Tonight in Ownership Class, while listening to Pastor Jamie talk about our NHC Values, I thought about our first value – Invest and Invite…especially the word “invest”.  We are all commanded to fulfill Matt 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

What I thought about, though, is that sometimes the payoff from the investment is more long-range.  I thought about a wonderful woman whose long-term investment had a huge impact on my faith.  Millie was an older lady in our church family who was always at church.  We only knew about her husband because she wore a wedding ring and always asked for “unspoken” prayer for Red.  No one had ever met Red and when we inquired about him, Millie told us that he was a good man, but did not know the Lord.  She told our then group of women in our twenties, that she had been praying for Red her entire marriage (45 years at that point) and that her best witness to him was to be the best wife she could be.  When we asked her about how long is too long to wait and pray, she answered with a firm tone, which was the only time I ever knew her to be terse.  I’ll never forget, “You never stop praying for people’s salvation.  You pray even harder for these people and you faithfully serve them.”

A few years later, after 49 years of marriage and faithful prayer, Millie was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  She told us and our pastor that Red was pretty devastated and our pastor asked her if he could visit Red.  During that visit, Red accepted Christ.  Millie’s prayer was answered and I’ve never seen anyone so happy!  She did not lament, but praised God for answering her prayer, celebrating that she would now spend eternity with her husband.  Millie died 6 months later and unlike his reaction to the cancer, Red now saw the future with his long-range eternal vision, knowing that he’d be reunited with Millie because of relationship with Jesus.

Millie taught me to never give up on people who don’t know Jesus…never!  Keep investing through serving them and keep inviting!

I taught science for nine years at the NC Museum of Life and Science, which in my opinion is the best regional science center in the country.  One of our most popular and fun physics principles to teach was Newton’s Third Law – For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  It was always fun to see the excitement when we built carbon dioxide rockets and predicting the height of the rockets.

Newton’s Third Law is only applicable to physics but doesn’t quite work when we apply it to our spiritual lives.  Too many times we believe that since “I’m doing this or that”, or attending church every time the door is open that “this should be the outcome”.  I bought into this too.  Alana had a horrible experience in Kindergarten while attending a Durham City School 22 years ago before the school systems merged.  I was absolutely adamant that she was not returning to 1st grade at that school.  Our only alternative, so I thought, was to move back to Cincinnati where I grew up and attended school.  At least I knew what to expect from the Cincinnati school system.  We packed up the kids, went to Cincinnati where Mike applied at every hospital and large corporation in Cincinnati.  We just knew that his four years at Duke would make him a very desirable applicant.  I was shocked when he was not invited for even one interview.

Mad at God for not answering our prayers through our efforts to provide the best for our kids, we returned to Durham.  I mean, after all, I told God what we needed and proceeded to act on it, holding on tight to what I expected to happen…and it didn’t.  That summer, with time running out (my time, that is), I led our Vacation Bible School.  During one of the planning meetings I lamented to one of our serving team members about the looming dilemma of not having a plan for 1st grade, which was 10 days away.  I continued to explain how we had tried to move and shared my disappointment at how this did not happen.  This very nice lady asked me if I had considered Home Schooling?  ”What is that?” was my answer (remember, this was 22 years ago).  She proceeded to tell me about her daughter who home schooled and gave me her phone number.

This divinely appointed conversation opened the door to two of the best years of my life, and I think my daughter would agree.  We learned so much together during 1st and 2nd grades, which prepared her beyond expectations for 3rd grade when we moved to Orange County and enrolled both kids in New Hope Elementary School.

My big life lesson during this experience was learning to always surrender my expectations.  Do what you can do, then let God do what He can do, which in my experience, is always different and far better than I could ever control.  Remember that God has good plans for you, so ask him to reveal those as you put your own away.  His plans are always far better & usually beyond your own imagination!