My office is a place where worlds collide. I spend many hours a week in my office studying, making phone calls and doing projects as well as writing my sermons to deliver each Sunday. So my office reflects the different areas of my life that are important to me to give me an environment that makes me comfortable enough that I am not distracted.
I love golf, which many of you who receive these weekly thoughts have figured out no doubt. I have some memorabilia in my office; two racks of logo golf balls from golf courses and some wall hangings. I also love lighthouses, which have figured in several of these devotional thoughts. The bulk of my lighthouse collection adorns the tops of my bookcases.
Then there is the Ohio State paraphernalia. I painted the OSU logo on the wall and have bracketed it with a couple of pictures and a print. The pictures are of two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin along the sideline at the 2004 Fiesta Bowl and my nephew, Todd Snyder, also standing along the sideline acting chummy with OSU mascot, Brutus Buckeye. Below these is a panoramic view Ohio Stadium that my son, Sean, and his wife, Jennifer, got me for Christmas. Throw in a Buckeyes clock, car flag and window valence and you have the OSU stuff.
The two most important parts of my life are also represented there. My favorite pictures of my wife, Becky, by herself, and she and I together, hang alongside one of my namesake, my great grandfather Nelson Thomas Kelley, and his six sons, the fourth of which was my grandfather, Ora Wilbur Kelley. The rest of the room is dominated by books that help me not only to encounter my Lord but also to share Him with others. Seven bookcases, with an eighth on the way, hold my collection of Bibles, reference works, study helps and inspirational reading.
That's the difference. The other stuff just hangs as a reminder. But the books help me to daily draw closer to Christ and His kingdom. The golf ball displays remind me where I have been. The Word of God reminds me where I am going. The OSU stuff reminds where I was born. The Word of God reminds me what I was reborn to become. While I love my heritage, my life and especially my wife and family; I find myself agreeing with the apostle John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20