Visiting a Miracle
Have you ever had the opportunity to talk with someone who has just experienced a true life saving miracle?
Denise and I did this past Sunday when we met with Heather and Jeff Perry in a Starbucks in Carmel, IN. In October Heather was in a coma lying in a hospital ICU as medical staff worked to figure out why her body was shutting down.
The Perry’s literally stood toe to toe with death but God rescued Heather through miracle upon miracle (I won’t share Heather’s story, it’ll be her privilege to do so one day). As Jeff and Heather shared their story and their incredible faith in Christ as well as the faith of family, friends and acquaintances, for a moment, that table in Starbucks became holy ground.
As we talked we began to discuss two questions which I’m continuing to wrestle with.
The first question’s simply “how do people come toe to toe with death, staring it right in the face, without believing in or having a relationship with God?” Maybe I’m just weak but I can’t fathom it. Not because I’m particularly afraid of death but because without God neither death or life has any meaning. As Francis Schaeffer once said, “without God we’re just time + chance + matter.”
The follow-up question is “how does a person come toe to toe with death and then walk away doing so without believing in God?” Trying to answer the existential and metaphysical questions that would naturally arise from having a near death experience would drive me crazy without the foundational knowledge of God.
Yet the overriding feelings Denise and I had as we left the Perry’s was simply a deep gratitude for God’s graciousness and awe of His mighty power in Heather and Jeff’s life. We accepted it as an early and beautiful Christmas gift.
Telling the Story
This past week I had the chance to do a part of my job that I just love – telling the SpringHill story by giving golf cart tours of our camps. Actually I got to do it twice. The reason I love doing tours is because we don’t just show off our property, instead we use the property to “tell the story” and show how we create the SpringHill Experience.And what made these two tours even more fun were the people I had the chance to share the SpringHill story with.
The first tour was with my former boss, mentor and longtime friend from Steelcase, John Fynewever. He made an effort to reconnect with me by offering to ride his Harley up to Evart to see SpringHill. I learned more from John about organizational leadership than anyone else I worked for at Steelcase. So for part of our tour I was able to share with him how we’ve implemented many of the leadership practices he taught me.
The second tour was for my parents and their life-long college friends Art and Judy Koller and Ken and Jeneanne Reasor. Like John, the Koller’s and the Reasor’s have never been to SpringHill and didn’t know much about our work, so the tour provided me an opportunity to introduce them to SpringHill.
My Mom and Dad (left) with the Reasor's and Koller's Because my goal for any tour’s for people to understand SpringHill I look to see whether at some point they “catch” the essence of our ministry. I know this is happening because people will start to anticipate what I’m going to say at a given stop on the tour. Thankfully in both cases I believe we meet the goal.
So as summer comes to a close it blessed me to be able to “tell the story” to longtime friends and in process, maybe make new friends for SpringHill.
