I have no idea if our gathering "worked" for anyone but me today... but it worked for me. I got where I needed to go.
We walked through the first part of Luke 7...
Jesus heals someone's servant. He raises a widow's son from the dead... He leaves John in prison.
(by the way... excellent call Scott Lyons, in the comments on my last post on this chapter- you are right... Jesus quotes a messianic passage from Isaiah to John, and conveniently "forgets" the part about releasing the captives- I used that today... way to go with the community sermon prep!)
The things is, I was just about weepy through most of the morning... I felt a little goofy for not being able to get it together...
As we were talking about the widow who lost her only son, and the impact that would have on her, I told how a couple of weeks ago, when Amy's dad died, she called me in absolute hysterics. I couldn't understand anything she was saying to me, other than the word "dead." I heard "he's dead." All I could think was that Jack had been hurt... killed.
For about 30 seconds, the bottom dropped out of my world. I can't even describe the feeling to you. I imagine some people reading this have experienced what I'm talking about, and I'm very, very sorry. The thought that I had lost my child made me weak in the knees, everything was spinning, all I could do was try to push that thought away and get some clarification with Amy as to what had happened...
Talking about that today, putting myself in the place of that widow in the story, just about did me in. Of course, the most beautiful part of the story was the line, "and Jesus gave him back to his mother."
The problem is, what we were talking about this morning is the fact that sometimes God works miracles, and sometimes... He doesn't. Sometimes He says no. Sometimes, it feels like we are praying to a wall.
So, as we read and talked I just kept thinking about all the people who are part of evergreen who are suffering... so many people I know are going through hard times right now- it just seems abnormal.
And as we talked, I choked up, as we prayed I choked up, as we sang, I choked up...
For my wife and her sister who lost their father, for those struggling with infertility, for those going through the worst week of their life...
"Blessed is the person who doesn't get offended by the way I do things... or don't do them."
And blessed is the man who remembers to pray for his community, day in and day out, to ask God to listen, to answer, to act.
We walked through the first part of Luke 7...
Jesus heals someone's servant. He raises a widow's son from the dead... He leaves John in prison.
(by the way... excellent call Scott Lyons, in the comments on my last post on this chapter- you are right... Jesus quotes a messianic passage from Isaiah to John, and conveniently "forgets" the part about releasing the captives- I used that today... way to go with the community sermon prep!)
The things is, I was just about weepy through most of the morning... I felt a little goofy for not being able to get it together...
As we were talking about the widow who lost her only son, and the impact that would have on her, I told how a couple of weeks ago, when Amy's dad died, she called me in absolute hysterics. I couldn't understand anything she was saying to me, other than the word "dead." I heard "he's dead." All I could think was that Jack had been hurt... killed.
For about 30 seconds, the bottom dropped out of my world. I can't even describe the feeling to you. I imagine some people reading this have experienced what I'm talking about, and I'm very, very sorry. The thought that I had lost my child made me weak in the knees, everything was spinning, all I could do was try to push that thought away and get some clarification with Amy as to what had happened...
Talking about that today, putting myself in the place of that widow in the story, just about did me in. Of course, the most beautiful part of the story was the line, "and Jesus gave him back to his mother."
The problem is, what we were talking about this morning is the fact that sometimes God works miracles, and sometimes... He doesn't. Sometimes He says no. Sometimes, it feels like we are praying to a wall.
So, as we read and talked I just kept thinking about all the people who are part of evergreen who are suffering... so many people I know are going through hard times right now- it just seems abnormal.
And as we talked, I choked up, as we prayed I choked up, as we sang, I choked up...
For my wife and her sister who lost their father, for those struggling with infertility, for those going through the worst week of their life...
"Blessed is the person who doesn't get offended by the way I do things... or don't do them."
And blessed is the man who remembers to pray for his community, day in and day out, to ask God to listen, to answer, to act.
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