"There is work to be done..."

Last week thousands of friends gathered at Washington National Cathedral to celebrate the life of Charles Colson.  The media knew him as Nixon's Hatchet Man, known for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal, but the evangelical community knew him as the founder of Prison Fellowship, Angel Tree, Breakpoint, the Manhattan Declaration, the Colson Center....and the list continues.  There is no doubt that during the lowest season of his life, God redeemed him, transformed his mind, and changed him into a new man.  The legacy he left has transformed the way the Church views prisoners, serves the orphaned and widowed, and speaks out against injustice.

As I reflect on his life, I am reminded that God can and does use all of us if we allow him.  Even those that the world rejects, and the parts of our story that we'd rather forget.

Often, it is when we are at our lowest of lows,  the end of our strength, unable to get up and cry out for help that we realize the God of the universe has been with us the entire time nudging us embrace his love.  In that moment of darkness, Chuck had to chose to embrace God's forgiveness and let himself be transformed into something beautiful.  Into something only God could create from the ashes of his life.

“What will we do in the shadow of such an extraordinary role model? There is work to be done. … Seek the truth, defend the weak, live courageous lives.”  --Emily Colson, daughter of Chuck Colson

"My graces is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"...for when I am weak then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:9-10)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...For I am convinced that neither death no life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:28, 38-39)