Rod Smith, Lay Director
This morning I woke up with a song in my heart. It took me back to my childhood in the formal living room of my grandparents’ home on a small farm near McCauley, TX. I could hear the beautiful voice of my grandmother, Jessie Maude Maberry, as she played the piano and sang the chorus to Blessed Assurance.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Grandmother was a music teacher in the public schools and the choir director at First United Methodist Church in Hamlin, TX where I grew up. She taught us to love music, but more importantly she taught us to praise the Lord. She intentionally retired from teaching before my older brother, younger sister and I were old enough to be in her music class. Over the years, I have heard many stories of how she lived out her faith in the classroom. Later in life she began to lose her hearing and did not sing as much because she was afraid she would be off key. She did not realize that the Lord had firmly secured those old beautiful hymns in her heart so that she could continue to praise Him ‘all the day long.’
De Colores Community,
I am Rod Smith, and it brings me great pleasure to continue with you on the Walk to Emmaus as community lay director for this year.
Several years ago, I was invited by my brother-in-law to join a men’s group that met at 6 am on Friday mornings. Reluctantly I showed up for that first meeting with a group of men who I knew mostly through church. I was not sure what to expect, I mean seriously ‘men’ sitting around talking about churchy stuff was way outside of my comfort zone at the time.
My first thought was about how inferior I must be as I had not been in intentional relationships with others regarding spiritual growth, they must be much better than me when it came to eternal matters. Was I ever so wrong. Yes, we were all in different places in our lives, but we were all somewhat in the same place. Later I found out that several of the men in the group had been on a Walk to Emmaus, however; it was pretty clear to me that they were not pushing me at first to go on my walk. Over time the artificial barriers that I had placed around myself began to fall as I learned to trust in the relationships that were forming.
Eventually they figured out that I needed to be walked to the edge of the cliff and pushed off. Two of the men invited me to breakfast one morning and shortly after the coffee was poured a completed application for a walk was pushed across the table along with a pen and I heard the words ‘sign this.’ After going on my walk all I can say is I wish I had done it many years before. Not such a unique story is it after all, I bet many of you felt the same exact way.
Small groups, reunion groups in the case of Emmaus, are the greatest opportunity to remain connected with the community of believers, and the best opportunity to connect others with Christ. Our Lord and Savior set the example with the disciples as He intentionally led them in a new direction, and we should continue to allow Him to lead us as we grow in our spiritual lives. Please consider joining or forming a reunion group if you are not already a part of one, I assure you that you will receive many blessings in the process.
I was blessed to start the year off on the right foot with Candlelight and Closing for Men’s Walk #99 this past weekend. The testimony of the seventeen men who participated in the walk magnified the mighty work that God is doing through our community. Please join me in thanking Ty Askew, Winfield Davenport, the conference room and outside teams for their servanthood and leadership on this walk.
We have several upcoming events / opportunities to serve. Please be in prayer for each of these and be prepared to answer the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus as you are called to serve.
May Community Gathering
Thursday, April 6
Powerhouse Fellowship, 210 E 98th St, Lubbock, TX 79404
Kairos Outside – Kathy Carlisle, Director
April 7-9, 2016
Young Men’s Chrysalis Journey – Justin Smith, Lay Director
May 4-7, 2016
Kairos #37 – Kevin Ivy, Weekend Leader
May 18-21, 2016
In Christ love,
Rod Smith
