Grandma

I wanted to share something that I wrote for my Grandmother’s memorial service. I think it clearly expresses even more what a great woman of God she is.

Hi my name is Bradley Alexander and I am one of Mary K’s grandsons. As I stand here this morning I find it difficult to honor someone that did so much for so many people. Where do you even start? Mary K or Grandma was like a connection magnet. She loved connecting. From early on in her life she was deeply connected with God and his son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and even was known to say that doing ministry to and with the least of these was a deep connection she had as well and we all have.

She was deeply passionate about her faith and living out that faith. She was actually very passionate about connecting with her family and it was always too soon when we had to depart. Definitely feeling that today. She revitalized our family reunion years ago and it has been going to decades under her leadership. Grandma always loved connecting with people, she just did. She loved being around people at church, teaching Sunday school, being with family on holidays like thanksgiving and christmas.

The deepest that Grandma gave us though was something else entirely. She connected all of us to who she saw us to be. She would always tell me when I lived with Grandma and Granddad while I attended Texas Wesleyan University that I was so capable of doing many great things, it was just about showing up and seeing yourself for who you really are. Before the Texas Rangers ever used the phrase Never Ever Quit Grandma used it frequently by the way she lived her life and loved the people in her life.

Grandma, I love you and thank you for all that you did for me and I promise that I will always seek to do what you taught me. To Love God, To Love People, Speak from the Heart always, and to speak the truth at all times even when it hurts. Even further I promise to follow the recipes as written in our family cookbook.

I love you Grandma!

We Remember.

Today is the 11th year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We can all probably vividly remember where we were in 2001 on September 11, recall what happened in the order that it happened and who we talked to and so forth. It will always be a day that we will never forget.

Today I would like to guide us to remember something else, something more.

On September 11, 2001 there was this temptation like there is anytime a tragedy happens. The temptation is that if God truly loves and wants the best for us, why would He allow something this horrific to happen. We would infer that God ordained for these things to happen.

We have all been there.

Maybe its the passing of a loved one or a large scale national tragedy like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, or the shootings in Aurora, Colorado. I will stop there but the sad fact is that I could go on and on listing other events in my lifetime of terrible things happening.

We remember these events, yes, but I think it is so important not to stay there as my pastor and friend, Dale Schultz said today. We must live on and embrace life everyday. Doesn’t mean its easy, it’s quite the opposite at times.

We must live on.

We also must remember above all what the Apostle John said many times. That if we abide in the love of Christ that Christ himself abides in us. To say another way it says in 1 Corinthians 12:31:

Use your ambition to try to get the greater gifts. And I’m going to show you an better way.

God came to this earth to show us the best way to live through His son Jesus Christ, because if we remember and stay in those terrible moments we are not embrace the better way that He taught to embrace. We must embrace the way of Christ, because through this embracing experience we are engaging in the very better way that Christ ordained for us.

I encourage you and I to always remember above all that God loves you and His is so powerful that even the presence of fear cannot approach Him. His perfect and amazing love casts out fear. God is the ultimate embodiment of love.

We will always remember 9/11, but remember also that God’s love is always right beside you, and His grace is always extended to you.

Amen.

Love This!

“We wake into a world we didn’t make, and into a salvation we didn’t earn. Grace is underway before we even reach for the cornflakes.” – Eugene Peterson –

God’s Love

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. -Lamentations 3:22-23