When You Talk to the Man Upstairs, Mention My Name<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Kevin"\u00a0comes once or twice\u00a0a month to church. Always nice and affable, a little on the stoic side. Doesn't say much. Kevin\u00a0first started coming with a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/when-you-talk-to-the-man-upstairs-mention-my-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When You Talk to the Man Upstairs, Mention My Name\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Kevin"\u00a0comes once or twice\u00a0a month to church. Always nice and affable, a little on the stoic side. Doesn't say much. 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{"id":2391,"date":"2014-12-09T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2014-12-09T07:00:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T13:00:04","slug":"when-you-talk-to-the-man-upstairs-mention-my-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/when-you-talk-to-the-man-upstairs-mention-my-name\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Talk to the Man Upstairs, Mention My Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"12.8.14\"$ <\/a>\u201cKevin\u201d\u00a0comes once or twice\u00a0a month to church. Always nice and affable, a little on the stoic side. Doesn\u2019t say much. Kevin\u00a0first started coming with a family member months ago (this family member told me that it was a BIG deal that Kevin was back in church). Years of wild living. Years of mistakes. Years of running. But\u00a0now\u00a0he\u2019s been coming to Mt Vernon.<\/p>\n

Every once in awhile Kevin will come up to me after the service and say a few kind words. Something I preached on spoke to him. He did so again yesterday and spoke\u00a0this phrase again to me, \u201cWhen you talk to the man upstairs, mention my name<\/em>.\u201d He\u2019s said it maybe two or three times over the months.<\/p>\n

My first reaction is that it sounds almost Catholic in nature, him requesting that I be a priest or intercessor for him. But I know that he doesn\u2019t have any Catholicism in his background. I think he asks me to mention him to God because Kevin doesn\u2019t feel worthy enough to pray himself. He spent years living hard and has accumulated regrets that are weighing him down. In his mind he\u2019s convinced he\u2019s blown it with God. Kevin doesn\u2019t think he deserves another chance. He\u2019s thinks\u00a0God thinks the same way.<\/p>\n

My heart breaks for Kevin and the regrets that weigh him down, and yet my heart rejoices that he\u2019s in a place where he can hear about and hopefully experience the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of a loving God. God loves Kevin. God\u2019s\u00a0not done with Kevin\u00a0yet. He hasn\u2019t given up on Kevin, and neither should\u00a0we.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this and don\u2019t mind praying, pray for Kevin (that\u2019s not his real name but God will know whom you\u2019re referencing). Pray that Kevin would experience grace and mercy. Pray that Kevin could lay his burdens down at the foot of the cross. Pray that Mt Vernon can be the hands and feet of Jesus tangibly in Kevin\u2019s life. Let\u2019s all mention his name to the man upstairs.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"