Dan's Thoughts

Trish #54

Terry Grant is a volunteer at The Valley Cathedral in Phoenix who cheerfully answers the phones day after day. Through the years, she has become a reminder to all who know her that God is still in the habit of making saints. She is a demonstration that God can do his work even in the midst of chaos. Now, like all saints, she laughs at the idea that she might be a saint. But just ask anybody in Phoenix who knows her. Even people who disagree with one another about all kinds of things will agree that Terry Grant is a servant of God who radiates joy and the presence of Jesus.

We met her on Thursday morning at the Eggery, a well-known breakfast hangout in Central Phoenix. We exchanged "how are you doings” with her for a few minutes. Then, as we were about to order our food, she gave Trish a gift: a beautiful English teacup.

"You have to drink tea in this cup this morning," she said.

"When you were in a coma, I was weeping and praying for you one day. It looked like you were going to die and I was really grieving. Suddenly, I heard God say to me, 'you will drink tea with Trish.' After that I knew you would live. But you moved away and God's word to me is not yet fulfilled. Today is the day for it to be fulfilled"

So Trish ordered tea. As she drank from her new china cup, we talked with Terry about life, friendship and the work of God.

This past week, we visited family, friends and our spiritual children all over Phoenix. As we met with them, we continually found reasons for praising God. What a joy it has been to watch our converts, friends and family continue to grow in God and to love one another. Oh, they have not all made the same decisions or preferred the same things, but that's hardly the point anyway. God's people have never agreed with one another about many things. On this earth, they never will. Here we can see things only through a glass, darkly. Only in eternity will we see clearly, face to face. Until then, we have to forgive a lot, be humble about what we think is right and give a lot of slack to those we love, who choose differently than we. Otherwise, our circle of friends tends to get increasingly narrow!

Two years ago, we sat through the night with two of our dearest friends, Ed and Yvette Rooney. In the early hours of the morning, Yvette delivered a stillborn child. We were stunned by death and sorrow that night. A few days later, we had a funeral for the most gorgeous baby. We sang, "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure" and pled with God to give us some reason for their grief. We tried to walk with them afterward through months of pain and numbness. This week, when I called their house to talk to them, I could hardly hear Ed's voice for the cries of a healthy child in the background. We then went over to their house and kissed their beautiful two month old baby boy. They have named him Mateo, Spanish for the apostle Matthew, a friend of Jesus, like Ed and Yvette.

The decade that Trish and I pastored in Phoenix was a difficult one. It often seemed like we were in the fiery furnace! This week, we realized that the fourth Man was in that furnace with us. We realized this week that we sent out dozens of pastors and church leaders during those years to serve the body of Christ all over our country. There were a number of churches birthed in that decade from our work there. Admittedly, neither the conception nor the birth of some of these churches was planned or very orderly. (Kind of like natural children, come to think of it!) As time has passed though, I have been able to sincerely thank God for each leader that has gone out to serve and for each group that has remained faithful in proclaiming Jesus in word and deed. The truth is, the vision God gave us (by "us" I mean our staff and church leaders) keeps expanding. Many pastors have gone out to do ministry, the hungry have been fed and the work of God continues to spread among the people of Arizona.

Peter Drucker claims that the "central product" of any church is a changed life. That means that a pastor's first order of business is to keep attending to the growth of his own spiritual life. His next order of business is to encourage the spiritual growth of the people of his flock. His next order of business is to introduce God to those who do not yet know Him.

In the Phoenix years, my work often felt like a matter of just doing what needed to be done, day after day, month after month and year after year. Most of that time, I didn't feel like much was getting accomplished. In fact, sometimes it felt like everything was going backwards! But changed lives are never the result of being clever or entertaining. If lives are not changed, sooner or later cleverness gets repugnant and entertainment gets shallow. It is by Christ's stripes that we are healed and Christ becomes known only through ordinary lives that are lived in obedience to God.

Elizabeth Goodine (another saint) once wrote a poem that ended with the sentence: "I never knew that the cactus had a flower." I always tear up at that phrase. Cacti are survivors; they have little use for gentleness or frills. But they can make the most beautiful flower! Somewhere in all the harshness of our desert experience, some flowers bloomed and what beautiful flowers they are!

I saw two of these flowers at breakfast Thursday. Both of them were utterly unconcerned about trials and difficulties, church gossip and human ego. Oh, they are human enough. One of them is my wife and I have documented her humanity well. But saintliness is not perfection; it is simply the focused intentionality of a soul moving Godward. When a soul does this, it’s intention invites Heaven into the core of it's being and begins to radiate divine goodness into the world. If saints are moons who reflect the spiritual sunlight of Christ, then I saw two of them at work this week.

Beginners like me can learn a lot about spiritual life by just watching people like Terry Grant. When you watch people like her laugh between sips of tea, you observe the quality of a life without guile.

Like most pastors, I hoped for explosive growth during my pastorate in Phoenix. I wanted to change the city forever (and perhaps vindicate the Lord's humble servant!) It didn't happen quite that way. Instead, changed people went out into the city, forming numerous little churches that will probably not remain little, organizing various kinds of ministries to meet a multitude of human needs and planting seeds for changing the lives of others. That is the way the kingdom of God has always worked, like leaven in a loaf, working its unseen magic, little by little, until the "fullness of time." God doesn't seem to care much about our ego; He "reveals His power in an unseen hour" (to quote Bob Dylan.)

Seeing it at work is a little taste of heaven.

Dan