We Are More

As I write this Monday Morning Memo, I am in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada assisting with the “More Than Gold” Winter Olympic ministry. During the Opening Ceremonies I was struck by many things, but maybe most profoundly by Canadian poet Shane Koyczan’s poem “We Are More” – a tribute to the Canadian people. I don’t know Shane, thus have no awareness of any faith he may profess, but he is very close to biblical truth with his line, “Knowing now that so many of us Have grown past what we used to be We can stand here today Filled with all the hope people have When they say things like ‘someday’ Because we are more.” Indeed, Christians, of all people, should say we have “grown past what we used to be” for ours is an ongoing pilgrimage of “hope” toward that eternal “someday” as well as a present-tense life with true meaning and genuine purpose. So let us “press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). As you watch the hours of Winter Olympic coverage this week and next or simply see or read news clips of it, be reminded with every mention of gold medals that “We Are More” – more the we used to be, living a life that is worth “More Than Gold.”

Join me in remembering the following global concerns:
• Pray for the “More Than Gold” ministry as well as many other Olympic-related ministries – Salvation Army, Youth with a Mission, Billy Graham Association, Olympic Chaplains, etc.
• Pray for the Mobile Ministry Team leading English classes this week in Ivano Frankiev which is in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine.
• Pray for a new Bible study group meeting in Skopje, Macedonia.
• As the official death toll from Haiti’s Jan. 12 earthquake matches that of the 2004 South Asian tsunami, continue to pray for relief work and workers.