Endure: Building Faith for the Long RunSample

Made for kinship

I travel a lot for ministry. I usually spend around half the year away from my wife, son, and daughter. Last year I noticed the time away from my family was taking a toll on my son especially. My busyness had left a hole in my little boy's heart, and I needed to figure out how I could give him the quality time his heart needed.

I was scheduled to speak in July of that year at the Chestnut Mountain Ranch, a boys’ home tucked away in the mountains of West Virginia. My son had just gotten to the age where I knew he would sit still while I spoke and not hinder what I was being brought in to do.

It was exactly the trip we both needed. We had fun exploring all the Appalachian Mountains had to offer. We saw the massive New River Gorge Bridge. We hiked around the Gauley River and took pictures of river otters. We sang John Mayer’s Live at the Nokia Theatre album at the top of our lungs while we drove through the mountains. We had an absolute blast. We had fun, but we talked a lot too. We talked about what a boys’ home is and what it meant for the boys who lived at the Chestnut Mountain Ranch. We talked about why “religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).

These memories and lessons sear into the memory of my son, but so are the less spectacular rhythms of our family’s everyday life. We love the people that we know the best—spouses, kids, parents, college roommates, close friends—by taking deliberate steps to meet their needs and love them even when we have excuses not to.

That is why the call for discipleship in Deuteronomy 6:8 carries past the one-time teaching of God’s commands:

Talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Every day grants us the opportunity to talk about who God is and how He changes everything about our lives, but we must be watching for the conversational seams in our day to bring Him up.

Ministry and leadership happen at home before they happen anywhere else. Our chance to walk in gospel opportunities is dependent upon who we are and what we do when we are in the walls of our homes. The people we share our home with are those who witness our sanctifying walk with Jesus. They are the people who are there to cheer us on as we learn endurance. The people under our roof deserve to receive the best we have to give while they watch us live for the Lord we love.