Just Show Up!
By Gordon McDonald

Woody Allen is credited with saying something like "life consists mainly of showing up"? It's a witty comment, but it has substance—and application for ministry.
A friend recently told me the story of an experience he had while walking on a beach in Maine this summer.
"I came upon a young woman who was sitting by herself reading a book. It seemed appropriate to greet her with a 'good morning.' When she responded, I asked her what she was reading. She said she was reading the Bible and added, 'I'm a new Christian. Do you know what that is?'
"I told her that I did and that, in fact, I was one—although an old one."
My friend went on: "She seemed not to mind further conversation; so I asked her if she'd tell me more of her story. It turned out that she was a college student and that she was getting ready to return to school, this time as a new follower of Jesus.
"When I asked her who would be praying for her as she went back to school, she told me that she really had no one among her friends or her family. So I volunteered to be her prayer supporter."
My friend concluded the story with this thought: "How good of God to lead me to that place, at that time, to meet a young student in need of spiritual encouragement."

Read more of this excellent article from McDonald at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2008/cln80915.html

A New Song

I read Psalm 40 this week. Here's what it says:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, Who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

I've kinda felt some of what David experienced when he wrote these words (But not everything of course. Never been chased by my own son with a sword in his hand.) Those days of waiting on God to lift you out of a slimy pit with mud can be very challenging. "Waiting patiently" is much more than sitting at the DMV office listening for your number to be called.

Waiting patiently on the Lord is about endurance. It's about running & finishing a race. It's about silence from heaven when you have prayed your last prayer & hoped your last hope. It's about feeling stuck in a situation with no apparent answers (or hidden answers either) .
However when God listened to David & answered his prayer, the result was simply awesome:

He put a new song in my mouth

Waiting . . . a new song. He started with waiting & he ended with a new song. David was able to sing something at that moment that he could have never sung before had God got him out of the pit earlier. In the waiting, God was creating in this awesome musician new words, new notes, and a new heart with which to sing. And all of it was because God did not rescue him. He left him in the muddy pit for a much longer than David had ever anticipated. Waiting on God is much more than waiting. God is re-creating something internally.

It's a word of hope for people like me - people who are waiting on God. In the season of waiting, listening, & anticipating, it is a wonderful reminder that God is doing something deep & significant in my life that will result in a song. I really enjoy music like most people. Something deep often happens in my soul when I hear a song. Music has the ability to go past the brain & get to the soul, which is where healing & restoration happen. And so I know that in this moment God is at work in me creating a new song that I will sing. The result?

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

The Mailboxes

I am running more these days. Time does not allow me to exercise as frequently as I would like. I run enough to keep in shape. I've also taken up biking. My son & I share an old road bike - at different times of course. On some days I will bike for a few miles & then run for a couple of miles. It makes for a great workout, especially in temps of 90 or more.

One of the roads I run is straight & flat, common for south Georgia. When you turn the corner, you can see the house at the other end, almost a mile away. For several years I have run trying to focus on that house at the end of the street, trying to keep my eyes on the prize. Needless to say, I failed. I would always get distracted by a squirrel or a car passing me. But last week, I tried something different. I started looking at the mailboxes ahead of me and counting them. There are 16 on one side. When I did, the road seemed shorter. That's right. I was at the other end of the street more quickly than usual. My focus on smaller goals helped me finish the run. As soon as I passed one mailbox, I would look up & start pressing on toward that mailbox. These "successes" energized and kept me moving forward.

I think there's a spiritual lesson here. As we endure the "long runs" of daily life, we may need to focus on the small goals, rather than the larger one. As a Bereavement Coordinator, I tell people who are enduring the loss of a loved one that the path of grief is one step at a time and nothing more. Just make it through today or this hour. Do not try to think about next week. Or the upcoming holidays. Today is all we have.

Hey! Didn't I read Jesus saying something like that? "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34) As you run, count the mailboxes.