Praying for the Future

The sermon below was written on Friday Nov. 6, 2020 in preparation for preaching on Sunday Nov. 8, 2020.  I didn't know as I was writing that the cough I was ignoring would lead to getting tested for COVID-19 and being advised to isolate until we know the results.  I also didn't know as I was writing that Biden and Harris would be declared the projected winners of the presidential election the next morning.

This was written to end short so that Christian Dashiell could talk more about praying for our children, and specifically for foster and adoptive families, as Nov. 8, 2020 is Stand Sunday.  When our committee originally was planning for this day, Christian had offered to preach and give me a vacation week.  I said no because I wanted to be involved in this special day.  God had other ideas and needed to have Christian in the pulpit on this day. I only regret that I didn't decide that sooner so that Christian could have more time to prepare.  

All of which reminds me that God is working even when I'm clueless, and that we should always be praying and hoping, for the future is in God's hands.

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Praying for the Future – Matthew 25:1-13 (The Parable of the Bridesmaids)

Theologian Walter Wink said:

“History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. . .”[1]

An intercessor is someone who prays for other people.  History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being...people who pray for the future.

Our gospel reading today is about the future.  It’s part of a whole set of teaching about the future that we find in Matthew 24 & 25 in which Jesus was teaching his disciples as they sat on the Mount of Olives not long before he was arrested and crucified.

We are used to hearing parables in Matthew that start like this one.  The kingdom of heaven is like…  But this one doesn’t say “is,” it says “will be.”  In the future.

It will be like a group of bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom.  Half of them brought enough oil to last through the unexpectedly long time of waiting.  The other half didn’t bring enough oil and had to go to the store at the last minute and buy some more.  By the time they got back, it was too late and the door to the wedding was closed and locked.  And the bridegroom wouldn’t open the door.  He says, “I didn’t know you.”  So be ready, because we don’t know the day or the hour.

In this story, Jesus is the bridegroom.[2]  Jesus got started on this teaching about the future because he’d told them that someday the temple would be destroyed. The disciples asked him when this would happen and would this be the end of time.  In typical Jesus style, he doesn’t tell them when, he says in v13 that we won’t know the day or the hour. Earlier, in Matthew 24:36, Jesus says, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

By the time Matthew is writing this gospel, the temple has already been destroyed, as Jesus predicted, but unlike they thought, this didn’t bring about the end of time or the second coming of Jesus. So they were still left wondering about the future.  How much longer, Lord?

Maybe you’ve been wondering the same thing.  How much longer, Lord?

Again the answer is that we don’t know, but Jesus says at the end of today’s reading that we need to be ready.  So how do we do that?

Make good use of our time.  Psalm 31:15 says that our times are in God’s hands.  We don’t know how long, so we need to make the best use of our time while we’re waiting. 

How do we do that?  By doing the good works that God has called us to do. (Eph. 2:10).  In the rest of this chapter Jesus tells parables that talk about using our resources wisely, investing for the future, and we’ll talk more about that next week, and then the end of the chapter is taking care of people.  That’ll be our focus in two weeks.

Doing good works and staying ready to keep doing those good works.  How do we continue to have the power to do that?

In the story, being ready is having oil for our lamps.  In modern terms, this might be having enough electricity.  But this is a parable, so the oil or electricity is symbolic. What do you think the oil represents?   . . . The Holy Spirit.[3]

Proverbs 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked goes out. Jesus said that we are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14)  To be the light to the world, we need the power of the Holy Spirit.  We need to use the power of prayer. 

There was a little town that had two churches and one distillery.  They were often at odds with each other.  The two churches decided to hold a prayer meeting to ask God to intervene and settle the matter once and for all, and so they all gathered together one night for prayer.  All through the prayer meeting a terrible storm raged.  During the storm, lightning hit the distillery, and it caught fire and burned to the ground.  The next Sunday both pastors preached about the power of prayer.

