The Good Nearby

"I may not have all the money to give you, child, but know this: I love you more than anyone in the world, and I want you to know you're special. You're going to do something important someday. It may not change the entire world, but it'll change the world of the people around you. You'll be the good nearby....People don't realize good is closer than they think...the good nearby." (excerpt from The Good Nearby by Nancy Moser)

I just started this book the other night, and it's really good. But the one thing that caught my attention was the way the grandmother spoke to her granddaughter about being the good nearby. After Pastor John's last couple of sermons on scripture memorization and abiding with the Lord, I got to thinking that the two are linked.

When God abides in you, you are able to be the good nearby. These past eight months have been difficult for Alex and I, difficult for our marriage, for our walk with the Lord, for our friendships. And yet, I don't think either of us would change a thing. We've done without, learned to live on little, and depend on the Lord like never before. And through it all there have been plenty of people around us as our good nearbys. Thanks to everyone who was our good nearby!

We've been challenged to be the good nearby for our families and brothers and sisters in Christ even more. Praying this year you would join us in offering a willing heart to the Lord to be used by Him in ways outside yourself to help those in need and those who are in difficult circumstances.

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him...if we love on another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 3:16-17, 4:12)