[Northern Light United Church welcomes new pastor]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\nTwo years ago, my wife, daughter and I went to Mr. Hurt’s church one Sunday morning, hoping to surprise him. We were not disappointed. After a warm welcome at the door, I asked about Mr. Hurt, saying I was his “biggest single problem” in 1973. The pastor laughed and told me “Brother Dennis” sat at the right front of the sanctuary.<\/p>\n
Once there, I asked my pew mates about Brother Dennis. One said, “He’s in the back, praying.” Just then I looked up and instantly recognized Mr. Hurt walking down the aisle. I said, “Hi Brother Dennis, or Mr. Hurt; at least that’s what we called you in Kettle Falls at Calvary Christian Academy.”<\/p>\n
He looked at me, a little surprised, and said, “Do I know you? I know those eyes.” I said, “My name is Guy Crockroft and I was your biggest single problem in 1973. I came to apologize for that, and thank you for being a positive influence in my life.” He looked at me, stunned, and said, “What did you say your name was?” I said “Guy Crockroft.” He said, “No! Really? I’m … blown away.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Hurt and his wife Dorothy, who said, “I remember your name!” when we were reintroduced, invited us to lunch and we had a great time sharing and catching up from those school days some 43 years earlier. I learned to say Brother Dennis instead of Mr. Hurt, and we have a bond now that we never had before. We have each raised a special needs child and have served in the church in one capacity or another most of our adult lives.<\/p>\n
Now I look forward to and enjoy speaking with Brother Dennis, instead of dreading it, as I once did. As Mr. Hurt was willing to allow me to be reconciled to him, God is willing to be reconciled to each one of us. He has done his part by sending Jesus to die for our sins. Our part is to come to him in faith and repentance. Those who do, never regret it. Reconciliation is sweet indeed.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Guy Crockroft is executive director of Love INC Juneau. \u201cLiving & Growing\u201d is a weekly column written by different authors and submitted by local clergy and spiritual leaders.<\/b><\/p>\n
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A sweet reconciliation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":45634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-45633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45633"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}