Interesting Question from Former President Kieschnick: “Miss Me Yet?” by Pr. Rossow

A year or so back former LCMS President Kieschnick started publishing a weekly e-mail letter. As an interested observer of all things LCMS I subscribed to his letter and still get his weekly postings. I read them with curiosity. This week’s post raises an interesting question.

Volume II Number 26
“Miss Me Yet?”

This past Friday I drove from home in Georgetown to a speaking engagement for the 50th anniversary of Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Dallas. The event was a great one, giving thanks to God for a half century of blessing at this very fine center of Christian education. It’s one of approximately 2,500 similar educational enterprises in the LCMS. On the way home Saturday morning on I-35 near Waco I noticed a billboard asking the question “Miss me yet?” A picture of the 43rd president of the United States was on that billboard, which had another question: “How’s that hope and change working out?”
 
Those questions provided pause for me to ponder the numerous scenarios in which such questions provide other people similar pauses for pondering. The issue is simply stated in the familiar phrase: “The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.” Whether applied to hopes for a more exciting marriage, more obedient children, a more understanding boss, a more fulfilling job, or a more effective leader, the quest for someone different or something better is a reflection of the reality that human beings are difficult to please and have unrealistic expectations that are fed by unachievable promises. The one exception is the statement of Jesus: “I have come that you might have life, in all its fullness.” (John 10:10) That’s a promise God deems worth keeping, bringing great blessing to us in receiving!
 
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always!
 
Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick

There aren’t too many things that I miss. I don’t pine much for the past. I suppose I do miss the glory days of Hayden Fry coaching the Iowa Hawkeye football team and his homespun witticisms, although the Hawks are not doing all that badly these days. I miss my first pet cat “Tom,” although his current stand-in “Happy Bob” is a fine specimin of the genus feline. Speaking of my childhood pet, back in the days of “Tom” the cat one could travel around the LCMS and consistently find our grandfather’s church. I certainly miss that.

What I don’t miss is an LCMS run like a business with countless programs initiated to manipulate growth in the kingdom of God.

What do you miss or not miss?

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