LEAD ME TO MY ROCKING CHAIR Lent Devotion #24

SCRIPTURE: John 5:36     “I (Jesus) have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.” (NIV)

REFLECTION: The late Mrs. Grim was 94 years old when I interviewed her for a newspaper article. Her claim to fame was 57 years of service to the Salvation Army, a record in Uniontown if not in the Western Pennsylvania Division of the organization.

She couldn’t understand why I was interviewing her. She had done nothing special, and she felt like she was bragging when I had her talking about her life. Yet, the work she was finishing testified to the fact that the Father had “sent” her.

Through the years, she had played the E-flat tuba, an instrument that outsized her and made a great impression on her listeners. She began playing the instrument when it was handed to her and her children taught her. She’d never played an instrument before.

Even after a bout with throat cancer, which was supposed to take away her voice but didn’t, she played the brass horn. She quit at age 89, when she no longer had the strength to get the notes out.

For many years she collected monies for the Salvation Army, sometimes standing outside a department store ten hours a day. In her final days of bell-ringing, she put in five hours a day. She quit at age 89.

She went to bars on Saturday nights to collect money in an upturned tambourine.

Throughout the years she continued her activity in the Salvation Army church and its programs. She also worked in the soup kitchen and served when the Salvation Army was called upon for emergency assistance.

Will you continue your tasks that testify the Father has sent you as long as possible, or will you sit in an easy chair during your golden years, figuring you’ve earned your rest?