lesson from a 64-year old man

I went on a retreat this weekend with M29, the leadership team for Cru. It was fun to spend time with everyone I hadn't seen over the summer as well as get excited about what God has in store this year for Bible studies and freshmen outreaches. 

This morning, I woke up before a lot of people were out and about, so I went outside to sit on a rock and just spend time talking to God. I wandered into talking to Him about secret fears and frustrations with waiting on His timing in my life, and there were a couple things that seem like such a HUGE deal to me right now. 

Then, a man who was probably about in his mid-60s came up to me and said hi. He knew the family that owned the retreat center and had been there for about a week visiting and helping out. He started telling me stories about doing missions work overseas, and there were some really cool stories - like he got to pray with 900 people over an 8-day period to receive Christ! And then he told me that two weeks ago today his wife had died. They had been married for 48 years, since he was sixteen years old. And he couldn't really remember not being married. But he knew that his wife would want him to continue doing all the work that they had done together. They had kids in India that they supported and they helped out in orphanages. Before he left, he told me that the most important and most rewarding thing is serving God. There is nothing greater. I wanted to pray for him during this hard time of his life (tears filled his eyes as he was telling me about his wife), but he left before I got a chance to ask.

It really put my heart back into perspective - how I need to be following God and making an impact for Him above everything else. And all the other situations will fall in place in time.