Twenty Four Years!
07 November 2016 @ 10:23
Twenty four years ago today I found myself in full-time ministry after working my last day as a Geisinger Medical Center employee on November 6th, 1992. I was scared, unsure of how God could use someone like me in a ministry to critically and chronically ill children because I knew I didn’t have the strength to go forward on that path, because sick children terrified me, yet here I was at the trailhead. I was just as scared about how I would provide for my family and whether or not my own kids would understand why dad was spending so much time with other kids. I wondered how my wife would hold up in the midst of this. We had one child in college and a second about to graduate from high school. The timing seemed far from perfect. As I have reflected on all of this today, I have come to see the perfection of God’s timing and I thank Him for His wisdom in calling me out on this journey. It has been a journey where, because of my weakness, I have had to depend on Him to be my strength. When someone says to me, oh I couldn’t work with sick children, I can honestly say that I can’t either but I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
On this first day of my twenty-fifth year in this ministry I thank God for my family and the loving support that they have given me over the years and I thank Him for the multitudes of friends that He has blessed me with on this journey. We have laughed together; we have cried together. We have rejoiced together and we have mourned together. I have witnessed the strength found in relationship. God has a way of balancing our weak moments with the strong moments of another that He has brought along side. I am so grateful to know the kind of Love and Grace and Mercy that only a God who loves us unconditionally can give. God has allowed me to do what I do, not because I deserve it but because He is God. He loves me as I am and not as I should be. He loves us all as we are and not as we should be because none of us are ever as we should be. In this world we will have troubles but Jesus tells us to be of good heart for He has overcome the world. In that I find incredible peace and I am filled with thankfulness.
Scripture teaches us that we should ‘let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.’ To God be the glory.
In His service,
Woody
On this first day of my twenty-fifth year in this ministry I thank God for my family and the loving support that they have given me over the years and I thank Him for the multitudes of friends that He has blessed me with on this journey. We have laughed together; we have cried together. We have rejoiced together and we have mourned together. I have witnessed the strength found in relationship. God has a way of balancing our weak moments with the strong moments of another that He has brought along side. I am so grateful to know the kind of Love and Grace and Mercy that only a God who loves us unconditionally can give. God has allowed me to do what I do, not because I deserve it but because He is God. He loves me as I am and not as I should be. He loves us all as we are and not as we should be because none of us are ever as we should be. In this world we will have troubles but Jesus tells us to be of good heart for He has overcome the world. In that I find incredible peace and I am filled with thankfulness.
Scripture teaches us that we should ‘let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.’ To God be the glory.
In His service,
Woody