A little child shall lead them

Early this morning I sat in Tim Horton’s with a young man I am mentoring as a part of Ministry Quest. Chris asked me to give him a personal challenge each week. We’ve been going through The Purpose Driven Life and so my challenge for him today was to begin writing a personal purpose statement.

I shared with him some of the steps I had gone through a number of years ago when I wrote my mission statement as a part of the Focusing Leaders process. As I looked at my timeline and then at my mission statement, I saw the names of many people who made a great impact in my life.

It’s now a few years since I charted my personal timeline and I realize there have been additional influencers in my life. Among them is our four-year-old grandson, Hunter.

Hunter just spent eight days with us while his parents were on holidays. We had the opportunity to play with him and to influence him. Now that most of the toys have been put away and the house has become much quieter, I have reflected upon his influence on our lives. Two lessons took place in the car as we were driving on the city streets.

Come with me as we go for a ride. . . . Traffic is moving along nicely as we take to the freeway. Suddenly, Hunter calls out “duck” as we go under an overpass. What a good lesson for life. If we would only keep our eyes open to obstacles along the way we would not have to deny the problem or try to run from it, but simply “duck.” Ducking involves a posture of humility – you simply can’t duck without bowing your head. So, we ducked for every overpass. Fortunately, in Saskatoon there aren’t too many of these.

As we continued driving, I would encourage Hunter to give his papa (that’s me) directions. After we turned a corner he would say “now go flat, Papa.” I tried to tell him that what he really meant was “go straight ahead.” He insisted we were to go flat, not straight.

I’ve thought about this too. It’s sad when we become flat in life and in our relationship with the Lord. However, as long as we maintain a posture of thankfulness and a readiness to “duck,” we can enjoy those times in life when God allows us to travel relatively flat, free of obstacles and trials.

As I thought about these lessons from my grandson, my mind went to Psalm 16 where David says (verses 6,8): “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance . . . I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

May the Lord help us to enjoy going flat without becoming flat!

Out Front is a column written by leaders in our conference. Ralph Gliege is conference minister for the Saskachewan MB Conference. He lives in Saskatoon.