True Celebration

I spent this past weekend in College Station visiting my family, my Pine Cove Ranch family, a number of good friends, as well as the sights and sounds of Aggieland. One of the many benefits of working for Chevron is a 9/80 schedule, which allows me to get every other Friday off. I used this opportunity to bolt on down to see most everybody.

This was my first trip back since graduating, so in truth I had more people to see than I had time to. I was stretched thin all weekend, so if you are reading this and I did not get to spend time with you, I apologize.

What a blessing it was to get to reconnect with so many wonderful people from Pine Cove Ranch! It was so great to hear how everybody is doing and get to share what God has been doing in my life. I am kind of a novelty in that group, because I am on of the few who has graduated. I cannot tell you how many times I was asked, “How is the real world?”, “How is West Texas?”, or “How is it being a real man?” I loved getting to share that God has provided just what I have needed and is working even in this place.

Seeing my family was also such a blessing, as always. Words cannot express the joy they bring into my life.

Going back helped me realize what I had when I lived in College Station: bountiful, solid community. Honestly, to some degree I had forgotten about all of the people that have had such an influence in my life that still live there. These people include family, Pine Cove people, friends, and especially the community at Living Hope. I am completely worn out emotionally from telling what God is doing in my life, because I have an extremely low word-count. (My theory is that every person has a number of words that he/she uses on a normal day, and once he/she uses that amount, then he/she either clams up or speaks very little. Men have much lower word-counts than women do on average.) Because I have a relatively low word-count and am very independent in nature, it took all I had to continue to share the same stories and experiences with sincerity. However, it was important to remind others of how faithful our God is.

Saturday morning at the tailgate, about six of us were tossing around the football in Spence Park. I tried to be cool and volleyball set the football to a buddy, but ended up hitting my forehead with the football and flinging my Aggie Ring off. I saw it fly off, but was unable to find it right away. We looked all around for about 45 minutes with no luck. At one point, I noticed that there were about 20 people helping us look for my hard-earned, key into the Aggie Network; old men, women and children whom none of us knew, were down on their hands and knees searching for this sacred piece of jewelry. I decided that if we could not find it, then a random passer-by could not either, so we left it in Spence Park until after the game. Any true Aggie would turn it in if they found it, so I was not worried at all.

After the Aggies tried to play football, we piled up and went to buy a metal detector at Academy. When I set it on the counter to pay for it, the girl at the register asked if I had lost my Aggie ring. Apparently, Academy in College Station only sells metal detectors to people who have lost their Aggie Ring. Who knew?

We finally got back to ground zero. At this point in the day, there were still hundreds of people tailgating in Spence Park. We were throwing the football on a hill opposite of the main tailgating area, so most everyone could see us searching for it. About 2 minutes into the search with the metal detector, it beeped. We all gathered tightly around Monty. We heard people in Spence Park start talking, “They found something!”  Will reached down and held up that expensive, costly piece of gold as the rest of us jumped for joy and screamed. The next thing we know, all of Spence Park erupted into a cheer that lasted about 30 seconds. They (most of them drunk…) were so excited that we had found what we were looking for. It was such a crazy and incredible experience that I am getting goose bumps just writing about it.

So is it in Heaven. Jesus said in Luke 15:7, concerning the lost but found sheep:

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Likewise in Luke 15: 10, concerning the lost, but found coin:

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Moreover, the same in Luke 15: 32, concerning the return of the prodigal son:

“It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”

I have a couple of men at work right now who are dreadful sinners in need of a Savior, but are beginning to ask questions about sin, Christianity, and Jesus. I cannot wait for God to move in their hearts and bring them from death to life. What a celebration it will be one day!