I ran Bellevue this morning. Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis, TN is an extraordinarily large facility. They have a sports complex complete with baseball, softball, and soccer fields. They probably have other fields but it’s dark when you run this early.

Bellevue has a series of ponds; five acre ponds. They have fish. I know because I fished them. There are playgrounds and senior adult living facilities. They have a place at the ponds for baptisms.

I ran Bellevue because I didn’t want to run Memphis in the dark and Bellevue is lit up like an airport parking lot. All I had to do was run from light to light. There were more than three miles of well lit parking for me to cruise.

I ran through everything that didn’t have a chain across it. OK, I did jump one chain but it snuck up on me. I had no choice.

I was trying to get back to my truck when I decided to run around the building itself. The sidewalk was well lit and it stayed close to the facility. I thought that would be an appropriate way to finish. I began at the front entrance and while I ran I prayed for the staff and the people who are Bellevue.

I was almost on the backside of the building when I realized the path actually turned inward. Bellevue is built in a horseshoe shape. The walkway carried me into a beautiful garden. There were flowers along the path and all forms of shrubs and a huge weeping willow. There was a bronze statue at the center of the garden.

I stopped and stared in amazement. At the heart of the huge facility, in the center of this beautiful prayer garden was a statue of Jesus washing the feet of Peter. Peter is gazing, open mouthed, at Christ, and Christ is intently working on the feet of his disciple.

No matter how important I think I become or how vast may grow my influence, if servanthood is not at the center of it all, if relationship is not the driving force behind ministry, then the heart of the gospel is lost.

“Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt. 22.37-39

Thanks for keeping The Light on, Bellevue.