Up Close and Very Personal – “Continue”

Contrary to our experience with Homeschooling in California, which we began in the 1980’s, Homeschooling is quite a common practice out here in Oklahoma, along with the organization of Homeschool Co-ops.  Our youngest daughter and her family belong to one such Co-op that includes families from various locations all around the Tulsa metropolitan area. 

One of the attributes that my daughter likes about this particular program, is that they have one day a week where all the students and their moms gather together at a large church and attend different classes that are taught by the different moms.  This not only helps the children to learn in a typically structured and more formal setting, but also gives them social opportunities to interact with their friends and classmates.  My daughter also enjoys it as it gives the mom’s opportunities to interact with each other and share tips, ideas, practices and curriculum.

I have had the opportunity to take JoAnna and the kids to and from their school day on various occasions… and to say the least… I have enjoyed it!  One of the things that I especially enjoy in the mornings, as I literally drive from one end of Tulsa to the other, is taking in the nuances of the big city while things are still relatively calm and quiet!  And during that drive, it is easy to see why Tulsa has been called “The Buckle of the Bible Belt!”  Not only are there a lot of churches… but a lot of BIG churches.

I got to thinking yesterday afternoon, on the way to pick up the troops, that I have always been drawn to churches and am very comfortable around and in them!  My memories of this go all the way back to my early elementary years attending Catholic school in the older side of town.  Then when we moved across the city, my memories continued and were enhanced with the days attending a new Parochial school and with my involvement as an altar boy in the Cathedral Parish.

My eighteen plus years in the Catholic Church instilled in me a deep reverence for the spiritual, emotional and physical practices of my faith, that I continue to carry within me today, after moving over to the Protestant and then quickly onward to the Pentecostal understanding of God and His ways.

I still remember one Sunday morning before service at the Catholic church, when I and another altar boy where in the Sacristy with the priest when he (who was also a family friend) suddenly handed me the golden Paten (the plate that goes with the Chalice and holds the communion element) and asked me to “shine it up” for him.  Well… to me at that age… it was like the soldiers had handed Jesus’ robe at Calvary!  I gently and with great reverence took it from him and tried my best to only touch it on the edges. 

I guess it must have looked very funny to the priest and the other altar boy as they both burst out laughing and encouraged me to just grab it as it wasn’t going to break in my hand!  So, I took hold of it with a firmer grip and polished it… but never forgot the humble, gentle reverence and honor that I felt for what I considered to be a holy vessel of the Lord.

A couple of different scriptures came to mind this morning as I considered that memory in line with our last blog post, in which we compared a husband’s intimate relationship with his wife with that of a Christian man or woman’s personal relationship with their heavenly Father.*  The scripture we studied in that post was found in Proverbs 5: 18-19 in The Message Bible where Solomon bluntly instructed husbands to:

“Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!  Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose— don't ever quit taking delight in her body. Never take her love for granted!” 

When I reviewed that verse, I immediately felt led to follow a trail to a scripture found in what may be my favorite book of the New Testament.  In Colossians 2:6-7 the Apostle Paul is reminding and at the same time encouraging us by declaring,

“In the same way you received Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, CONTINUE your journey of faith, progressing further into your union with Him!  Your spiritual roots go deeply into His life as you are CONTINUALLY infused with strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to Him! ”  (The Passion Translation)

The Spirit-led connection of those two verses was easily apparent to me because I began my journey into the fullness of my relationship with my wife to be, at the same time that I received and began to walk toward the fullness of an intimate relationship with the Lord, when we started our dating adventures.

There was just something special, sweet and unique about Piper, that from day one, inspired and you could even say, challenged me, to always treat her with honor, trust and respect.  And it is pretty much the same way with my lifelong and ever-growing and ever-more exciting and adventurous relationship with my heavenly Father.  I always tended to treat Piper with that same level of awe, respect and gentleness that I did with the Paten in the Sacristy back in 5^th or 6^th grade.

It was definitely a gigantic shock when Piper was diagnosed with the early onset of Alzheimer’s, but looking back, I can see that we never missed a beat.  We continued to continue growing and depending on our faith that was based on a total dependance on the love of God in and through the working of His Word in everything we did… and as usual, He never failed us. 

And throughout the 48 years of our relationship together… I never failed Piper and she never failed me.  Our love continued to grow as we continued to work at being blessing to one another… up and until our temporary separation… and will then continue with our eventual reunion in heaven.

I John 4:19 tell us that,

“Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us.” (The Passion Translation) 

Piper and I loved each other and enjoyed a passionately intimate relationship with each other because HE first loved us.  Our relationship with each other, as well as our relationship with the Lord was strategically founded on our intimate and deeply personal knowing of how much He loved us… and in turn, of how deeply we loved and honored Him. 

I don’t see how you can have one WITHOUT the other!  And I think that both King Solomon and the Apostle Paul would agree!  They both dished out some very practical and blunt advice on how couples could and should physically love each other… and then used that information as direct comparisons to teach us about our personal relationships to God!

Have a great rest of your week, continue to actively and very personally pursue your relationship with God… and as you continue with that same level of commitment toward your spouse, you can EXPECT to continue to see the BEST of God blooming in your ever-increasing love for both your spouse and God!

 

*http://pjberruto.blogspot.com/2022/10/up-close-and-personal.html