Gratitude

by Gary Corwin

The Christian life begins as the Spirit of God grants us recognition of our guilt, followed by a work of grace received by faith in the finished work of Christ. It is completed on this earth by the response of a life of gratitude, which in turn is a foretaste of the glory we will ultimately experience in God’s presence. Of that fourfold process—guilt, grace, gratitude, and glory—the part that is perhaps least understood and embraced is gratitude.

The Christian life begins as the Spirit of God grants us recognition of our guilt, followed by a work of grace received by faith in the finished work of Christ. It is completed on this earth by the response of a life of gratitude, which in turn is a foretaste of the glory we will ultimately experience in God’s presence. Of that fourfold process—guilt, grace, gratitude, and glory—the part that is perhaps least understood and embraced is gratitude.

That shortcoming is too often true as well of our responses to God’s providential leading, and to our earthly relationships. This piece is an attempt to push back on my own shortcomings in this area.

In 1994, I had a growing conviction that more needed to be done to build bridges between mission agencies, churches, and training institutions. I shared my burden for this with SIM leaders at the time and they graciously gave me a long leash to see what could be done. Besides becoming more involved in a number of relevant church and mission boards, and serving in various leadership positions in the Evangelical Missiological Society, I also became an associate editor of EMQ. 

Jim Reapsome, the founding editor and managing director of EMQ, who I had come to know and appreciate as a kindred spirit, was brave enough to take me on not only as associate editor, but also as a regular writer of a commentary column which has been known as Second Look. I confess that it has been a wonderful outlet for exorcising “the burrs under my saddle,” as Jim once expressed it. That was 23 years ago and I will forever be grateful to him and to the Lord for giving me that opportunity. Hopefully, it has also been of benefit to some of the readers. Thankfully, there is at least some anecdotal evidence to that effect. 

Jim passed on to glory this past summer at the age of 89 and will be missed by all who knew him. He was a good friend as well as a mentor to me, and I believe a better one would be impossible to find. He and his wonderful wife, Martha, even housed and fed me for the several days each month as I would come to Wheaton when I served as editor of EMQ (1997-2001), after Jim’s retirement from the position.

It was also during this period that Dr. Ken Gill played a very important role in my life. He was the deputy director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College at the time and he mentored me as a new editor through the nuances of functioning in that context after the BGC stepped in to provide a new administrative home for EMQ. He has always been a good friend and I will forever be grateful to him. While I can’t name everyone, two others who were also a great encouragement and help to me during those years was the EMQ office manager, Jean Warren, and Dona Diehl, who was and remained the graphic designer ever since.

When it became clear to me in 2001 that I could no longer do justice to the role of EMQ editor and to my commitments to SIM and related involvements elsewhere, I tendered my resignation to take effect within the next six months as a replacement could be determined. I prayed earnestly during this period that God would bring forward the person of his choice that would love the job and thrive as editor, and I secretly hoped that Professor Scott Moreau might take on the role. 

When he did, I was thrilled, and the icing on the cake was that he even asked me to continue on as associate editor. This was a deal I couldn’t refuse: I got to continue doing the things I most enjoyed (writing my column and proofing articles) and he dealt with all the hard stuff.

Scott has been a good friend and a great and multi-talented editor to work with. Laurie Nichols has likewise been a gem in her role as managing editor and chief cheerleader for EMQ, along with her other roles in the BGC. She, like her predecessor as managing editor, Stan Guthrie (for many years now with Christianity Today) are consummate professionals in what they do, and passionate followers of Christ.

It has been a joy for me to be a part of EMQ for the last twenty-three years, but it is time now for me to retire as associate editor and column writer. Overall, retirement is not far off now, and I had been wondering for a while when I ought to cease writing my column. 

I had promised the Lord a long time ago that I would do so before the well ran dry, but was not sure exactly when that should be. When it looked until very recently that this was going to be the last issue of EMQ, my problem seemed to be solved and I had and still have peace with it. I am thrilled now that EMQ will be transitioning to management by Missio Nexus. This is back to its founding roots really in what used to be the missions associations of IFMA and EFMA, and I am confident the folks at Missio Nexus will do a great job.

My heartfelt thanks go to all our readers, and to all my EMQ colleagues who have put up with me all these years.

Gary Corwin is staff missiologist with the international office of SIM.

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EMQ, Vol. 53, No. 4. Copyright  © 2017 Billy Graham Center for Evangelism.  aAll rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMQ editors.