Jim Barger, President, National Royal Ranger Council
"Serving Our Generation" is the theme for Royal Rangers in the United States for 1999. I sat in the airport the other day pondering this as I was perusing Second Corinthians.
As I got to the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, my eyes fell on 13:4: "For to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power. Likewise we are weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with Him to serve you." (Emphasis mine). I thought to myself, "What does that mean and what does God really expect from me? Occasional, casual service; or random, purposeful service; or full time, dedicated service?" I would suppose that each of us would have a unique definition that would fit in with where we’re at in Him and what we’re doing for Him.
Going to the latter part of 12:19 "…We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ, and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening." Oh my, does that describe my definition of service. Can I do that? I believe it was our Assistant General Superintendent Charles Crabtree who remarked, "It is said that to whom much is given, much is required, and I can also tell you that, from whom much is required, much is given."
I thought of my favorite poem, that I first ran across in a "Dispatch" in the mid 1970s. It was also Johnnie Barnes’ favorite and it was reprinted in the memorial edition of "Dispatch" after his passing. I‘ve tried to make it my personal "Mission Statement" as I go through life. It goes like this:
THE BRIDGE BUILDER
An old man going a lone highway
Came in evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim.
The sullen stream had no fears for him,
But he stopped when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting your strength with building here
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way,
You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide,
Why build you this bridge at evening tide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head,
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way
This chasm which has been as naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth might a pitfall be
He, too must cross in the twilight dim,
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
Finally I read 12:15; "So I will gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well." Does this define the service that I give?
Father; help each of us to build bridges in a manner that pleases You, expending our resources and our very beings in service to our generation. Amen
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