On A Bridge Over A Creek

 

 

Sixty years ago, sometime in the spring, I stood with my friend Tommy on a small bridge overlooking a wooded creek in the Twinbrook area of Rockville, MD. I took my New Testament and Psalms from my shirt pocket, opened it to Romans Chapter 8, and read aloud:

 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

My voice was excited as I read, and Tommy’s face glowed as he heard of God’s love for us. Tommy was my best friend, and as I was coming to know Jesus it was natural that I would share Jesus with him. A coworker at my after-school job had shared Jesus with me, it never occurred to me not to share Jesus with Tommy and others.

 

When I first read Romans 8 and its marvelous crescendo, I read it again and again and again. (I have quoted from the King James Version in this reflection, for the King James is what I first read in those early days). I couldn’t wait to see Tommy and read it to him.

 

That was 1966, today, in 2026, as I read Romans 8 once again, I am still excited. How many times have I read this passage? How many times have I quoted it? Times beyond number, perhaps as the sand of sea and the dust of the earth and the stars of the sky. This is one of my most-quoted passages to congregations, to small groups, and in conversations with individuals – it is as natural as breathing to me. I suppose I could say that it is my breath of life in Jesus Christ.

 

It is also what we seem to have missed. We’ve missed it in our churches, in our seminaries and Bible schools, in our small groups, and most certainly in our engagement with the world around us. We have missed the message that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

We have twisted and turned and traduced the Gospel into a worldview, into defective and murderous foreign policy, into nationalism, into sociology, into politics, into an industrial religious cash machine…into any number of things…and we have missed the sacrificial love of God for us in Jesus Christ and we have failed to communicate it to our people.

 

I am at the age where I get to write, “I have lived a long time,” and I will tell you this, the one thing people need to know, whether they are “church” people (God help them and us!) or folks who haven’t a clue about Jesus and religion, is that the Father and Jesus love them. I have never been in a congregation which didn’t need to know this, I have never taught or preached to a people who didn’t need to know this, I have never worked in business with others who didn’t need to know this, I have never had a neighbor who didn’t need to know this.

 

All of our theology, all of the sociology that we’ve imported into the church, all of our slick religious marketing, all of our music, all of the “stuff” we do so very well, means nothing unless we know the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. People do not need a better worldview, people need to know the love of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

If we knew the love of God in Christ Jesus, we would be aghast at much of our behavior, we would be shamed before our Lord and our fellow man…and we would be of some benefit to the people around us…we would offer them some hope.

 

There are those who think that when we read the Bible aloud that we ought to read it in a monotone, perhaps the way we’d read a technical manual. Frankly, that is crazy. If we can read Romans 8 in a monotone, then we have never received a love letter, a passionate Valentine’s Day card, and we ought to be checked for a pulse. The Father has given us the Bible to be our book, it began as His Book and He has given His Book to us…and it ought to possess us and we ought to possess it.

 

O dear friends, we are called to follow Jesus, to love Him with all that we have and all that we are and to share His glorious love with others. As a lad I learned Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

 

Is Jesus our love, our passion, our reason for living? Are we sharing His love with others? Do we realize how deeply God loves us? Are we living cruciform lives?

 

If Jesus isn’t everything, then Jesus isn’t anything (Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

Why not read and reread and then read again Romans 8:31 – 39? Why not make it “your passage” for the next 30 days? Why not allow it to live within you? Why not share it with others?

 

Who will you read Romans 8:31 - 39 aloud to?

 

 

More People Than I Can Thank...But I Can Try

 

I had a dream last night that Tim Winfrey and I were in an apartment association meeting in Richmond, VA. We were no longer active in the business, they didn’t expect to see us, and on reflection I imagine that they surely didn’t expect to see Tim because he has been in the Presence of Christ for a few years! Nevertheless they welcomed us and the leader of the meeting asked us to come up front and say a few words.

 

As Tim walked to the front and began speaking I jotted down a few notes on some scrap paper to guide me when my time came to speak.

 

When I started in the business, management was pretty much white, white from the community managers to upper executives, at least in the Baltimore – Washington area. I don’t recall seeing any people of color at industry meetings of executives. That has changed, to what degree I’m uncertain, but it has thankfully changed.

 

Also, when I began my career there were few women in upper management. Women were the community managers and many of them lived on-site, but few women managed portfolios. That has most certainly and thankfully changed.

 

Some things have probably not changed for the better, such as the institutionalization of the business, but this is true of business in general. Metrics have their place, but when they eliminate relationships and ethics and morality then we are well on the road to becoming zombies – but again, this is the world we live in; if we can call this “life.”

 

As I awoke from the dream I thought of dear Tim. Vickie and I had just been talking about Tim, about all the years we had known him. She was reminiscing about an industry event we attended in the early 1990s and about how much fun Tim had been that evening. Then, of course, I thought of his wife Shelly. Toward the end of my career, Tim, Shelly, and I worked together.

