A Day for Gratitude

When I think back to the formative years of my faith in Jesus Christ, the trip down memory lane is getting longer and longer.  A week from today I will mark my 77th birthday.  I am not sure how long I thought I would live back then, but I am surely amazed as I experience the gift of looking back.  When I make the memory lane trip to the spiritually formative years, I always am standing at Young Harris College with a copy of the Phillips translation of the New Testament in my hand.  

Getting to this small north Georgia college was a gift of God's grace and the Bible was a gift from my Dad.  Young Harris was the community which helped me, protected me, gave affirmation to what God was doing in my life, and provided me practical opportunities of exploring what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus and one called to preach.  The hard bound blue copy of the New Testament is frayed and worn out, but still has a special place on my book shelf.  From the way the gospel of John bears underline markings, huge circles, and notes it is obvious that the most read book in the present was the same way back then.  

As important as were those two factors to my spiritual growth, the people I met during those years were influences that have had lasting effect.  I found myself gifted with a strong Christian roommate, a circle of guys who became an important community, an evening gathering of like minded believers at vesper services, and faculty members who left positive marks on my mind, but also my spirit.  There were weekends of venturing out to share my fledgling faith at Lay Witness Missions and opportunities to preach some of my very first sermons.  A lot of people invested their lives in me.  I wish I had seen things more clearly back then.  If I had I would do what I cannot do now.  I would take the time to thank them.