There’s a line in the song “So Will I” by Hillsong that goes, “And if the wind goes where you send it, so will I.”
It’s a song we’ve played pretty frequently on Kinship Christian Radio, and I’ve actually prayed that lyric to the LORD more than once.
I’m convinced He heard that prayer and answered it in abundance because He sent me more places and more miles in this past year than I’ve traveled in all my previous years put together.
First, it was about 5600 miles to Guatemala City and back in March. Then, it was 4,000 miles to Halifax, Nova Scotia in May. That was followed by 500 miles to Pinehaven Christian Assembly near Park Rapids in August, and I followed all that up with 2200 miles to and from Vidor, Texas in October.
Now, I know there are a lot of other folks who have a lot more frequent flyer miles than I do, but for a guy who rarely left the state for the majority of my lifetime, the LORD has clearly been up to something in my life.
And I think I figured out what it is.
It’s people.
It’s relationships.
It’s love.
I met fifty orphan girls at Prince of Peace home for girls and a dozen staff members who loved them and cared for them. I met seven team members who traveled with me to that orphanage and loved them all.
I spent time with a dear couple my family loves in Nova Scotia and prayed a blessing over them that the LORD saw fit to grant in a miraculous and beautiful way.
I spent three days at MANCAMP with 50 other guys learning how we can love stronger, bolder, more authentically. That was immediately followed by three days with a dozen pastors healing and learning how they could love their flocks better and more effectively.
And I spent a week with a team of 15 that linked with another team of 15 supported by a congregation of 50 or so as we repaired homes devastated by an awful flood.
All the miles I traveled don’t seem like much at all now in comparison to all the relationships I now have that I didn’t have before.
My prayer list is enormous now and the thing is, these are not people who I didn’t know a year ago who are now acquaintances. These are people I didn’t know a year ago whom I now love.
It’s amazing.
When I was lost and had strayed from Christ so many years ago, there was a point when I didn’t think I was capable of loving anyone anymore. And now, the LORD has added hundreds of people to the list of people I not only love but will get to spend eternity with in heaven.
And I’m convinced that these relationships are the treasures Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6:20.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (NIV)
We know we’re not going to take our cars, our homes, or our big screen televisions to heaven with us. We also know that God sent Jesus so that we could have a real and true relationship with Him.
And its the love in those relationships, the love of being part of the family of brothers and sisters in Christ that is the real treasure. This is the treasure we find when we see Jesus in each other.
In all those travels this year, in all the relationships God gave me, they all involved eating together, praying together, singing together, worshiping together, laughing together, sharing His Word together, and loving together.
They all involved sharing together.
And brothers and sisters, that’s what Share-a-thon is. Yes, we share this ministry with financial support, but the real linkage, the real relationship is the music and the Word and the time we spend together in relationship together. We are truly all kin. We are all related as brothers and sisters in Christ.
There’s a list of Share-a-thon events below. I urge you to come to one or more of them to share the love of Jesus in your heart with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Come, and let us see Jesus in you.
KJYL BBQ: Wednesday, November 7, from 5-7:00 p.m. at the KJYL studio near Goldfield, Iowa.
KJCY’s Soup & Sweets Supper: Tuesday, November 13, from 4:30 to 7:00 PM at the Family Life Center located in the CMA Church in Osage, Iowa.
KJLY’s Soup and Sweets Luncheon: Wednesday, November 14th, from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM at the New Creation World Outreach Church in Mankato
KJLY Spaghetti Supper: Wednesday, November 14, 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the KJLY studio in Blue Earth
KJIA Soup & Sweets Supper: Thursday, November 15th, 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall at the First Presbyterian Church in Spirit Lake.
Gene’s BBQ: Thursday, November 15, 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the KJLY studio in Blue Earth
Today’s Praise
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”