Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“The first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was:
‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’
But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question:
‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”
Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee
I suppose where I first noticed Him was in the steadfastness of Lynda’s parents.
Then I began to notice that He was always apparent in Lynda’s steady, daily and uncompromising example.
Then I saw Him in the powerful, challenging and joy-filled teachings uttered by David Scoates, pastor of a local church and a dear friend until his untimely death a number of years later. David always taught and shared about an empowering and loving Jesus I had not heard of in the religions I was immersed in as a child.
After David, it was a platform speaker—a woman, I believe, whose name and face have long since left my memory if they were ever there—who said something that caused my heart to warm to His approach at a conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina, coupled with an “unexpected” meeting at two in the morning with a dear friend, Bob Wood, who had invited Lynda and me to attend.
At some earlier time in their lives, all of those people had given their hearts to the Lord—and it changed their lives. And they continued along their personal journey in that relationship, no longer thinking of themselves, while all the while giving Him their time, talents and treasures.
And as a result of those relationships, and their lives crossing over mine—my life—and the rest of my life—was forever changed. Because at every juncture in their lives you would find that they were never concerned about themselves, but instead always concerned about the life before them. If you listened closely to their lives, you would never have heard them asking “what will happen to me” when confronted with someone in need, but instead would have heard them asking “what will happen to this one and this one if I don’t stop and help?”
Ray Boltz sums up the thanks which I feel, and which so many others like me share, in these song words:
Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am a life that is changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am so glad you came.
One-by-one they came, as far as the eye could see,
Each life somehow touched by your generosity,
Little things than you had done, the sacrifices made,
Things I noticed on the earth, which in Heaven are now proclaimed!
Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am a life that is changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am so glad you came.
And just think—they could have passed me by.
Not them. Not then. Not me. Not now.
And moment by moment, one life after another is changed for all eternity.
Thank you, Lord.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2010. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
