Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Today is my oldest son’s birthday! Kyle is thirty-nine! I know I don’t know how that happened so quickly! I do know that there have been many opportunities through the years to see the grace of God at work in his life and mine through him. So, as I reminisce a bit, I pray that the Lord will use these brief words to convey His grace to you as well. Most of you have heard the stories of Kyle’s birth and I certainly won’t repeat those again today. However, one of the stories I will call back from those early days took place soon after his birth. I was the Student Minister at Tyler Junior College and afforded many opportunities to both act and feel young (I actually was pretty young in those days) being surrounded by college students every day. It was not completely uncommon for Mary to drop Kyle off at the student center for a little while as she had errands to run. The students were very kind to Kyle as he toddled around the center. In fact, one of the favorite activities involved teaching him to say certain words. Before you jump to conclusions, let me say they used great restraint in their teaching! In fact, the primary vocabulary consisted of one word in particular: “Ball.” Kyle loved to play and in order to get the students attention, he would toddle about simply repeating the word “ball” over and over again until someone relented and began to play with him. The more they played with him, the more he would repeat the word. God is like that in some ways. Of course, I am not saying that the more you pester God about something, the more he will participate with you. However, I am saying that when we speak to the Lord, he pays attention and responds to us. Here’s what Jesus has to say: And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” (Luke 18:1-8 ESV). This parable is noted as going “from the lesser to the greater.” That is to say Jesus uses an example from human experience to call our attention to how much greater God’s response is being perfect rather than imperfect as all humans are. The truth is that God hears our prayers. Do not believe for a moment that he fails to hear every word from his children. His promise is to give his elect justice. Just like the students (imperfect) played ball with Kyle, so God (perfect) will maintain a relationship with us that will always bring the best to bear in our lives. When I think of Kyle saying, “ball… ball,” I am reminded of how often I have prayed and been answered with God’s full and undivided attention. My problem is not that there isn’t any answer from God; but, that there often isn’t a request from me! Keep praying. God is listening and working on your behalf!