Insurance adjusters told the distillery owner that they couldn’t pay his damage claims because his insurance policy didn’t cover “acts of God.”  The distillery owner was furious and sued both churches saying that they had conspired with God to destroy his business.  The churches denied that they had anything to do with the cause of the fire.

When they came to court, the judge said that he found the case most perplexing.  The plaintiff, the bar owner, is professing his belief in the power of prayer, and the defendants, all faithful church members, are denying that very same power![4]

Did prayer cause lightning to strike that factory?  There’s no way to know for sure, one way or the other, but this raises an interesting question:  How much do we really trust in the power of prayer?  I think most of us do, or at least we want to.  Jesus definitely did.  He prayed all the time.  And he told us to do the same.

As we pray for people, we need to keep on praying – We never know how long it will take. There was an older widow that lived next door to a family with a boy who would come do chores for her.  As part of his pay, she would always have him sit down in the kitchen to eat a piece of apple pie, usually freshly baked.  He would eat it as quickly as he could so he could get out to go play with his friends, but then she would bring him another piece of pie, and he would have to listen to her endless talking as he ate it.  Ten years later, he gave his life to Jesus at a college event.  He didn’t know who to tell, and then it occurred to him to go tell the widow.   He found her in her back yard enjoying the beautiful spring day.  He asked her if she knew Jesus, and she said she did.  So he said, “Well, the other night, I committed my life to Jesus.”  She looked up and said firmly, “You stay right here.”  She hobbled up to her back door and up the steps, and came back ten minutes later with a huge piece of chocolate cake.  As he ate it, she was smiling broadly but silently, and finally after a while, she said, “For the last fifteen years, since you moved in next door, I have prayed every day for you.  I prayed every day that you would come to know Jesus.”[5]

I consider it a bonus whenever we get to see the results of our prayer like that widow did.  I think more often than not we don’t get to know the outcome when we’re praying for someone.  In the book of James it says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and produces results (5:16).  Sometimes that may seem like a pipe dream and we may wonder if our prayers really are helping.  The Bible says they are.  We just have to keep praying and trust that God will bless our faithfulness to his call to us to pray for one another.

Richard Foster said, “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others.”[6]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “Christ stands between us and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him.”[7]  I think this is true.  There’s a connection we make with people as we pray for them that’s different than if we don’t.  Our connection in Christ transcends the bonds of time and space.

Praying for children is praying for the future, for they will live beyond our lifetimes.

Here are some ways to pray for families who are fostering and adopting children.

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[1] Greig, Pete. How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People (p. 93). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

[2] “The idea of Jesus being the bridegroom of the parable is easily established, since already in Matthew 9: 15 Jesus himself alludes to it.” –Sammy G. Alfaro in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship. Ed. Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby, Carolyn J. Sharp. Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition (Kindle Locations 14818-14819).

[3] https://biblehub.com/greek/1637.htm

[4] Bob Russell, When God Answers Prayer (Howard Publishing, 2003), 43-44.

[5] Phillip Yancey, Prayer: Does it make any difference? (Zondervan, 2006), 303. Adapted.

[6] Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008), 204. As quoted in Greig, Pete. How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People (p. 93). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

[7] Cost of Discipleship, 305.

A Prayer for Today

Listen here. 

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Hey, God. 

Thanks for this day. 

Thanks for this breath.

Thanks for this beautiful world you made and thanks for your goodness that you put in each one of us. 

Loving God, you are merciful and gracious. Forgive us.

We have been more concerned about our comfort than about being just. 

We have been more concerned about our own situations than about being merciful. 

We have been self-righteous about our faith instead of humbly walking with you. 

We have taken for granted that your goodness will prevail and forgotten that we are to participate in making it happen.  Help us to be a help to those around us. 

God, you say that if we will turn to you and humble ourselves, you’ll heal our land.  We are turning to you.  So much healing is needed.  Heal our land and heal our hearts.

