Showing Up

You arrive at work; stop to get coffee, two creams, and one sugar just like you do each day. You walk past the same cubicles, turn on your computer, wave hi to the same four people, and start your normal day at work. Nine hours later, you head home, and drive the same route you do each normal day. You wake up at 5am, start the coffee, wake up the kids, let out the dog, feed the cat, and make lunches. Kids are off to school around 7:30am, now onto errands. Most of us would qualify our lives as normal or ordinary. Nothing crazy goes on; we have a rhyme and rhythm to each day, which is pretty regular. Today is not an ordinary day though, today you may be the answer to someone’s prayer, and you may not even know it.

We know Scripture tells us that “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8 ESV) God hears our prayers and answers them but often in ways and places that we did not plan on. Did you ever think that the woman you held the door open for was praying for a break after a tough meeting at work? You “happened” on the way home from work to call your sibling, who felt lonely and was praying for company, for someone to listen to them, someone to be with them. Each day we are presented with is a chance to be an answer to someone’s prayers. Sometimes we can be an answer to that prayer just by our presence, just by simple basic things. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25 of people who took this seriously, and gave clothes away, visited prisoners, shared food, and more. They asked, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” 40 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. They did not see themselves serving God, they were trying to make an impact in their own lives. They had no idea the power of their simple acts of service.

It has been said 90% of care is showing up. Where are you going today? What door might you hold, or conversation might you have, that changes someone’s day, that answers a prayer that you never even knew about?

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What are some people and places you regularly interact with that might be opportunities for you to be God’s ambassador?
2. Do you have a story of how someone else has been an answer to your prayer unknowingly?

 

First Love

Do you remember your first crush, starting dating or newly married?  You may have shared a booth or dinners when out for dinner, you made homemade cards for one another, you sent candy AND flowers.  But then for most couples that time slowly comes to an end.  The home-made cards became store-bought; sharing food was not that appealing, candy and flowers are two separate gifts, if they are given at all.  Something changed once the relationship moved from new, to something normal, common, and expected.  Some of the early passion in the relationship may have gone away, or just transformed into something different.  As the passion fades, we tend to take the relationship for granted, we stop doing things to remind those we love how special they are, and sometimes forget all together the importance of that relationship is to us.  Our relationships become another task or job on our list of things to do.  We don’t do it intentionally.  Life is busy; there are bills to pay, appointments, jobs, kids, pets, other family, and all sorts of other things that pull at our time.

If we are not careful our faith and relationship with God can easily get caught up in the everyday routine.   Think about when we first become a believer and how excited we were about our faith or came home from a retreat or mission trip on a “God high”.  I know of some, who read the Bible cover to cover in days, spent hours in prayer, began to volunteer at a food pantry, only for it to continue a little while.  Then the normalcy sets in.  Their bibles start to collect dust on the shelf, our prayer time becomes three minutes before we fall asleep, and we get a little too busy to volunteer.  We find ourselves at church, but not engaged.  We pray but we don’t believe it does anything, and quickly we have forgotten our love of God, the reason we began any of this.

We are not the first people to experience this, in Revelation there is a letter to a church in Ephesus that says this from God, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5, TNIV)  For the church in Ephesus, they had become so focused on “doing church” (meetings, by-laws, administration, the color of the walls) that they had forgotten that all of it should find its source and focus in our love and relationship with God.  So what is the instruction to the church?  Do what you did at first.  At first you did not have committees that fought about the budget, you simply used all that you had to care for the community.  At first you did not fight about styles and formats of worship or bulletins, you simply rejoiced at the opportunity to come together and worship God in one voice.  At first, church was a place that we came to worship God, encourage one another in our faith, and share the Good News with other.

In the midst of meetings, committees, programs, budgets, paperwork, styles, and preferences have we lost our focus?  Is our first love of God still the drive and source of all our life together as Christians?  Or is our faith becoming just one more job, one more distraction, and one more thing to do in an already busy schedule.  Let us remember our first love – God.

On Autopilot

You know the feeling that I am talking about, of getting stuck in a rut, of going though the motions, being on autopilot.  It happens to all of us, sometimes it is driven by routine, or by tiredness, and sometimes it is just easier to get through our day if that is how we function.  Yet few people like going through the motions.  It is not life-giving to be going through the motions, but it is a place that we find ourselves in sometimes.

One place that we get stuck in ruts is our faith.  We feel stuck because we pray the same way, have the same order of worship, sing the same songs, etc.  We get convinced that this must be the only way to do those things; this must be the only way.

When Jesus came 2,000 years ago He changed everything.  Jesus called a group of people to be his disciples that few others would have called, he taught and spent time with people that few others in society would be caught dead spending time with.  Jesus shook up how people thought about their faith.  Jesus accused religious leaders of worshipping tradition, instead of worshipping a living God.  Jesus spent his time teaching people about the depth of their faith.  People thought they had to hang out with certain kinds of people, Jesus said, that is silly; you should spend time with all sorts of interesting people.  People were stuck in various traditions that Jesus said, why do you do that?  That is not the only way to pray, to worship, to serve, etc.

Sometimes we forget that the way we do things in our lives and church are not the only way to do them.  There are a number of prayer practices that are thousands of years old, that most of us are completely unaware of or have never tried.  There are hundreds and thousands of forms that people have used to worship God in the last 2,000 years, most of which are completely unfamiliar to us.  Jesus came so that we might have life to the fullest.  Jesus came to show us a faith that was deep, meaningful, relevant, and lead to transformed lives.

Don’t worry we all get stuck in ruts, that is part of life.  But when we each find ourselves, what can we do?  Jesus showed us that our faith is deep and wide.  Jesus encouraged people to reflect on their faith, asking why is that you do what you do?  What is the meaning behind it?  Are you worshipping God, or just going through the motions?  If we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always gotten.  Perhaps when we get into ruts, it can be God’s leading us to something new, to new opportunities, and to renewed growth and transformation.  Perhaps it can be a chance for us to reach into the depth of our faith in ways that we have never before.