Three Wooden Crosses

Randy Travis had a song a few years ago entitled “Three Wooden Crosses”. “There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway. Why there aren’t four, I don’t know.” A farmer, teacher, a hooker, and a preacher were on a bus together when it crashed. The preacher placed his blood stained Bible in the hooker’s hand and said “can’t you see the promise land?” The prostitute eventually had a son who became a preacher. These people left many things in the hearts of the people they left behind. The preacher who held that Bible up said “Bless the farmer, bless the teacher, bless the preacher who gave this blood stained Bible to my Mama who read it to me.” “It is not what you take when you leave this world behind you. It is what you leave behind you when you go.”

During the workshop, I went to a class on short term missions taught by Phil Jackson of Mission Resource Network. ( http://www.mrnet.org/ ) What impressed me the most was his suggestions of before you leave, write down five of your deepest beliefs. What do you want to really impress on the people you will come in contact with on your mission? Mention was made to the phone calls from the hero flight on 911 and the calls made from the burning trade center buildings of people who knew they did not have long. What would you say if you only had five minutes? What is really important to you? Honestly, I wanted to be able to have my list ready, for when I posted this. When I try, I think of too many things. My list keeps changing.
Here is a try:
1. In all the churchy mumbo jumbo Bible talk, it all boils down to: love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. (Mat 22:37) If you believe in Him, be baptized, make your commitment, start your life in Him, learn to love Him and all of the rest will work it self out.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself: if you think of anyone else as a child of God, your sibling in Him, why would you do otherwise. The commandments are easy to follow if you are thinking of others and not being selfish.
3. To my husband, children, parents, sister, in-laws: I love you all more than life itself. You are my reason for who I am and what I have become and what I live on this earth for. Because of you, I can be myself and have the strength and character to minister to others.
4. For my extended family and friends thank you for the journey. I pray you have grown closer to God because of what you have seen in my life. God intends on us to feel all the emotions He has given us, so may your life be full of laughter and tears.
5. For those who do not know God personally, He wants to love you and bless you more than you can imagine. He wants you to leave any excuse you may have (Luke 5:31, Luke 9:59-62). He wants to accept you however you are (John 4:7-35). He wants you to find your way to Him. (Mat 11:28-30)

I know this list is really a combination of what I would say if I only had five minutes and my five basic truths of being a Christian that I would want to share with someone. It is a start.

A quote that Phil shared at the end of the class was about a time when Mother Teresa was on the Johnny Carson show. He was going on and on praising her for her work. She simply said, “Do you think the donkey that carried Jesus into the village thought the applause was for him?” We are God’s tools, we may only have one moment to be part of His glory. I think Phil’s point was that if we walk into a village without the Jesus, we are just another donkey. But if we let Him use us in the triumphant moments in someone’s life, then that is when we are special.

So tag, you are all it! What are those five things that are in your most inner being that you would save for those last five minutes? Why not let them out now? Why is your cross not on the highway yet?

Kathy