God, we want to pray for your will to be done, but what if your will isn’t what we want?  Only you know how this election is going.  We think we know.  We think we know what’s best. Protect us from our own foolishness, God.  Guide our hearts and thoughts and words and actions so that your goodness truly shines through us.

God, we struggle to know who is telling the truth and who is not, but you know.  Your word tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light and we are too easily deceived.  Help us, God.  Help us to hear your voice, and see your light.  Help us to turn away from temptation. Deliver us from evil. 

God, yours is the power and yours is the glory forever. Help us to keep trusting you and in your Son Jesus, in whose name we pray. 

Thanks, God.

The Rise of Hope, Angel Armies and Prayer

In a friend's video, his three-year-old son says, "I want to go somewhere where there's no corona virus."  Me, too.  That's my problem today.  I just want it all to go away.  God, make it all go away.  Make the confusion go away.  Make the virus go away. Make the division and hatred go away.  Make the hurting and sadness go away.  Make the loneliness go away.

I know it doesn't work that way, but I also know we can ask, and keep on asking (Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 18:1-8, James 4:2-3).  So I'm asking.

This encouragement to keep asking is why I love what happens in the last Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker (2019). (**spoiler alert**)  In this movie and the previous one, there's been a running thread of waning hope because the resistance keeps sending out a call for help and no one comes.  Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) has had an idomitable spirit throughout all the seemingly insurmountable challenges, and he's even taken flack for his willingness to jump in a fighter and fly fearlessly into battle no matter how bad the odds.  In the last battle, one that most would have said was unwinnable because the resistance is so enormously outnumbered and outclassed by the First Order fleet, Poe has charged ahead anyway, certain that their distress call will be answered and help will come.  When it seems they've tried everything there is to try and still no allies have arrived, even Poe's spirit is crushed and he's on the verge of giving up. Defeat seems imminent.  And then suddenly the sky is filled with allies, so many that the ships from across the galaxies far outnumber the huge empire fleet.  The resistance fighters are not alone after all.  Hope rises again.

This Star Wars scene reminds me of a story in 2 Kings 6.  The prophet Elisha and his servant are in the city of Dothan.  The enemy king of Aram has sent "a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city" (2 Kings 6:13).  When Elisha's servant sees them, he cries out in fear.  Elisha tells him, "Don't be afraid, for there are more on our side than on theirs" (v.16).  And then Elisha prays and asks God to open the servant's eyes.  God does, and the servant looks up and sees that the hills around them are filled with horses and chariots of fire.  God's angel army is surrounding Dothan, and the angels outnumber the Arameans.  Hope renewed.

It's interesting, however, that it isn't the angel army that solves the problem, though I'm sure their presence helped Elisha and his servant to have the courage to get through it.  Instead, Elisha prays.  I think I would have asked God to have the angel army scare off the Arameans, but Elisha asks God to blind the Arameans.  Then Elisha tells the Arameans that they're in the wrong place and leads them to Samaria.  Because of their blindness, they didn't see that the one who was leading them was the very person they'd been sent to kill. 

Also surprising, the king in Samaria follows Elisha's advice and doesn't kill the Arameans.  Instead, he feeds them and sends them home.  After that, the Arameans stayed away from Israel, probably afraid they'd be fooled again.

I love this story because it reminds me that God is greater than our fears, and that though we cannot see the angels who surround us, they are there.  I think we need to pray like Elisha more, asking God to open our eyes.  What would we ask to see?  What are we missing?

We don't always have enemies quite so clearly as they do in this story in 2 Kings, but is there ever a time to pray for confusion or blindness for someone?  Blindness is what stopped Paul in his rampage against Christians (Acts 9) and in his blindness he met Jesus and became a Christian. So maybe sometimes blindness is helpful.

God, I struggle with my own blindness.  Help me to see what you need me to see and to learn what you need me to learn, and to do what you need me to do.  (Is need the wrong word?  Do you need anything? Maybe want is better.)  Am I blind sometimes because you're slowing me down or pretecting me?  Or trying to help me focus on you instead of the problem, or on today instead of the future?

