#92 – Sunday Special - Reflections On Being 60 years and About 9 Months Old

Note: Today, June 19th is my 6oth birthday. As I wrote in my 21st posting on this blog – “Think About It - What’s With Birthdays?,” the day represents the number of years since the day I was born but it does not indicatre the length of my life since I (and every other person) was created by God in my mother’s womb around 9 months previous to that. (I invite you to revisit this posting on my blog site.)[If those who are pro-life could celebrate their “Creation Day” and not just (or instead of ) their birthdays, I believe it would help greatly to remind the world that life begins not at birth but at the moment God first gives it to us. That reminder would surely make all thought of abortion unthinkable.]

I praise God for much I can look back on in my life but especially for the following:

1) I was blessed to have had a Mom and Dad who modeled sacrificial hard work, thriftiness, and the other solid values of a traditional Japanese- American family living in Hawaii. (My Mom’s grandparents emigrated from Japan to Hawaii early in the last century.)

2) I’m grateful that by the end of middle school, I knew that I would not live my life seeking to attain some fortune (as my parents wanted their oldest son to do) but would be involved in some kind of work to help others. I can’t help but wonder if, even though I had no spiritual roots, God had already been working in my heart at that young age.

3) I was blessed to have God lead me to hear a presentation of the gospel just as I was finishing my years of college and I have no doubt that may have been the final time I might have heard and been open to the gospel. Incredibly, I made the right decision to trust in Christ that first time I heard the gospel presented!

4) Even though I was barely a year old as a Christian at the time and had very little ministry experience, God called me into full-time lay Christian ministry less than a year after graduating from college for what would be 33 years beginning in January, 1975. I will always be especially grateful for the innumerable opportunities I had as a result to share my faith with individuals as well as with the largest of groups. I never got to see much fruit from my efforts and mainly fulfilled the role of a sower during those years. It taught me to just be faithful and “leave the results to God.”

5) I will always be grateful for the many people I got to minister to, do ministrry with,and who enabled me through their prayers and financial support to do the work of minsitry those many years. So many good people who became friends that I long to see again at that great reunion one day in Heaven. What a great time that will be!

6) Undoubtedly, my years working directly with students - my first decade with college students (the first 5 in Hawaii and then 4 years in Japan) and then my final decade with high school and middle school students - were those I enjoyed most. I’ve always felt “at home” working directly with individuals and will always wish more of my years of ministry could have been doing just that. (When I began working with youth in 1999, I asked God to be able to do so for at least 25 years. It will always be one of the great disappointments of my life that I only got to do it full time for only two years.)

7) It will surprise you, but a true highlight of my life were the days I spent under arrest in Los Angeles with hundreds of others after participating in non-violent blockade at the entrance at a large abortion clinic. (I participated in 6 others later.) Of all the retreats and worship services I’ve attended throughout my life, none have equaled the sense of God’s power and presence that I experienced during those days in jail – honest. (I will share the details sometime in a future blog posting.)

8) I had never had a chance to share the gospel with my extended family and had not seen most of them for about 30 years. Then, after the sudden deaths of my Mom and Dad 6 weeks apart at the beginning of 2003,I suddenly found I had the opportunity to present the gospel to almost all of them when they gathered for each of my parents’ funeral. While I was scheduled to just offer a prayer each time, I tried not to be preachy but there was no way I could pass up on the opportunity to instead share the gospel at each opportunity. I thank God for how h e blessed me with a distinctive way to share the gospel at each funeral. (:

9) My two companions, my cats Squeaky (1986-2006) and Purrty (4 years as of this past April) have filled innumerable lonely moments over the years with such warmth as none have. They have been God’s special gifts to me and their companionship is something I greatly treasure.

10) For the past 2 years, my blog site (at one time two sites) has given me the opportunity to research and write postings that give me a sense of helping others and using my giftedness that I otherwise would not have. I trust God that what I have been led to share has been and will prove to be informative and encouraging to those who have taken the time to read my postings.

(I hope that in a future blog postings I can share some other highlights too numerous to mention here.)

For the Future – I am trusting God to:

1) ...Fully restore my health soon to where I can first volunteer to help in different capacities in the community.
2) ...One day find a church where my gifts, ministry experiences, and my desire to work directly with people – especially with youth – will be recognized with opportunities to serve.
3) ... Eventually find a job that will best use my special gifts, talents, and life experiences. I especially pray that I might be able to work with a ministry in which I could eiher help to impact youth - to share with them the many things I have experienced and continue to learn about the adventure that it is to walk with God - or to assist the pro-life efforts in my community. If not, I just pray it will be a job where I can feel God use me to somehow touch the lives of others.
5) ...Once again be able to use my home to be a place of ministry, especially to youth but also to adults in the area.
6) ...Make the final years of my sojourn on this earth to be even more productive than the 60+ years I have lived so far.

today'sTHOT (from MikeysFunnies.com) ============================
I used to watch golf on TV but my doctor told me that I need more exercise, so now I watch tennis.