Leading by Example
1 Chronicles 29
Morning, brothers.
Sacrificial giving doesn't start with us. It starts with the Cross. Our Savior laid down everything, His body broken, His blood poured out, for us. When we come to the Table and eat His flesh and drink His blood, we remember that death (John 6). This Holy Week, let's keep the Lord Jesus front and center, not just in the quiet moments, but all day long.
Lately I've been praying the Apostles’ Creed, the Glory Be, the Lord’s Prayer, and even the Hail Mary. Yes, I believe the saints are alive in Christ and can pray for us just as we pray for one another. All of it directed straight to the Lord my God. I won't overstate it, but I can tell you plainly: these prayers have brought a deep certainty of God's presence, a quiet sense of His protection, and real fruit of peace. The Rosary prayers work.
As brothers in Christ, I want to call us to lead by example. Nothing on earth compares to the wild, deep love of Christ's Passion. Yet we are called to follow Him in the same spirit, sacrificial living and giving. Look at King David in the Old Testament. Near the end of his reign, he gave from his own private wealth, his personal treasure of gold and silver, toward the building of the Temple (1 Chronicles 29:3). He didn't hold back. He led by pouring it out.
That's the kind of leadership our families need from us. Work hard. Give sacrificially. Give with no strings attached and no ledger in your back pocket. Give because you love. Put your money where your faith is. God delights in pure hearts, in open-handed generosity, and in motives as straight as a long Saskatchewan gravel road. Let's be the kind of men our Father examines and delights in.
I'm growing more eager these days to serve in an ecumenical way. I read John 17 and hear Jesus praying for us, that we would all be one, just as He and the Father are one. I want the Church to look more like that prayer lived out. My own prayer is simple: help me love people better, understand the faith more deeply, and share the Gospel more clearly, maybe even in Spanish one day. We'll see what the Lord our King does.
We are children of Almighty God. As such, we are called to know the one true God intimately, to serve Him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind (1 Chronicles 28:9). He is our Father, and He loves us like a father loves his own. More than we can measure.
When I watch my grandkids, the eight-year-old full of questions, the five- and four-year-olds building wild inventions, the one-year-old discovering his voice and vocabulary, I remember my own boyhood. I used to take simple toys, put them together just so, and lose myself in the wonder of action and adventure. There was a peace and great potential in that play. Now, at fifty-five, my play looks different: a round of golf, a walk through a museum, or turning over ideas about better corporate governance, history, theology (no serious theology stands long without solid history under its feet), and business management.
But here's the wonder: God sees every heart. He knows every plan and every thought. If we seek Him, we will find Him. Our loving Father takes genuine delight in our desire to know Him. He smiles at our childlike innocence and at the simple joy we take in pondering His goodness.
Don't get so important that you lose the ability to sit quietly, like a boy on the edge of a wheat field with a broad blue sky, and just enjoy God. This Holy Week, I'm choosing to do exactly that: happily ponder His mysteries, wait on Him, and delight in the wonder of it all, like a child with a new idea. Christ our King is coming back. We can bet the farm on that.
May everything we do this week show our love and devotion to our good God. And may we roll up our sleeves and work hard to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Please pray for our family, Meghan and Rachel are both expecting. Join me in praying for peace in our country and around the world.
Have a great day, men. Amen.
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