He is seventy seven. He is still sprinting in that great race of following Jesus. Oh, he can't really sprint anymore and, in fact, has walked with a hitch in his gate for years after an accident at work. I love that guy. His name is Bruce. He buried his wife in the last year. But he is still going. But there is a reason why. He is just keeping up an old habit. He and his wife sprinted all of their days.

Their sprinting of choice was investing into other people's lives. They made friends for the kingdom out of their kitchen with Bruce's pancakes and that Maple Syrup he had boiled down in his sugar bush. Those Michigan Hard Maples are all right. He and his wife were always simple folks with a deep faith in Jesus, just always investing in others.

Every fall we would pack the car and head out to their home with our kids. We would go back to the Apple Orchard and pick some apples and come up and drink some warm cider and eat a hot dog; never sophisticated, but always affectionate. I hunted squirrel with my kids in the woods and hunted deer in his woods. In fact, I broke the world record for most shots without results on the first day of dear season in '92 or '93, I can't remember which. I shot sixteen times without success, once from about ten feet when I woke up to see a nice buck staring at me. I would have set a better record if it were not for the fact that I ran out of slugs. Peg said it sounded as if a war had started back there. The three of us laughed so about the whole thing. I got Bruce into the act after retirement. Then he joined me in missing the opportunities of harvest. He could not hit them either.

In the Summer time I lived off of the spoils of their garden and rhubarb. Sharing was second nature and their high joy. They were always investing in people. Five trees survive in my yard from the woods. Bruce and Peg brought them down and we planted them. Bruce and I mudded them in one night and five have survived. They remind us of their generosity.

Just to keep them in the loop of our family eight years after we had left their area, we sent along Caleb's graduation announcement. We were stunned when they pulled into the open house....five and half hours down, two hours there, five and a half hours back. That is Bruce-just another happy day of investment.

It was no surprise then when Bruce called me and asked for lodging. Yes, it was lodging for four. At seventy seven Bruce was continuing his investments in senior high boys. One in particular he had tracked with since childhood. Poor kid has had it rough. His dad was not around for a while and Bruce took up the slack and kept investing and inviting him into the race.

Bruce thought it would be great to bring them down for a day at the Creation Museum. On they came. We had a great time together for a few hours. Bruce was beaming with joy to invest in these lives. He was telling us about how God was at work revealing himself to these young men.

He got up, kind of limped to his car and took off down the road. He called me later to say they had an outrageous day of fun and learning and challenge.

Some day Bruce will be gone. The body of Christ will be lesser. We need guys like Bruce who live simply and invest themselves in others. I find so few in their seventies like Bruce. May their tribe increase!

Bruce has been a great blessing to our family. He and his wife loved us and loved our children. Those are great gifts...that we all can afford and which pay such rich dividends.

I can hear it now over the balcony, "This is my beloved son, Bruce, in him I am well pleased." He'll limp home someday and enjoy forever those relationships that he and wife sought to cultivate in God's family for all their days.

Keep going buddy! We need more of you and your investments!