Church

Today, I turned down eating two full meals.  Both were great food, well presented, and paid for by someone else.

But as the meals progressed, I couldn’t eat full helpings.  And that’s not a bad thing.  My weight could be slightly less (although I have settled on an acceptable weight — less weight means less stress on my new knees).  My stomach was also saying it didn’t need to pile up a lot of food at any one time today.

So, here I am.  Eating a few almonds as I finish the day.  I’ll have a drink (probably of tea).  Then it’s off to bed.  I’v been reading a novel, and have skipped to the final chapter — which I’ve now finished.  So, as my head hits the pillow, I’m planning for immediate sleep.  With the early rising of the sun, I expect I’ll be up around 6:00 tomorrow — and I should be well refreshed, looking forward to tomorrow.

Because 5 minutes equals an hour!

Tonight an easy computer task took over an hour.  Should have been five minutes.  Merely hooking up another computer to our wireless network. 

But, of course, the security code is complicated and was probably typed wrong the first time around.  Then the system wouldn’t recognize the wireless network automatically.  Finally, the wireless system kicked out when the computer was unplugged.

All easy to solve — after you’ve done figured it out.  But the tale is in the figuring it out.  And that always takes longer than you figure.  Like he first time I tried to change wiper blades on my car.  An hour later I found the latches that needed released.  Recently I changed some wiper blades and was done in seconds.

So, would I want to work on computers all day?  Of course, if 5 minutes equals an hour — I’d still be working on the computer six days later!  It would work, but no one would want to pay me what I’m worth!!

Saskatoon hosted a seminar for church leadership today.  Four of us went.  Others from local area Alliance churches also attended.

Morris Dirks was one of the speakers.  He was in my youth group when I was 16.  Now, almost 40  years later we have covered much the same course.

In our teens our youth group came alive.  We were all seeking Jesus.  Bible studies and prayer time, talking to others about Jesus, hanging out together.  Many of us felt a distant call to go into church ministry.  Many of us did.

Time intervened.  We began to look for ways to increase church attendance, provide the best programs or even start new ministries.  Somewhere in between we lost the pure motive of following Jesus — or perhaps it was just diluted.  We were distracted even though, in some short seasons of life, we were brought back to passionate experiences with Jesus.

At some point, a crash resulted.  And that story seems to be repeating itself among many of us of that same age and time.  What we are seeing is that our activities have become our way of pleasing people or getting approval or even just looking good, instead of experiencing Jesus more and more.

A shame.

And now we are trying to regain ground.  Which is to release control back to God.  Or as as been said by another "We must die to live."

Exciting!!  Passion can return in later days.  And may that passion rise even more!