Fire and Snow

I have experienced two great opposing forces of nature while I have lived in Colorado...

Fire and Snow

In June of 2012, my family and I were driving our old Toyota Highlander (loaded to the gills with household accoutrements) across the western plain of Colorado.  We were full of anticipation and excitement about what we would experience in our new call.  We were elated.  Little did we know that we would arrive in Colorado in the middle of the largest and most devastating fire ever to beset Colorado Springs. The date was June 26, 2012 (the night of The Waldo Canyon Fire).  Ashes literally rained down on our heads as we drove into town.

Tomorrow morning we will be officially leaving Colorado Springs in the middle of a historic snowfall on Mother's Day Weekend.  In Colorado, we have truly experienced:

Fire and Snow

I will never forget the moment when we first arrived in Colorado.  I called my wonderful pastoral predecessor on the phone and said; "Hi Jim, I can't wait.  I'm almost there!  I am almost in Colorado Springs.  I am so excited to be beginning my ministry there, among such a rich and wonderful group of Christ followers and believers." Jim said; "There is something you need to know.  Colorado Springs is on fire!"  I said, "Wow, amazing, you mean that the Holy Spirit is really on the move?  There is an in- breaking of a great opportunity for revival.  This is an Acts 2 moment?  The Third Great Awakening is about to happen!"  Jim said; "No, Graham...Colorado Springs REALLY is on fire.  Three hundred homes are just now burning down.  Lives are being upset.   It's just terrible!  This city really is on FIRE.  Get here quickly.  We need you here now!"  My incredible pre-, pre pastoral predecessor, John Stevens, would later say to me; "Graham, I have lived in Colorado Springs for more than 40 years, and this is the worst calamity to ever hit our city.  We need to you be a strong pastor in the midst of this.  This place needs God more than ever."

Fire

The ensuing months of my ministry in Colorado Springs would be an awful and epic melange of praying with family members who had just lost homes, ministering to people who had literally lost everything, helping a congregation in shock and grief to work through a great corporate and deeply painful personal loss.  It was….

Fire

Tomorrow morning, Star (my wife) and Haley (my 5 year old) and Sheena (my 1 year old), and my mother (a Saint of a woman!), will begin our official move and exodus out of Colorado Springs.  Weather reports are indicating at least 5 to 10 inches of snow on roads on May 11, 2014.  Tonight as I write this post, 6 cars are reported to have turned over and crashed as a result of the...

Snow

Fire and Snow!

What to say about this bookend polarity of a ministry?  God is all powerful.  God is ALL POWERFUL.  God invented one of the hottest substances in the sphere of this earth that we live upon - Fire.  God concocted one of the coldest substances that we experience in nature - Snow.  Fire and Snow can both be destructive agents.  Fire and snow can both be beautiful signs of God's love.

My simple life falls somewhere in between the two extremes of Fire and Snow.  When it boils down to it, like you I am just one person.  I am simply one man: a father, a husband, a pastor, a believer, a sinner, a follower, a son, a grandson, a friend.  God is the bookend of all of my life.  On the one end is Fire and the other end is Snow.  I am a delicate being that is mashed in between these two forces.  You are too!  The Bible tells us that; "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29).  In David's great hymnal, the book of Psalms it says, "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow."  We truly worship a God of;

Fire and Snow

All For Now,
GB