I know many of you have been waiting to hear what the good folks at the Guinness World Records said about our climb with the cross to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Here is a snippet of their letter:
Dear Walker,
Unfortunately, what you have achieved with your team, albeit an excellent feat, cannot be recognized by Guinness World Records because it would be too difficult to replicate… Thank you and we hope you understand.
Yours sincerely,
Johanna Hessling
Guinness World Records
Now, isn’t that a hoot? My team and I accomplished something that Guinness World Records thinks would be too difficult to replicate. Isn’t that the point of a world record?
It must be difficult to do, or every Tom, Dick and Ralph would be wearing a medal around his neck saying, “World Champion.” But the real point of my carrying the cross wasn’t to get a medal or recognition but to say thank you to Jesus for giving me an incredible 40 years of ministry.
In my heart, I know I’ve set two world records: one for climbing higher with a cross than anyone else, and a second for having the world’s cutest grandson. The first record is debatable; the second isn’t. So what’s next?
For the rest of this year, I’ll be working on my next book. I have to have it to the publishers by the end of the year, and it will be out in the spring of 2014.
I’m not sure what its title will be, but I believe it will help many fathers. So if you go to your prayer closet and have nothing to pray for, you can pray for me and all those who are involved as we get this project to press.
I also want to give you a little preview of the book’s contents. It will discuss how the Fall of man affects our identities, our purpose, our families and ultimately, our lives. What was God’s perfect intention for the role of male and female? And how does God insert Himself into His creation?
You see, when God created the earth, He wanted everything to reflect Him in some way. When He looks at a leaf hanging from a tree, He sees a part of Himself in that leaf. Each drop of water that falls from the sky reflects His Glory.
And when God decided to create male and female, He wanted the same thing: that His creation reflect Him. So God imparted his masculine attributes to the male.
We see these attributes reflected in every little boy. Put two six-year-old boys in a corner, and hand them each a stick about three feet long, then walk away. You know what will happen. At first, they just tap the sticks together. But before long, the tapping escalates into a full-fledged sword fight.
Each boy is reflecting the masculine attribute of God the Warrior. And when God sees that warrior spirit flow from His male creation, He sees Himself in that young boy. The creation is walking out the way God created Him, and it is very good.
But God also wanted to put Himself into the creation He called female. Here, God imparted His feminine attributes. I can prove it to you. Take a roomful of women and have someone carry in a brand-new baby. Every woman there will make the same sound with the same tone: “Aaahhhhh.”
How do all those women from different backgrounds and with different lives make the same sound with the same tone? And why would every woman not only make the same sound but want to hold that precious newborn? Because every woman holds within her the attribute of nurturing, reflecting the feminine attributes of God.
When we learn the original intent of the Creator and how He imparted Himself in His creation, we begin to understand our identities as male and female. And what was God’s intention in all this? That when a man and woman come together in holy matrimony and the two become, as the Bible says, “one,” the masculine and the feminine attributes of God would join together to surround a child with all the attributes of God.
That means a child who has the opportunity to interact with both a mother and a father experiences the wholeness of God. Isn’t it incredible that when a man and woman marry, they bring something together that was determined at creation? And when they do, they are replicating … Him.
I wish I could tell you more, but you’ll have to wait until the book comes out. Until then, I’m thinking maybe I could get a Guinness World Record for writing this article for nearly 750 consecutive weeks.
Nah, they’d probably say the same thing: “Too difficult to replicate.”