Thank you, God, for your presence with me right here, right now, and always, and for whatever you let me see.

Grief, Acceptance, and Psalm 13

How long, O Lord?  --Psalm 13:1

This is the question I keep hearing in my head.  How long will we be stuck in this COVID-19 holding pattern?  How long until things get back to normal?  Will things get back to normal?  In some ways, yes, and in other ways, no.  In our various responses, it occurred to me today that we're seeing in ourselves and our leaders the stages of grief.

We started out with lots of denial.  It's not going to be so bad.  I'll be ok because I'm young, healthy, living in a rural area etc.  We keep circling back to this.  It's not as bad as we thought it would be.  It's not going to last that long.  It's not as big a deal as it seems.

We have anger.  We have sadness.  Both are stages of grief.  So is bargaining.  We're doing that, too.  If we work hard enough at washing our hands....  If we do really well at staying home... If we do enough good deeds... then will it go away?  These are all good things to be doing and they will help, but they're also a part of our processing the losses we're experiencing.  Loss of life.  Loss of connection. Loss of security.  Everything is changing, and change is loss.

We're also seeing acceptance, and if grief happened in a nice, linear progression, this would be the end of it, but it doesn't work that way.  We keep circling back.  Plus, our losses aren't a once-and-done deal.  Every day something changes. The death toll grows.  The stock market drops.  Companies shut down.  More stay-home orders issued.  New losses keep happening, sending us back around the grief circle again.

For me, recognizing that these are normal feelings helps.  Talking to people and finding that they are experiencing similar feelings helps.  Talking to God helps. Reading the psalms and their laments and praise helps.  Remembering that grieving makes us tired helps.

Acknowledging, like the writer of Psalm 13, that in the midst of all the swirling uncertainties it feels like God is far away, helps.

How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
    with sorrow in my heart every day?
--Psalm 13:1b-2a

It helps because it's real.  The alternative is pretense and, let's be honest, lies.  Saying I'm ok, or that this is ok, when it's really not ok, is a lie, and I'm just fooling myself and shutting out God.

God, I'm not as ok as I'd like to be. We're not as ok as we'd like to be. But because I know you love me and you are good, I'm trusting in you.

Acceptance for today.  And, lest I forget, my star word for 2020.
Thanks, God.

But I trust in your unfailing love.
    I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
 I will sing to the Lord
    because he is good to me.
--Psalm 13:5-6

Lots and Lots of Lots

All tasks were assigned to the various groups by means of sacred lots so that no preference would be shown, for there were many qualified officials serving God in the sanctuary from among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. 
--1 Chronicles 24:5

"Sacred lots."

The Reformation Study Bible says, "Casting lots in careful accord with revealed standards was designed to ensure that decisions were made according to divine direction rather than human prejudice."

Proverbs 16:33 says, "We may throw the dice,
    but the Lord determines how they fall."

The Bible is full of stories in which decisions were made by casting lots.  In Acts 1, the disciples prayed about who to choose to replace Judas and then they cast lots.  They were asking and trusting God to make the lots fall according to his will.

I have served on many church nominating committees, and none of them cast lots.  Human prejudice always played a role, influencing whether we thought someone was qualified, and prejudging whether we thought they would be willing.  Whether we thought they would say yes was often the largest factor in what we said out loud, though I'm sure there were lots of factors in our thinking that we didn't say out loud, and maybe didn't consciously realize.

I wonder, if people knew we had cast lots before calling them, they would be more ready to say yes?  If we believed that God made the lots fall to them, wouldn't we be more ready to trust that this was a divine calling?

I wonder if our disdain of casting lots is a form of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  They ate the fruit from the tree knowledge.  God had said, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)  When we decide rather than casting lots, aren't we trusting in our own wisdom and knowledge like they wanted to do?

