Stuffing our schedules like a Thanksgiving turkey

Do you agree that sometimes we stuff our schedules like a Thanksgiving turkey … to appeal to our appetites for anything new, different and wonderful? We move on to the next bite of excitement too quickly … not savoring the wonder we just tasted …

The internet can tell you all sorts of reasons why your mom was right when she said, “chew your food” (avoid indigestion, burn calories) or how many times to chew (up to 30!). The Bible can tell you all sort of reasons you will benefit by not just gulping down the blessings that come your way (When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies. Ps. 119:59)

How about this . . . While chewing on that turkey this Thanksgiving, reflect a bit by going around the table and letting people identify some things they are thankful for in each person (but too easily take for granted). You might even do that for some missing family members as well. Then, if you want to take it to a more advanced level, ask if anybody would like to name something distasteful in their own lives that God, in his grace, has redeemed and somehow made them the better for it. Be ready to start that one off with your own personal reflection (like the apostle Paul did with his thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12:7-10).

Reflecting on our lives and thanking God for his blessings is a key to living a more satisfied life. God told his people through the prophet Haggai that the reason they found life so unfulfilling (and the “bag” they put their wages in always seemed to have a hole in it) was because they had neglected the place of worship in their lives (Haggai 1:4f).
Well, that is something Nancy and I will be chewing on this Thanksgiving … and reflecting on how thankful we are for each of you!

Quick Hits:
~We are reminding you of Giving Tuesday, November 28^th, but for us every day is a giving day … because of your generous and faithful support.
~Our August visit to Chicago was a rich time of fellowship with so many of you.
~After a very busy summer, September was a “catch up” month, and in October very exciting board meetings resulting in welcoming three new board members.
~Appreciate Muriel Elmer’s endorsement (above) after assessing one of our weeklong training modules.
~Please pray for this next week – several colleagues are coming to town to pray and to plan. Each day packed with prayer and strategic planning for Entrust teams … Asia briefing, executive team, communications team, Women-to-Women Ministry leadership team. 

This announcement from our daughter Jessica and her husband Joey says it well! So many of you have been praying with us for this miracle.

Our whole family echoes Hannah’s sense of gratitude and wonder. 

November 28 is Giving Tuesday, a day to encourage giving back by supporting charities. This is the fifth year Entrust is participating. Each dollar received on Nov. 28, toward our support or any Entrust project, online as well as funds sent by check (postmarked by Nov. 28 and marked for Giving Tuesday), will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to at least $21,000, thanks to the blessing of a matching grant. Each matching dollar will support the overall work of Entrust.

This year we are praying for $100,000 in total income for Entrust on Giving Tuesday. Last year God did so much more than we could imagine, with gifts that day (including the matching grant of $51,232) of just under $165,000! Thirty-four staff members and seven projects were blessed! You can choose from specific projects at varying donation levels. Full details are listed at www.entrust4.org/GivingTuesday.

Please mail gifts to:
Entrust
PO Box 25520
Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520
Enclose a note: "For David & Nancy Goodman, M125"
Thank you for partnering with us in ministry and for your prayers!

Apt Questions

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
     —RUDYARD KIPLING, The Elephant Child

What do you think of Kipling’s assertion about the critical importance of questions? Another way to ask this question (about questions) is this … is there anything worth knowing that does not answer a question?

I would say no. Even a truth you might judge unworthy of knowing, will answer a question. For example: “-40 degrees” answers this question, “At what temperature are Celsius and Fahrenheit equal?” I personally find that an interesting question, though I will likely have forgotten the answer in a week’s time. Others, like my wife, would say this is a useless piece of information. I could hardly disagree.

It is the importance we attach to the question a truth answers, that determines whether or not we care to know that truth.

I was once invited by some university students to accompany them to a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman in Chicago. As we waited in line, four people with megaphones approached and started blaring out the answer to the question, “How can you go to heaven instead of hell when you die?”

Is that an important question? I would say it is the most important question any of us ever face. The problem was, few in that line were inclined to ask that question at that particular time and as the spectacle continued they were even less willing to even think about it. Any communicator with an important, life changing truth to convey must first consider, “What question in the listener’s mind does this truth answer?” and, “How can I frame that question in a manner which will persuade the listener to consider my answer?”

Back to standing in line for the David Letterman show. How could those well-meaning and indeed brave evangelists have been more effective in that situation? Not easy. Pass out tracts, perhaps? Hmm … maybe, if they were cleverly written with Letterman-type humor. Or maybe they could have stepped into different places in line and struck up individual conversations utilizing probing questions, questions leading to hearing people’s thoughts, opening the possibility of sharing their own. It might have been difficult to find people willing to enter into conversation, but, we waited in that line a long time.

If a conversation (or presentation) about one’s eternal destiny is going to have an impact, Kipling’s “honest serving men” have to figure in somewhere. There is so much to know in this world, none of us has time for anything that doesn’t answer an intriguing question. Sometimes all we need is to have a question reframed in a way that leaves us searching. In the words of U2’s Bono, “We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.” (11 O’Clock Tick Tock, from Under A Blood Red Sky, 1983)

by David G. Goodman

Please mail gifts to:
Entrust
PO Box 25520
Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5520
Enclose a note: "For David & Nancy Goodman, M125"

Thank you for partnering with us in ministry and for your prayers!