Winning Ways: Love is the Thing

Reagan’s speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, said it well. The most important thing in life really is love:

We're locked in a funny arc, most of us, in terms of what we know. When you are goony and fourteen years old you think the most important thing in life is love. Then you mature, become more sober and thoughtful, and realize the most important thing in life is achieving, leaving your mark—making breakthroughs in the field of science, or winning an Academy Award in recognition of a serious body of work, or creating security for yourself and your family through having a good house and sending your kids to good schools. And then you get old and realize...the most important thing in life is love. Giving love to others and receiving it from God. All the rest, the sober thoughtful things, are good and constructive...but love is the thing. The rest is just more or less what you were doing between fourteen and wisdom.

This Sunday, we’ll look at four characteristics of real love in our continuing series, “Restoring Lost Values.” How fitting to examine this value on Mother’s Day!

Get Your Tickets for the "Beautiful Thing" Banquet Today!

Next Sunday, May 8, is the last day to secure a ticket to our “Beautiful Thing” Banquet, held Thursday, May 12. You should get your ticket today! Preschool care will be provided, and the children and the youth will have their own meal and age-appropriate stewardship challenge while adults are in the Multi-Purpose Center. The banquet is free, but you have to register. Call the church office TODAY, or register for the banquet online at http://www.hillcrestaustin.info/events/FamilyDinnerTickets.

Sign Up for the 60-Hour Prayer Vigil

From the end of our May 12 banquet to the end of our Commitment Sunday service May 15, we want an unbroken chain of prayer lifted up from our Prayer Room! If you’ve participated in our past Prayer Vigils, you know what a powerful experience this can be. Inside the Prayer Room, you’ll find instructions and various stations to lead you through a “sweet hour of prayer.” The hours in the middle of the day and the middle of the night are hardest to fill, so take those if you can. Call the church office TODAY to find the available times, just go online to http://hillcrestaustin.info/abtprayervigil.

Tom

The Peggy Noonan quote is from her book, Simply Speaking, pages 53-54.

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