We often talk in Christian circles about discernment, by which we usually mean seeking God's will through prayer and scripture and godly counsel.  Henri Nouwen describes it this way:

“Our God is a God who cares, heals, guides, directs, challenges, confronts, corrects. To discern means first of all to listen to God, to pay attention to God’s active presence, and to obey God’s prompting, direction, leadings, and guidance.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life)

Paying attention and obeying are key, but they are not easy.  We can get caught up going in circles around a decision, doubting our ability to read the signs, hesitating to obey when we aren't sure whether we're following our own will or God's.  How much simpler it would be to cast lots.

Nouwen points out that sometimes the problem is in how we're asking:

“In the Gospels, there are many examples of Jesus not giving a direct answer to questions put to him by his disciples and others. (For example, the mother of James and John asks whether her two sons might sit one at the right hand and the other at the left hand of Jesus in his kingdom, and Jesus responds, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” [Matt. 20:20–23].) He does this not because he has no patience with them but because their questions are the wrong questions; they are not the questions that live in God’s heart but belong instead to the fearful, anxious world of those who do not know who they are.”

Are we asking the wrong questions?  This is certainly true in a nominating committee that is asking "who will say yes" instead of asking God who he wants us to ask. But it's not just there. I wonder how often I'm asking God for success in human terms, or for the easiest answer?  Maybe my asking needs to start with this:  "God, help me know the right questions to ask."

I find it interesting that we still sing about casting lots in the hymn God of Our Fathers (or God of the Ages in some hymnals):

Thy love divine hath led us in the past; 

in this free land with thee our lot is cast; 

be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay, 

thy Word our law, thy paths our chosen way. 

Maybe the problem is that sometimes the lot will fall counter to our wishes.  We want a six, but instead we get a one.  We want the perfect life, but instead we get a real one with all it's challenges.

I've only played Dungeons and Dragons a few times, but when I did I often wanted to roll the dice again to try for a different outcome, a better outcome.  The dungeon master never allowed it.  But God does, through Jesus. We can admit our failings and try again, and God gives us grace because we were willing to humbly accept it.

Thanks, God.

Choosing Now Over Later

This is a sermon I preached on Sunday, May 20, 2018 at United Presbyterian Church in Sterling, KS. 
Listen to the sermon audio here.
Read Acts 2:1-13 & Matthew 9:32-38 here.

Choosing Now Over Later 

Today is the last week in our series Thrive@United.  Each week of this series, there has been a choice. 

We started with “choosing life over death,” maybe a rather obvious choice. Next we chose community over isolation, then fun over drudgery, bold over mild, and frontier over fortress.  Last week we even had the opportunity to put into practice our choice for frontier by going on a prayer walk out into the community.  Now, today we have the choice between now or later.

What are you hearing in the choice between now and later?

My husband Rob heard candy.

Now sounds trendy. “Live in the NOW.”

Now sounds parental.  “I told you to do your chores and I said NOW!”

Now sounds urgent. “We need help NOW!”

In the world of churches, now sounds . . . unusual, doesn’t it?  Because churches aren’t always so good at doing things right now.  We need to do things decently and in order. 

We need to take it to committee.  We need to run it by session, the board.

We need a motion, and a second, and then we need discussion.

We need to work together to make a plan and follow the plan together.

None of that happened on Pentecost. 

By the time the disciples got to Pentecost, they already knew their plans had gone right out the upper room window when Jesus was crucified.  That was in God’s plan, but they hadn’t understood the plan quite that way.  While they’re still trying to figure out how the plan had changed, Jesus was resurrected. 

Then Jesus told them that the next step in the plan was to go out and tell the world about what happened, go everywhere and make disciples . . . but first, wait until you receive power from the Holy Spirit and then go out and tell the world.  So they waited, and while they were waiting, they prayed.

What else could they do?

Jesus didn’t tell them when the Holy Spirit was coming.

