Mabel

I have just started reading a new book titled, "The Life You've Always Wanted," by John Ortberg. Ortberg is the Senior Pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, CA. The subtitle of the book is: "Spiritual Growth for Ordinary People."
In the book Ortberg relates a story from a friend of his. This friend was visiting a nursing home speaking to some of the residents. While moving from wheelchair to wheelchair he met Mabel. He spoke to her and offered her a flower and said: "Happy Mother's Day!" Mabel's response surprised him. She said, "May I give it away?" The man rolled Mabel over to another group of wheelchairs where she proceeded to give the flower to a lady and said, "This is from Jesus."
The man, moved by Mabel's response, began to visit with her two or three times a week. He learned that Mabel was blind, nearly deaf, had cancer that had caused her mouth to droop due to what the cancer had done to her face. He learned that she had been in the nursing home for 25 years, shortly after she had become blind.
Mabel lived on a farm with her Mom. After her Mother passed away, Mabel continued to take care of the farm. But when she became blind she, and unable to care for the farm any longer, she moved into the nursing home. He also learned that she had few visitors, lived in a room with other ladies that were in worst shape than she. The other ladies in Mabel's room, moaned and groaned most the day, every day. But Mabel never complained.
While reading the Bible to her, he would pause while reading, but she would continue to speak the passage by memory. He asked her one day about her life and her response was: "Jesus is all the world to me." Mabel began to sing:

"Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy, my all;

He is my strength from day to day,

Without Him I would fall;

When I am sad, to Him I go; No other one can cheer me so;

When I am sad, He makes me glad; He's my friend."

I began to think: here is a lady, obviously afflicted with pain and physical problems who had found her contentment in Christ. Mabel had discovered what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." She was content because she had been transformed by her Savior. Nothing in life mattered to her but Jesus.

That reminded me of a man in Jena, LA where I served for 12 years. He lived alone when he suffered a stroke. He laid in his house for a day or two unable to reach anyone, or they reach him. He stayed in the hospital for weeks until they moved him to the nursing home. Every time I visited with him - he couldn't communicate with you - he would just babble. But I noticed something. When we would sing an old hymn he would sing along with us. He knew every word. He couldn't communicate with anyone - but he could still sing about his faith in God.

We might not have understood him, but in his head he do what he was saying and singing.
We need to be like Mabel and others like her who can sing:

"Jesus is all the world to me,

My life, my joy, my all."

C.S. Lewis

I came across an interesting quote from C.S. Lewis. This quote comes from his last sermon, titled "A Slip of the Tongue." Lewis says: "Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers. We approve of an income tax in principle. We make our returns truthfully. But we dread a rise in the tax. We are very careful to pay no more than is necessary. And we hope - we very ardently hope - that after we have paid it there will still be enough left to live on."
Later Lewis adds these words: "It is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves. For each of us the Baptist's (John the Baptist) words are true: 'He must increase and I must decrease.' He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failure; I know of no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only insofar as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls. Let us make up our minds to it; there will be nothing "of our own" left over to live on, no "ordinary life."... He claims all, because He is love and must bless. He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There's no bargaining with Him."

Future Generations

The Southern Baptist Church Music Conference is meeting this summer in Orlando, Florida. This years conference theme is based on Psalm 102:18, which reads: "Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord." I was immediately struck by the verse. The thought hit me - "what am I doing 'so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord?'"
As a minister am I doing anything that will make an impact on future generations? Not that I am significant, by any means, but am I making an impact on either the church I serve or on an individual that will cause someone not yet born to praise the Lord?
We need to be people who live in two worlds - the present and the future. Obviously we must live in the present, but we also should be seeking to make a difference in and to future generations.
I was reminded of a song by 4Him, entitled "For Future Generations." The lyrics of the chorus are significant for us to consider. "I won’t bend and I won’t break, I won’t water down my faith; I won’t compromise in a world of desperation. What has been I cannot change, But for tomorrow and today, I must be a light for future generations."
That song says it so well. We must be a generation that "won't bend," "break" or "compromise." We must be a "light for future generations."
Are we saying, singing, or writing something that will be recorded "for future generations, that a people not yet born will praise the Lord?"