One Year

This past week marked one year since Mom & Dad were stabbed to death in their modest home on a quiet street in Springfield, MO.  I traveled there to attend a briefing with the sheriff and do some press conferences with my brother and Aunt Sis.  There still have been no arrests made despite all the tireless work on the part of the detectives.  Please keep praying for justice as well as for the detectives who have sacrificed so much in their pursuit of justice.  I have a great deal of respect for these men!

Today I just happened to pick up one of Dad's little notebooks (he always had one in his shirt pocket).  This note he had written just popped out at me: The heart of worship is surrender.  The more you grow in Christ, the more you'll love His body and want to sacrifice for it.

The notebook is from late December 2007.  It was the only thing he had written on this page and nothing before it or after it had any connection.  Was it just a random thought he had while waiting somewhere?  I know that Dad would willingly have surrendered his life if it would help further the body of Christ.


This notebook was lying right on top of a journal of Mom's which I picked up and opened to this writing by her.  It was titled

It All Starts With God

The biggest change that I recognized in my life after I totally surrendered to God at age 19 was that now I had a purpose for living - life had been meaningless before.  Today, recognizing that my days for living here on earth are few now, I want to really focus on what matters most - spend less time on the unimportant.
"I was born BY God's purpose and FOR God's purpose."
It is difficult to keep the "mind set".
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:2 (NIV)
I was created by Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16b (King James) "...all things were created by Him and for Him."

This was dated December 16, 2002.  I typed this out exactly as Mom had written it.  It's in one of her "fancy" journals (not just a plain notebook) so I know she took great care in how she wrote it in her beautiful handwriting.  The fact that she would say that she needs to spend less time on the unimportant really struck me.  Mom did so little for herself and certainly did not live her life frivolously!

It really causes me to pause and consider my life and how I spend my time.  Am I sacrificing myself for the body of Christ?  Do I really live as though my life belonged to God?  That I was created by Him and for Him?  I have a very long way to go in my walk with the Lord! 


Colossians 1:15-18 (The Message)


We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.