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From the desk of..
by Terry Griffin, Lt. Colonel –
As I sit at my desk considering what to share with you I realize it’s August and I’m getting the summer blues. Don’t worry, it’s not fatal, but it does happen about this same time every year. I love summer. I look forward all year for June to arrive so I can enjoy those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!” And in August I realize that winter is just around the corner and wonder…what happened to summer?
To top it off, this summer was the hottest in recorded history. Power outages, food spoilage, people dying, emotions flaring—all because of the heat. The one day I wanted to go fishing during my vacation it was too hot! The scientists and others tell us we are experiencing global warming. All of this added to my bout with the summer blues.
Summer flies by and it seems like only yesterday when we celebrated the “sending forth” of many of our people. New captains were commissioned and “sent forth” to their first appointments somewhere in the territory. Service Corps teams were “sent forth” to places like Germany, Italy, Taiwan, Zambia, South Africa, South Pacific Islands, and Las Vegas. Corps mission teams were “sent forth” to Mexico, Alaska and other exotic lands, and now they have all returned. Just like that, “sent forth” and now they have returned—but not the same as when they left. The Lord used each person to minister in their own special way, and through their experiences their hearts and minds were expanded and warmed to our “global God,” as were those of the people served who experienced hearing the good news of the gospel.
If you promise not to tell that I revealed this information, my wife and I are not compatible when it comes to temperature. I like it warm; she likes it cool. She turns the air conditioning lower, and I sneak behind her and make it warmer. This goes on all evening and you would think that I would know better by now. Hot and cold are more than words and depending on the circumstance, one or the other can have a significant affect on your life. Just ask those who live in Alaska and Arizona.
When you have the blues, it suggests you are cold on the inside. Something has caused the fire to go out. You are depressed, gloomy, and not much fun to be around. As I look around our wonderful, extremely diverse Western Territory, I see a mixture of summer blues and global warming. There are some who are experiencing the blues and some who are sharing the warmth of God’s global love.
It is my prayer that we will all experience the warmth of knowing Christ and share his love with those at home, next door, at school, at work, at church, and in those lands across the sea. When we understand and respond to God’s “sending us forth,” then we will see an end to the blues and a global warming that comes from hearts on fire and lives changed. Revelation 3:15 states, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other.” I think I’ll go turn up the thermostat!
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