My grandpa is one of the biggest role models in my entire life. I have spent the better part of my childhood learning bad habits and good habits alike from him. Growing up I spent most weekends and practically all of my summers at his house fishing and just being a kid, which entailed getting poison ivy and trying to catch any animal with fur (sometimes simultaneously).<\/p>\n
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Being around him made me learn some things about him that aren\u2019t apparent when you first meet him, like his nickname is Toots (which I still have never learned why).<\/p>\n
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I learned early that my grandpa loves to tell stories, but not the \u201ccome sit and listen\u201d types of stories. He would take me to old automotive shops and diners where his friends would be and I\u2019d hear all about how they used to be rambunctious kids who eventually got caught up in a World War, and then he\u2019d tell THE<\/em><\/strong> story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He always told, and still tells, the story of how he traveled around Europe on train patrol during WWII. I\u2019ve heard this story so many times that my eyes glaze over and I pretty much wait for him to hit the punch line. Whenever he gets to a certain point I rejoin the living and smile at my grandpa to let him know it was a good story, but in the end it\u2019s just an old story that is useless to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You know what I\u2019m talking about. There\u2019s probably a story that you\u2019re thinking about right now. The first time you heard it there was an excitement and a little bit of mystery to it. The story was fresh, new and even gave you something to tell others about, but eventually the excitement wore off and it became old news. So you forgot about it. You left the story behind and moved on to a new story to tell.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s the way most of us who grew up in Christian homes view the gospel, as an old story. It\u2019s just something we hear every Christmas and a few other holidays of the year. All you have to do is let your mind drift off to somewhere else and wait for the pastor to say \u201cand after the third day, he rose again from the dead!\u201d Then smile and look a little shocked so people think you really are impacted by the significance of that statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Good for you. You pat yourself on the back and tell yourself you\u2019ve taken your dose of the gospel for a while. Thank God for what the story was talking about and move on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve been there. I\u2019ve sat in the same seat and scoffed at the idea of living by the example of an old story.\u00a0 I viewed the Gospel like I\u2019d viewed my grandpa\u2019s story, as a useless myriad of words that I\u2019m tired of hearing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you glaze over during sermons because they are boring, or get tired of reading the Bible it\u2019s because you don\u2019t know what the Gospel is. It\u2019s because you\u2019ve never fully realized what you are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Gospel for me represents hope, hope that will never be taken away from me. It\u2019s a story that I wholeheartedly believe is worth hearing again, and again, and again. It\u2019s THE<\/em><\/strong> story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m sure this probably isn\u2019t going to change your heart, it\u2019s not supposed to. It\u2019s not the Gospel. What I hope this does is that it wakes you up and gives new life to that old story you\u2019ve been hearing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My grandpa is over 80 years old now. He has lived his life fighting diabetes and now his mind is getting clouded. When you talk to him sometimes his mind doesn\u2019t comprehend what you\u2019re saying and his responses are odd. It\u2019s really hard to see him that way. I think about when he used to drive me around and tell me all kinds of things that he used to do as a kid. Now he doesn\u2019t tell many stories anymore. He is not the same as I remember.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n