This two-day trip was to go speak to an annual convention of the Baptist General Assembly for the State of Oklahoma and it was a real honor to be invited.
On Monday night, I was able to speak before the whole group, men and women, and share my story of how I came to faith and Jesus as a 21-year-old getting ready to graduate from college and the path, a very unexpected path that God led me on, to where I am today as an author and a speaker. And then in the morning, this Tuesday morning, 29th, I spoke to the women and this is all a group that was gathered together to be encouraged, and inspired, and equipped to be able to go out and love people in the name of Jesus, not just talk but really live our faith though our lives and pray for people and to help people and help them understand that the whole reason we love people is because of Jesus.
And so it’s very interesting that as I am driving back home from the airport, coming back home to my house in Atlanta, I get a call from my mother and father telling me that my beloved grandfather, my Grandpa Bob, has just been put in hospice care, for the last stages of a battle with liver cancer. And it’s so causing me to reflect now on the path that grandpa is going to take and I am so grateful that I know that I will see Grandpa Bob again.
And it makes me so sad for people who don’t necessarily have that certainty, who face life questions without knowing any answers, and who face the question of eternity without having the comfort and peace that comes from knowing Jesus as a friend and knowing,therefore, that they will be together with him forever.
What a peace that comes from that, and how grateful I just was reflecting driving home, so incredibly grateful I am, that God reached out to me, almost 20 years ago and made himself known to me.
Just a reflective night, thinking about speaking to a group of women today to help encourage and equip them in their own journey, and then finding out that my dear Grandpa Bob is going to be taking his own journey very soon. My grandfather is one of my heroes because he was one of the heroes of World War II. He flew a bomber over Germany in World War II. He was one of the few bomber pilots to complete all of his missions and come home safe and I am very proud of him.