Scott and Angie Bentley

Thank you, JF! Wow, can I say I was blown away when the doorbell rang? The lilies are beautiful and a perfect reminder of Matthew 6:25-34 you wrote down.

Thanks for letting God love me through you today.

Scott perused over a document he’d just synced to his phone while I was driving us home from Lincoln. We’d enjoyed a fun appointment with a new friend and now, driving home, Scott had been making calls.

It was getting late, so the calls stopped and his never ending fascination with his phone resumed.

Keys clicked on the Blackjack phone. Tires crunched on the snow-packed roads.

“It’s amazing,” I said with a singsong-newlywed tone, “how we’re together almost 24/7 these days.” (Referring to our working-together jobs.)

“What’s amazing,” he said seconds later, “is that I can read a 33 megabyte file from my phone.”

Silence.

“Wow, I can’t believe you just said that,” I said shocked but not shocked. “You missed a potentially very romantic moment there, Honey.”

I couldn’t play mad; it was too funny.

“Scott, we have to write these down for future generations–things like this and the Halloween candy story.”

I have a feeling that many of our marriage communication foibles like this will involve conversations in moving vehicles.

What funny male v. female stories about communication do you have? We want to hear!

Women sprawled out all over the floor because we ran out of chairs. Forty-nine women indicated that they wanted to place their trust in Christ as a result of the Christmas Gathering outreach Sondra (right) and I hosted. (Cue angels.) Sondra baked an amazing spread of cookies and I talked about gifts (the giver, the recipient and the gift itself) and transitioned to Jesus being the best gift ever given.

Oh, wait. The cookies and the talk, that happened. But the 49 women? No. That was a dream. The reality was that 4 women came. And no lives were changed as far as I could see. Only four, Lord? I mean, really? We were so excited to see what You’d do in our neighborhood. Surely women are seeking this time of year? And we did everything “right” — Sondra hand delivered 40 invitations and talked with many of her neighbors.

What do we do with seeming failures and disappointments like this? My heart tends to sink and say, “I’ll take my ball and go home now. I don’t want to play anymore.”

And yet, was this a failure? When I stop and tell my feelings to hush for a minute, I realize it’s not. I know God is the God who leaves the 99 to go after the one. And there were 4 “ones” around our table. (See below.)

Since when have I become a superhero, equipped with x-ray vision to see hearts? I have no idea the extent of what God did on that cold Sunday afternoon in December. But I know one thing He did in mine: My self gets in the way too often. Truth be told, I want to see lives changed. I want to invest in things of great return. I…I…I. See the problem? I do. So God’s been challenging me to take on His strength and take my Angie self out of the way. To fix my eyes on Him and His purpose and timing.

Early on in my involvement with Campus Crusade I learned a definition of evangelism I think I’ve forgotten at many key moments (like the moment we closed the door after the last guest left): evangelism is sharing the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. (When in the Christian life has the focus ever been about me?)

Do you wonder if missionaries struggle, too? (Read a bookmark that really got my attention about pride vs. humility.)

Now a month later, I am so glad we stepped out in our neighborhood even if it didn’t turn out like we’d planned. We 6 had a great time laughing together and discussing opening the real meaning for Christmas. One new friend indicated she would like to be in a Bible study that Sondra’s starting. Who knows the rest of the story?

Tomorrow we’ll celebrate the life of Ethel Maree Shaneyfelt–known to us grandkids as Gram–tomorrow in Aurora, Nebraska. (I’ll leave my plaid seersucker pants at home.)

She was a grandma who sat through endless hours of softball innings, plays and screeching-violin concerts.

You are missed, Gram! I’m so thankful the Lord allowed you meet the man of my dreams and be a part of our wedding.