A man after God's heart

I apologize in advance for the weight of this week’s entry.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I talk about personal circumstances and this week’s entry is no different.

Last week my cousin who incidentally was also my first boss after I completed my undergraduate studies passed away. He had been living in Johannesburg, South Africa for the past couple of years and had been battling leukemia. Because he was more than just a blood relation and a workmate, I have been really deeply affected by his passing.

I remember that early on in my journey as his assistant, a missions group in a secondary city in Uganda took a chance on us and asked us to help them set up an Internet Service Provider to help them raise a sustainable source of income for their missions. Because neither of us wanted to live in that city, we decided that we would commute to and from the city and this would take anywhere from an hour to several hours depending on the traffic. It was during those times sitting in our little company car that he challenged me about my understanding of how God works, how he communicates with his people, the charge he has for his people to advance the kingdom of God on this earth… but mostly about my intimacy with God.

These talks in the car about intimacy with God really spurred me into a time of accelerated growth in my relationship with Jesus because prior to our talks, I had not realized that I had made myself so busy ministering, evangelizing and serving that I had substituted my relationship with God with the things that I did in his service.

Since moving to Canada a few years ago, I did not have the chance to visit him at all or talk with him as much as I would have liked, but he always held a special place in my heart and mind as a mentor and good friend that had come alongside me and helped me to grow immensely in my walk with the Lord.

Even though I have been deeply saddened by the news of his death, I know that he is where he truly wanted to be – at the feet of Jesus. More to that, I am once again challenged about my intimacy with God…

I know that it is slightly morbid to speak like this in our sheltered society, but I’ll say it anyway: I would like that when my time comes, it shall be said about me as I say about Andrew that he was a man after God’s heart. I would like my story to be that I passionately pursued an intimate relationship with God and held absolutely nothing back from him. I can say confidently that my cousin, Andrew, was a man that worshipped not just through a bunch of songs on Sunday morning, but through the life that he led day-to-day… I hope that I can live up to his standard.

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I feel I should digress a little bit right here and say this:

I know that some of us in the choir have recently lost loved ones or there are people (family and friends) that we deeply care about who are going through difficult health situations. I would like you to know that my heart and prayers go out to you during these times and that I feel WITH you because I myself have walked through such difficulty several times. My prayer is that peace and joy that can only be explained by an intimate relationship with Jesus shall guard your heart and mind in these times and that the strength of the Lord shall carry you.
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My constant prayer lately is that what we do in service for the kingdom of God on this earth in these days that we live shall be more than just routine. My prayer is that we shall transcend the limits and boundaries of what we have ever thought or imagined in our walk with God – as individuals and as a congregation – as we obey him and put our lives in his hand. My desire is that people will look back at us one day and know without a shadow of doubt that we were a people that hungered and thirsted for God and refused to let anything stand in the way of us and the experience of his glory, power and work among us.