 

Then I thought of Letisa, and Ana, and Diane, and Debby, and Alethea, and Lucy and Tony, and Hilda, and Jim, and Robert, and Gloria, and Earl, and Joanne…and the faces and names came flooding into my heart, mind and soul. Well, actually, they didn’t flood into me because they were already in me. O how I thought of the joy and kindness Vickie and I have both experienced from these wonderful women and men over the years.

 

Of course you realize there is always a danger in naming names, for you are certain to leave someone out…but I’m not really leaving anyone out of my heart, I can just only write so many names at one time, names that span decades and joys and challenges and bright days and dark days and days of “getting it right” and days of “getting it O so wrong.” Days of providing (I hope) a good example, and then days I’d rather forget when I was a total ass, a complete and total ass.

 

I should do better at thanking people, at touching base with those still with us and thanking them - I won’t be here forever. I want them to know that they’ve made a difference in my life, a beautiful difference. They’ve been God’s gifts to Vickie and me, God’s gifts…ain’t that something?

 

Can you ever thank someone too much? Or tell them you love them too much?

 

What about you? Who are the people in your life you are thankful for?

Have you told them lately?

Just Showing Up

 

These past few weeks have been trying, a crucible, and a Holy of Holies. The season continues (though in a different “key”), and as it continues Vickie and I continue to trust our Lord Jesus. We have a friend who was once in a small plane crash, I remember him telling us that the adrenalin was such that he could see the propeller turning in slow motion, he was tracking the rotation of the individual blades. Many of us have had experiences when we’ve gone from black and white to Technicolor (to borrow an image from the Wizard of Oz).

 

I have never entered a hospital room knowing what I was going to say, not once. I have never gone into a hospital room, or visited an ill person at home, even thinking what I was going to say. I have, however, entered hospital rooms knowing the two things I wanted to do; be the Presence of Jesus and pray with people. Jesus, of course, was already in the room and I needed to pay attention to Him, to the sick person, and to any others who might be in the room.

 

Over the years, when being with people going through hardship, sickness, entering the portal of death, enduring suffering, I have learned that I can confidently speak to them of God’s love for them with every beat of His heart, and I can say to them, “Your heavenly Father and dear Lord Jesus want to reveal themselves to you through this, they want to show you how much they love you. I may not understand anything else, but I know they desire to walk with you through this and for you to know their Presence.”

 

If the person has not yet met Jesus, only God’s love can change that. If the person does indeed know Jesus, only God’s love can comfort them. For sure, this love must flow through us as well, we must be the incarnation of the Message.

 

I am not called to “fix things” in people, or to medicate their difficulties or participate in deadening their senses. I am called to point them to Jesus, always to Jesus…and so are you.

 

Now of course you realize that we self-medicate all the time. We revert to “positive thinking,” to “mindfulness,” to food, to media (television, streaming, social media), to any number of activities that keep us away from our Good Shepherd who wants to embrace us and carry us and draw us ever closer to Himself. Even things labeled “Christian” can distract us from looking Jesus in the eye and allowing Him to speak to us; let us not forget the lesson of Martha and Mary.

 

A passage that has held deep meaning for Vickie and me over the years is 2 Timothy 1:12:

 

“For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

 

Vickie and I actually believe this, our lives are built on this, and in the midst of uncertainty and fear and disorientation – Christ, as expressed in this verse, is our assurance. As Fanny Crosby wrote, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory Divine!”

 

Yes, I was frightened when I thought I was losing Vickie in my arms. But remember, I was having three out loud conversations simultaneously; one with Vickie (trying to get her to respond), one with the wonderful 911 dispatcher, and one with Jesus.

 

It is okay to be frightened, it is okay to be tired, it is okay to be disoriented – because our dear Lord Jesus is with us and He will never leave us, never, never, never. We don’t need to fix things for ourselves or for one another; we do need to be there for one another. We don’t need to understand “why,” hopefully we will know His love and the love of others.

 

Let me put this another way. I recently had a conversation with a neighbor who was telling me about a difficult situation her family is facing. I asked her, “What do you sense Jesus saying to you through this?”

 

She replied, “He wants me to have more patience.”

 

As I pondered her response, which is pretty much a stock answer we may have all used at one time, it occurred to me that there may be something else for her to consider. Perhaps Jesus wants her to look at Him, to see His patience, to see how patient He is with her, to see His Presence in her life; so that she in turn can be transformed into His image and be His Presence in the situation her family is facing.

 

I will, the Lord willing, share this thought with her the next time I see her.

 

Do we “know whom we have believed”? If so, then we can be assured that He will keep us and we can assure others that Jesus will keep them.

 

Jesus has been with me during every hospital visit to care for others; yes, it has been working without a net, but isn’t that the way we are to live in Him? Trusting Him, always trusting Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing, absolutely nothing (John 15:5)?

 

We can trust Jesus to teach us to be there for one another. We don’t need to give advice. We don’t need to make things better. We just need to be there.

 

Another neighbor once said to me, “Bob, you know a friend is someone who shows up, who just shows up.”

 

Yes, I think that is true. Jesus shows up, and we ought to show up…and for sure we are thankful for those who show up for us.