Pastor Jay //

In 1993, before the NCAA II Cross-Country championship in Riverside, CA, 128 runners had reviewed the course and were now running the 6.2 miles of the race. At about the three mile mark, the lead runner made a wrong turn and Mike Delcavo of Western State College in Gunnison, CO noticed the mistake. He called to the other runners and was only able to convince 5 of them to join him on the correct route. The correct route was 3/4 of a mile longer than the route that the majority of the runners took and by the time the routes merged, the six runners were in last place. Delcavo, was the first of the six to cross the finish line, but was 6 minutes behind the other group. After the race, the officials declared the abbreviated route to be official route and Delcavo was given 103rd place even though he was the first to finish the original course. 1

Sometimes, living courageously means doing the right thing even though you may receive little recognition. Paul admonishes the church at Ephesus to “no longer live as the Gentiles do.” We are to follow a path that often has little reward in this life. But we follow this path because it is right, not because it is popular.

Join us as we explore the last half of Ephesians 4 during the month of September.

• “Courageous Thinking” (Ephesians 4:17-24)
• “Courageous Living” (Ephesians 4:25-30)
• “Courageous Forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32)

(Pictured is my friend Brian Evans in the Chicago Marathon this year.)

It was the summer before my junior year in high school - God was tugging at my heart. How would I respond? I had spent the last few years learning basic drafting skills and loved it. I had drawn blocks and widgets and now I was drawing a dream house. I enjoyed taking a blank sheet of paper and creating a precise drawing with those sharp lines. What kind of architect should I become? What would I want to build? Houses, offices, or highways? But God had other plans. He called His disciples from being fishermen to being fishers of men. I realized he was calling me from the drawing table to help build his church. God was revealing to me part of the plan of my life and I embraced it. There was not even a hint of resistance. I had known it all along, but had not received the call. God’s call confirmed what I already knew. I would be building lives. That was the summer of 1987. This summer, 20 years later, God reaffirmed that call to me. He said, “Preach the Gospel.”