I couldn’t let this day go by without taking the opportunity to honor my best friend . . .
There are many, many things that I could write about him, the tricky part is where to begin.
I met Greg when we were somewhere right around middle school age, but it was really 10th grade when I began to know him as a friend. We went to rival high schools and I thought that I recognized the guy dishing out the fouls on the opposing team during a basketball game. Sure enough when I got to youth group that weekend and talked to him about it, it was him! From then on we became close friends and hung out together with the same small group of church friends through out high school. It has been such an exciting opportunity for me to see how God has grown Mr. Aggressive on the basketball team (I’m told that’s what happens when you put a soccer goalie on the court) into the humble man that he is today.
One thing that stands out to me very clearly about my man is his humble spirit. Greg is very quick to listen and take teaching or correction to heart. I remember a debate we had in college over some theological issue. I was assured that I was right and finished the conversation by putting a mental tally mark under my name. Days later, Greg brought up the topic again and very humbly shared with me the HOURS of research that he had done over several days (which proved me wrong, by the way . . .). He wasn’t trying to win the debate, but rather to learn truths about scripture and apply them to his life. I am so blessed to have him lead me in my relationship with him and with the Lord. And he gets to practice this type of humble leadership quite often as we are both very competitive and he is usually the one that is right =)
Another way I see his humility displayed is in how he ranks his priorities. Greg is very talented in many areas, one of which being his musical giftings. He’s been invited numerous times to play with bands for worship or small shows and he is always faithful to consider first how it will effect our time together or commitments he’s made to other friends rather than being caught up in how exciting and fun it is to perform for other people. In my pride it’s a little difficult to understand why he would say no to playing on the worship band at a large conference, but I know that the Lord will continue to send these opportunities his way as he proves faithful in the smaller areas of service.
One of those commitments that Greg has planned around is a twice-monthly disciple group that he has been a part of for several months now. He diligently works to plan our weekends around these Saturday morning meetings to ensure that he can make this time with other godly men from the church to be held accountable in his growth and walk with the Lord. They have a good deal of reading material to go through for every meeting and if you know Greg, that in and of itself is a HUGE sacrifice. Greg tends to be a slow reader for the simple fact that he does not really enjoy reading; but week after week he takes his stack of books into work to read on his lunch break. A few times he’s even stayed up very late to get the reading done and still woken up at 5:45 in the morning to have his quiet time before work. Greg, you are such an example to me!
I love my husband and he is truly my closest friend.
I am looking forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you . . .
Well, I've been hearing from a couple friends that they'd like to see pictures of Spartacus in his tent. I have the distinct feeling they are asking this so that they can tease me even more, but I'll oblige anyway . . . =)
