a Servant, a Soldier, and the Savior

It was in a stuffy college dorm room in the fall of 2004 when I wrote a letter to my dying grandmother. My Nonny was 300 miles away and suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, sometimes referred to as a "silent killer" because early progression often does not cause symptoms. I wanted her to know how much she meant to me. I wanted her to know what she had done for our family. She loved God and showed it every day by the way she served and cared for our family, her church, and all who knew her until her time in this life was finished, just like Christ, a humble servant to the end. She handled what was before her with amazing grace. She told us she lived a good life and planned her funeral to celebrate it as such. She asked for a cage full of doves to be released at the cemetery during the burial. It symbolized her soul being set free. She was going home to her Creator, where the cancer that had her bed-ridden and suffering in the flesh was no more. Her soul rests peacefully now, for a new body awaits her, one that will never be broken. If her time in this life was only taste of all that God designed her to be, I can't wait to see her beautiful soul in the eternal glory of His coming Kingdom.

Nonny and I celebrating my high school graduation, shortly after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

It was in a large suburban church in the fall of 2011 when I met the former number three in the Bloods. Mrs. Law, or Mother Law as she is affectionately known in the city of Buffalo, grabbed my hand and pulled me into the sanctuary during the middle of service to meet a group of guys I would soon call friends for life. As for the former number three, that was Mike. He would be called many names in the culture I grew up in, but to me, he is a brother. When he struggles, I'm burdened, when he rejoices, I celebrate. Mike came to know Christ through a thread of people in his life that shared Jesus with him. When his younger brother, Anthony, became a believer through a basketball ministry, Mike found himself loved and covered in prayer by amazing servants of the Lord at Urban Christian Ministries. In time he left the gang and gave his life to Christ. Mike is soldier. He was a soldier in the Bloods, and a respected one at that. He understood chain of command. He recognized authority and respected it. He was a faithful soldier who took care of his own in a decade of service for the Bloods, but when he met Jesus, all authority in his life was trumped. Now he's a soldier for Christ.          

Mike and I at the bowling alley where we fellowship on Tuesday nights            

So how could these two people, who couldn't look any different from the outside, be so closely related to my calling in Buffalo?

I was recently turning the pages in my Bible when I asked God to bring me to a place of reflection and connection to all that has transpired in my life since He first called me to ministry. That's when I found myself reading a little story about a servant, a soldier, and a miraculous moment of healing in the book of Luke. Amongst those in the Christian faith the story is known as Jesus' healing of a centurion's servant, but upon further review a light bulb went off in my head and God connected the pieces as He so often does when we're in the Word and in prayer. 

When I first heard God calling me into ministry it was the fall of 2004. Yes, the same season of my life I wrote that letter to my Nonny, "a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued"(Luke 7:2). What I failed to mention was that Nonny did not pass in that season. In fact, she lived well beyond her expected time here. Despite an aggressive and advanced stage of incurable cancer at the age of 80, she lived for an entire year more. My family and I got to spend precious time with her soaking up sun rays and sipping on fresh fruit smoothies talking about God's beautiful creation in the summer of 2005. Although God did not completely remove the cancer from my grandmother, it was truly a miracle and answer to prayer that she was abel to be with us for as long as a year, especially when her days seemed numbered in the fall of 2004. Luke 7 verse 10 says "when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well" and so when I return home I'll look forward to seeing my Nonny all well in Heaven. 

As for the centurion, who said "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me"(Luke 7:6-8), he became a believer, just like Mike, a faithful soldier. Now Mike follows the Greater Centurion, the Sovereign Ruler, the King of Kings, the Savior Jesus Christ.