Monday, September 05, 2005
Full Circle Backwards.
My family spent the weekend in Orlando at the Omni Rosen Hotel attending a youth rally named "SonQuest." Our weekend was spent in the close company of about 2000 teenagers and I couldn’t think of a better group to be with. The teens of this generation (for the most part) worship the Lord without the "time" boundaries that we adults place on ourselves. If the invitation lasts for over an hour they don’t complain. In fact, when one of our teens goes forward during an invitation he or she is never alone. Our entire youth group goes forward with them to hold their hand, to pray with, and to cry with them. This past Saturday evening was no exception to this practice.
We had several teens answer the Lord’s invitation this past Saturday night. One of them was Matthew. Matthew is the 14 year old son of "our" (Greg, Randy, and myself) good friend Chuck. There was nothing unusual about Matthew’s response. He was crying and saying that he wanted the Lord in his life. When our Youth Minister asked Matthew who would he like to baptize him into Christ he didn’t hesitate for a moment. He said, "I want my Dad to baptize me."
To me this is the full circle coming backwards. You see for years Chuck (Matthew’s Dad) wasn’t a Christian. And for years it worried his sweet wife Lee that the love of her life, the father of their only child Matthew, wasn’t walking with the Lord. When Matthew came along and began to learn about Jesus and the need for Him in our lives, he began to question Chuck himself. In later years he would even ask Chuck, "Dad, why haven’t you been baptized?" "What are you waiting on?" Matthew was asking Chuck the same questions that we periodically asked him as well.
It’s been about 2 years since Greg and I asked Chuck those same questions on a rock over looking the campus of Pepperdine (voted by some group as the most beautiful campus in the United States) University. And it was a few weeks later that Chuck was baptized into Christ.
I couldn’t help but think about that "rock" and a little boy who questioned his own father as we waded into the hotel pool to watch a father give life to a son for the second time in his life. Indeed the family of Chuck, Lee, and Matthew has come full circle backwards.
We had several teens answer the Lord’s invitation this past Saturday night. One of them was Matthew. Matthew is the 14 year old son of "our" (Greg, Randy, and myself) good friend Chuck. There was nothing unusual about Matthew’s response. He was crying and saying that he wanted the Lord in his life. When our Youth Minister asked Matthew who would he like to baptize him into Christ he didn’t hesitate for a moment. He said, "I want my Dad to baptize me."
To me this is the full circle coming backwards. You see for years Chuck (Matthew’s Dad) wasn’t a Christian. And for years it worried his sweet wife Lee that the love of her life, the father of their only child Matthew, wasn’t walking with the Lord. When Matthew came along and began to learn about Jesus and the need for Him in our lives, he began to question Chuck himself. In later years he would even ask Chuck, "Dad, why haven’t you been baptized?" "What are you waiting on?" Matthew was asking Chuck the same questions that we periodically asked him as well.
It’s been about 2 years since Greg and I asked Chuck those same questions on a rock over looking the campus of Pepperdine (voted by some group as the most beautiful campus in the United States) University. And it was a few weeks later that Chuck was baptized into Christ.
I couldn’t help but think about that "rock" and a little boy who questioned his own father as we waded into the hotel pool to watch a father give life to a son for the second time in his life. Indeed the family of Chuck, Lee, and Matthew has come full circle backwards.
