In late December, 2019, my feisty and oh-so-wise friend Judy asked innocently, “Did you read the Seedbed Daily Text, by J.D. Walt,1 this morning?”
Now I’m a retired pastor of spiritual formation, having spent 25 years in four churches discipling believers and loving it. Judy and I both knew that I had a complete section in my library – and then some – filled with daily devotionals I had collected and recommended to my parishioners and Bible students for decades. And I had my favorites.
“No,” I replied. “I’ve not gotten into that yet. I’m doing R____ right now.”
Judy, who claims she is the world’s best confidante for a pastor “because you know I can’t remember anything from one day to the next,” actually has a whole lot sharper memory than she wants anyone to suspect. She knew perfectly well that she had gently suggested J.D. Walt’s devotional writings to me several times before. She knew equally well that I hadn’t delved them yet. We’d talked about it. I didn’t feel the need.
This time I caved.
“Really good, huh? Guess I’ll start that in the new year.”
And I did. And she was right. I desperately needed J.D.’s fresh, understatedly scholarly views on familiar Scriptures, his razor-sharp, himself-included dissections of our humanity, his vulnerability to life and its “stuff.”
Five months in, during a study of the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings, J.D. challenged his readers to memorize Exodus 20:1-17: the verses articulating what we call “The Ten Commandments.” Hmmm, I thought. I know them by heart…sort of. Guess I’ll see how well I know them.
It wasn’t as hard as I imagined it might be to memorize 17 verses. And of course, in verse 6, I ran smack dab into the first instance of God’s great promise that He would “show…love to one thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” That verse is the heart and soul, the theme verse, and ultimately the name of my website, www.onethousandgenerationsoflove.com. I had clearly sensed the Holy Spirit draping the name and concept over me in mid-2017.
The website has been plagued from the beginning by techno-glitches of gigantic proportions: notably, no internet in the many places we traveled during the first 2 ½ years of my retirement! Who knew? Besides that, posting problems galore reared their heads, especially when Facebook changed a long-standing policy. And I had been so excited about writing on the road!
Then I experienced a serious, two-and-one-half-month-long illness that began at the end of 2019: exactly when Judy (kindly) was challenging my spiritual dryness. Combined with my tech-ignorance, a major move to live nearer to two of our children, and a pandemic, by the first couple weeks of May I was beginning to conclude that what I thought was God’s inspiration – and direction — for an online ministry was really my own wishful thinking.
Then came a post from James, a ministerial colleague, also recently retired. He confessed that watching so many pastors stepping up to develop online worship services while our physical church plants are closed was tweaking his sense of lostness after a lifetime of giving out. He knew he needed to be using his (considerable, from my standpoint) writing and speaking gifts as a vital server in the Kingdom of God. He felt a nudge, he said, to get busy and get online.
His nudge nudged me. I’d already tried to enlist two tech-savvy young women as paid assistants: No go. Too busy. I understood. But I felt disappointed. Defeated.
Then Josh’s name danced around the edges of my dream. He did contract work for a friend (named John, if you’re as intrigued as I am by the surprising alliteration in this story) in another ministry I respect. No, I thought. Josh is really too busy to help me.
Try, the Spirit whispered. Call him.
I did. My need for website and posting help (it ain’t as easy as people make it look!) fit perfectly, he said, into his business model and time frame. His prices fit perfectly into my budget! And he lives in my favorite city in the world: Jerusalem. I hope to meet him on my next visit!
I normally choose to read modern versions of the Bible, but in this case a King James reference fits: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
And He continues to speak via His Son, Jesus’ faithful, obedient brothers and sisters…at sundry times, in divers manners.
So thanks to Judy in Dahlonega, GA; J.D. in Franklin, TN; James in Western NY state; John in Suches, GA; and Josh in Jerusalem, www.onethousandgenerationsoflove.com is back. Refreshed. Ready to charge ahead, buoyed by the wind of the Spirit.
And so am I.
- Seedbed is “a twenty-first century movement and media platform whose mission is to gather, connect, and resource the people of God to sow for a great awakening.” Powered by Asbury Theological Seminary, Seedbed publishes Bible studies, books, small-group studies, training courses, videos, podcasts, conferences and spiritual growth-oriented articles. Visit www.Seedbed.com for more information about the resources and the movement!
