Sunday 12/2/12 Milwaukee International Airport I am in Milwaukee watching the Green Bay vs Viking football game. It just doesn’t get more American than that. This weekend I flew to America’s heartland to visit a friend. This is her birthday weekend and I wanted to celebrate. But more than that, I needed some face time. Face time is a term I have borrowed from a friend back home. In this world of electronic messaging and electronic socialization, it is wonderful to spend time with a friend face-to-face. Some may think it crazy to travel over 1200 miles in 2 days. I consider it a small sacrifice. I needed to hear her familiar voice. I needed to see her face. I needed to put my arms around my friend and squeeze. I needed to spend time with her. This morning I attended New Hope Fellowship Church with her family in the small farming community of Rochelle, Illinois. The pastor’s message echoing similar thoughts in my own heart. Did he know I was already planning to write a post titled “Face Time”? Of course not, but God did. As I sit beside my friend, I gently elbow her when the pastor says “A relationship is built by investing time, both quality and quantity time. Without either the relationship with fail.” Wide open spaces and a vast blue sky guide me back to the Milwaukee airport. The rural landscape is dotted with red barns and massive silos. Flat fertile farm land as far as the eye can see. You can think in this place. I mean really T.H.I.N.K. The roads are flat and straight and there is nothing to distract your thoughts. I don’t know, but it seems to me the wide open spaces allow my lungs to completely inflate. I look out at the fields all around me and I want to run in those fields. Just run! With my arms open wide, I want to take dance in circles in those fields. A dance of praise, thankful for all that God has blessed me with. This morning the pastor challenged the congregation to search our own hearts and rate our investment in our relationship with God. As I drive along I94 towards Wisconsin God speaks to my heart. I am reminded that He too wants face time with me. A notion that is inconceivable, but true. God did something even crazier than traveling to the Mid-West and back in 2 days. He sent his son. Jesus stepped out of heaven to be born in a feeding trough. He led a perfect life of loving and serving others. It is because of a relationship with Him that we have hope. It is because of a relationship with Him that we can go to heaven. Believing in Jesus is not a bunch of rules, it is about having a relationship. Following Jesus begins with face time with our God. ~April “May you and I be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:12
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