Jesus didn’t tell them how the Holy Spirit was coming.

Would they have understood even if he had told them?

On the day of Pentecost, they were together celebrating the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and doing what they had been doing every day – praying.  And that’s when things got a little crazy.

First there was the wind.  Here in Kansas everybody knows about wind.  Wind is strong.  Strong wind is loud.  Really strong wind is really loud.

Then came the tongues of fire, and then everyone began speaking in tongues.  That also was loud.  We’ve been in crowds.  We know how loud they can be.

It was so loud that everyone in the neighborhood came running to see what was happening. 

Nobody planned it.  Nobody sent out invitations.  Nobody made refreshments. Nobody put together a program or arranged for extra chairs and tables.

This was just happening and it was happening NOW. Because sometimes the Holy Spirit does unexpected things at unexpected times in unexpected ways.

Not surprisingly, people had lots of questions.  Why is this happening?  Why are they talking like that?  What does this mean?

Peter didn’t have time to run home to do some exegesis to prepare a sermon to answer their questions and explain the meaning.  In a surprisingly brilliant move, he just stood up and started explaining about Jesus who died and was resurrected. 

Peter knew the scriptures well enough to use them to show that the Prophet Joel had predicted this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and King David had written a song (Psalm 16) about the resurrection, and though they didn’t quite understand God’s plan from these scriptures before, it is now clear that Jesus, the one who was just crucified, is God’s plan to bring about the salvation of us all.

Hearing all this, the people were amazed, and asking, “What are we to do now?”

Peter immediately had the answer for this question:

“Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.“ (Acts 2:38 MSG)

He didn’t say, “Go home and think about it.” Or “Go home and pray about it.”  This challenge was for right now.  He kept on urging them to act now.  And that day 3000 people were baptized.

And all the rest of the crowd was left in a quandry, arguing with each other.  Did he say, “Yanny?  Or did he say Laurel?”[1]

Or did he say “covfefe?”[2]

Silliness aside, the first and most important way we “choose now over later” is to turn to God, say yes to Jesus and welcome the Holy Spirit.

There’s no reason to wait.  This is exactly how Jesus began his ministry in Mark’s gospel, telling people that now is the time to repent.

Jesus said: “Now is the fullness of time,” … “and the kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins, and believe in the Good News!” (Mark 1:15TLV)

Now is the time to say yes to Jesus.  If you’ve been putting this off, don’t delay any longer. Just say yes.

Choosing now over later means we

1.     Turn to God

2.     Pray

3.     Do

We do put things off.  We can come up with all kinds of reasons.  There’s always tomorrow, right?  Or is there?

The end of all things is near. 1 Peter 4:7

We laugh when we read that because Peter wrote those words about 2000 years ago.  The end of all things wasn’t as near as Peter thought.  On the other hand, how many of the people who heard or read those words have already met their own “end of all things”?

The Holy Spirit prompts us and we need to act.

Do it now – because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. --James 4:14

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. --Proverbs 27:1

For instance, we might be thinking that one of these days I’ll tell my friend how much Jesus loves them, but that day never comes because he dies of a heart attack.

Sometimes it’s blazingly clear that we need to act now.  If we’re thinking about adopting a dog that’s due to be euthanized tomorrow at the animal shelter, now is the time to get ‘er done![3]

What do you see when you look at a crowd of people?  In Matthew 9, our gospel reading this morning, Jesus looks out at the crowds of people and has compassion for them. He sees people who are ready to hear about God’s amazing love and forgiveness.  He says, “The harvest is ready.”

He saw people looking for a shepherd.  He saw people he loved and wanted to help.  He saw people whom he wanted to know that God loves them.  And so he says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers.” 

That’s a call to pray. 

1.     Turn to God

2.     Pray

And then

3.     Do

Jesus said to ask God for workers, and then he commissioned the disciples, giving them the authority to heal people and cast out demons, and then he sent them out to tell people about the good news of the gospel. (Matt 10:1ff)

Choosing now means we turn to God, pray, and do.

