Rich in Poverty

It was a wonderful weekend in Princeton with the Gotham Fellows from Redeemer NYC!  (see the previous post)

And while it was great to be with such talented and energized young(er) people, and while it was uplifting to make new friends with the Redeemer staff who lead the Gotham Fellowship, and while it was AWESOME to be at Princeton Theological Seminary (a mecca in days gone by for theo-nerds such as myself... more later), none of those things are what made it such a great weekend.

On Friday, Jennifer sent out a prayer request with a link to this blog to our prayer team.  Over the weekend I literally received over a dozen short e-mails telling me that people were praying for me, offering great gospel quotes (thanks Jack!) and even offering very moving written prayers for my time away.  I honestly have never felt so rich in terms of friends, and prayers for my poor, tired, weak soul.  It was glorious to be weak enough, to truly need the ministry of others, instead of seeking to be strong in order to minister to the Redeemer folk.  Even the times of worship were extremely powerful and moving for me as I was continually drawn back to the realities of the cross, knowing in my heart of hearts that there were people out there beseeching the Holy Spirit to work in my life in just that way.

I'll post again in a little bit some more about the actual event--which went very well, in case you were wondering.

But my over riding memory is being in a place of tremendous wealth, power, prestige and theological heritage as a beggar with nothing to offer and having friends who were scattered around the country praying for me so that in my spiritual poverty I would be weak enough to point people to the riches of Christ Jesus.  It was wonderful.

Thank you.  Thank you for ministering to me, and in turn, ministering to those that I walked with this last weekend.