Invitation

I write this as the first planes take off from LGA. I hear the trash truck slowing down to pick up the mounds from the sidewalk outside the building where we live. With coffee beside me, and the Bible open on my lap, I read, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have a little strength…” (Revelation 3:8).

Living for many years in a small apartment in a big city is not the life I expected. I didn’t anticipate that someday I’d fall down a subway stairs and break a leg, I could not foresee 9/11, the pandemic, and long COVID. Today my  husband is recovering from the surgery he had last week. I didn’t realize my rightness wasn’t strength, how my strong will would be crushed, and I’d see my nothingness without God.

The invite to gather with those who once served in the NYC Mission said, “Come just as you are.” Laurence and I get to ride Amtrak out of town today to honor this invitation. Thirty years ago, when this group worshipped together in a basement room in Upper Manhattan, we were young and strong. I’d have to laugh then as the youth sang, “We are going down the valley one by one.”

Even now I smile. We’re so much closer to Home today. Little did we realize all the brokenness life would bring all of us, how the hard things would open the windows of Heaven to us, and there would be joy welling within that the world knows nothing about.

Over thirty years ago while I sat on some steps beside a pecan orchard in Georgia, the Spirit whispered,  “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32). It was the call to the mission in NYC. It is understanding that I too was lost without Jesus. My strength is in him and him alone.

I’m excited today to be reaping the blessings of serving in NYC by meeting some of those who belong to the I Love New York Mission Club. We are going with little strength and just as we are.

Berniece

Thank you for reading. I never foresaw that I would have the privilege of writing for this audience.