If we don’t know what to do, we pray until we do. 

If we do know what to do, we pray and then do it.

Do it now – because otherwise we will miss the opportunity to be a part of what God’s doing.

I’ll never forget the first time I realized that I’d missed it.  I had this brilliant idea for a ministry, a way to serve people in the community where I lived at the time.  I knew it was inspired by God, but I hesitated. I wanted to pray about it some more. What if . . .this?  What if . . . that?  When?  How?  It’s ok to think things through, but I got too bogged down in all of that, and the next thing I knew somebody else was announcing their plan to implement my brilliant idea. Because it wasn’t my idea.  It was God’s idea.  And He made sure it DID happen.

It isn’t always easy to know what to do and when to do it. Sometimes it’s very clear.  Like when a kid gets brought into the emergency room barely hanging on to life.  If they waited to find the parent and get permission to treat, the kid would die, so they don’t wait.  They act immediately to make sure the child is stabilized.

Sometimes it’s not so clear and we have to act on faith.  So often we hesitate because we don’t like not knowing what the outcome will be.  We try to see into the future and predict, but only God truly knows, and we need to trust him for the outcome.  To get better at this, it helps to practice.

1.     Turn to God

2.     Pray

3.     Do

This will sound silly, but one of the ways I practice is choosing what to wear in the morning.  I used to waste a lot of time trying this outfit, and then another outfit.  I’d stand in the closet forever trying to make up my mind while the clock just kept on ticking.  So God inspired me to turn to him, ask for help, and go with the first thing I thought of next.  Most of the time I wear one of three colors – black, blue or green.  I have red shirts because I have bought them over the years to wear on Pentecost, Christmas and the 4^th of July, but other than that they just sit in my closet.  One morning as I was getting ready to go to a worship conference I was in a quandry.  I didn’t know what to expect going to a place I’d never been before and so I didn’t know what to wear.  The first thing I thought of after I asked God for help was my red shirt. 

I argued.  No, God, please, not the red shirt.  It’s not a holiday.  I didn’t hear a voice, but the feeling I had was a lot like when a parent gets frustrated with child who is arguing.  The feeling felt like this:  “Just wear it.”

So I did.

Guess what the main topic was at the worship conference that day?  Trusting the Holy Spirit.  And I was all ears because I was wearing my Holy Spirit red and I had trusted the Holy Spirit about wearing it. Choosing a shirt is such a little thing, but it’s a little thing that made a big difference in my life.  It’s helped me practice listening and trusting.  We practice with the little things so we’ll be better prepared to handle the bigger things.

• It’s easy to say that things need to change. 
• It’s hard to see that what needs to change is us.

Turning to God and praying is always clear and simple.  “Hey, God, help.” 

When we DO know what to do, we’ll need God’s help.  If we do things only on our own, we will fall short and tire out and fail.  We can’t do it on our own. Only God knows what tomorrow will bring, and only God can change hearts.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will [thrive]; apart from me you can do nothing.

We stay connected to Jesus because of the Holy Spirit and we practice listening to the Holy Spirit when we pray.  So I’m asking you today as an exercise of this to keep praying for 40 days.  On your way out today pick up a 40-days-of-prayer booklet.*

Now is the time to turn to God, pray, and do. 

If you know what to do, ask God for help to go do it. 

If you don’t, keep on praying and listening and getting ready to do whatever God has in store for us to do.

Jesus is risen. The harvest is ready.  The Holy Spirit is here. Let’s let him work in us right now so we can thrive as God’s people doing God’s work in the world.

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[1] https://www.wired.com/story/yanny-and-laurel-true-history/

[2] https://metro.co.uk/2017/05/31/what-does-covfefe-mean-and-why-was-donald-trump-tweeting-so-late-at-night-6673880/

[3] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/laugh-your-way-well-being/201609/do-it-now

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