writing. Roy has always been active in his church and his Sunday school class … the “Alert” class at 1st Baptist Decatur Georgia. Roy told me he had been a member of the class since 1954 … and has been involved in the publishing of the bi-monthly newsletter called the “Alerter” for most of those years. The publication goes to over 200 members each mailing. Roy mentioned that the class size has dwindled from well over one hundred to just thirty … with only about fifteen able to attend. Roy gives each class member that cannot come a call each week … and he stated that some have commented how much that weekly call means to them. And it does.

Christian ministry isn’t just about sharing Bible verses. Christian ministry involves caring about one another – in good times and especially in the difficult times of life. One of my co-workers was sharing that his uncle was being “taken off the machines” night before last. His dad who is disabled by a stroke cannot make the seven hour trip from Atlanta to Seattle for his brother’s funeral … and my co-worker was dreading the trip. But I reminded him that he is the oldest son … and thereby really the best one to represent his dad at this important time. And he agreed.

We are in this life together. You and I are brothers or sisters in Christ. We have each other to help us through the ups and downs of life. God has blessed us with people to get us through a lot of good times and through numerous tough times. Thank you for your support in both.

Before we closed our conversation, I thanked Roy for all that he did for me when he was my boss. He was a good boss and I needed to tell him that … something most bosses never hear. I hope Roy has many more years … but at least he knows how I feel about him.

1 Corinthians 13 (English Standard Version)
The Way of Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast
b. 1 Corinthians 13:5 Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing


Agape’

Mr. Jim