THE DANGER OF
D R I F T
Peter Greer & Jill Heisey
It’ s been two decades since I heard my grandfather’ s wooden casket clunk against earthen walls, but I vividly remember the details of cemetery staff lowering his body into the ground. The graveside service had ended, and our family overstayed, not yet ready to say goodbye to this precious man whose prayers and life consistently pointed us upward.
My grandfather spent his life shepherding a small Philadelphia congregation, impacting others’ lives with little fanfare and great faithfulness. At his memorial service, those who came to remember him described how he prayed with conviction, played with joy, loved without judgment, and truly cared for people. In summary, his life was one marked by loving God and loving neighbor. He lived on mission and finished well. I have no doubt that he heard the words,“ Well done, good
and faithful servant”( Matthew 25:23).
Though I’ d gained professional clarity on HOPE’ s mission some years earlier, my grandfather’ s funeral offered personal clarity. It forced me to follow the rather morbid recommendation of the sixth-century abbot Saint Benedict:“ Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die.” 1 My grandfather’ s life and death offered an invitation to pause and consider where my priorities and daily decisions might be leading.
Growth and advancing HOPE’ s mission had become so important to me that I was regularly giving God and my family my leftovers. Time in prayer and study of Scripture were marginalized and— in practice, if not in lip service— less vital than all the“ important work” I had to do.
42