daily life as life goes on . . .

So, I’m driving on our highway that goes through town.  I see a garbage bag in the lane ahead of me.  No cars ahead of me for blocks.

Thinking that hitting the bag of garbage would not be good for me or for others, I pulled over.  Jumping out of the car I retrieved the bag. 

The bag was not full of garbage!  Rather, the contents were cans and recyclables.  All the better!

You see, our children’s club is in the middle of a bottle drive.  We leaders are attempting to get more cans than the clubbers.  And so far, we are winning – and now for sure we can push to the top!

How is it that doing a good deed can end up being to your benefit? 

I believe that we need to do what is right (righteous) and leave the rest up to God.  Not a bad way to live!

Jesus stressed that leadership was for the sake of others.  We are to be servants. 

When we work together  in community, we are in a “body” that must depend on others.  This requires being open to serving others.  No part is greater than another part – some have more prominence but each part contributes.

One of the first questions that couples should ask as they look are courting is, “what are you expecting?”  If the only answer (deep inside) is physical fulfilment, or someone to provide support, or even just someone to show off – you have missed the point. 

Where lies the depth of marriage is in being willing to serve each other.  Practically this is exhibited in being sure the other person is the very best person that God has created them to be. 

That is not an easy answer to give.  And fulfilling that purpose is not easy either.  There are days in which placing another person’s needs ahead of your own needs doesn’t seem to make sense.  But in the long run (and that’s what marriage is about), serving another person is God’s priority.  That makes sense. 

Where God directs – always good to take that path!!

I’ve lasted long enough in life to know that plans become very real when they sit on paper.  As I have been courting, the plans we discussed have covered the basic areas of excitement and concern – both our own and others.

Yesterday we sat, taking snippets of thoughts and scraps of paper, and put things into some type of order on paper.  We discussed timelines more thoroughly.  We looked at contacts and talked about moving – all topics we had touched on in our conversations and now were pulling together.

To-do lists are great.  They give direction.  They can also put a whole new perspective on life.  When things are laid out in front of you, you realize that, “we are really going to do this, aren’t we.” 

I’m enjoying taking one step at a time.  Note that I did not say that I always like the next step.  Sometimes the tough – against the flow – type of advance feels just that, tough.  But I do not want to become a stagnant pool, so one step at a time it is!

Now, where is that list??

For the last while I have approached the miraculous with a very close view. 

I asked God to heal me – and I watch every day as he gives me strength and daily health.  I no longer take medications and trust God for physical vitality. 

I listened to God a few years ago talk about 2×2.  This was the idea, now in a very real way reality, of seeing a congregation, in two years, grow in Sunday service attendance from around 60 or 65 to double that amount. 

A few years ago we, as  a church, we watched the unexpected happen.  We had wanted an intern, but for five years we could not find one.  Then God gave us the unexpected (which resulted in a full time staff member), and we continue to watch to see where our staffing will go next. 

I had asked for years for healing for my wife Jill, and God chose to provide a complete healing.  And for me, God has given an enlarged heart as I look forward to a new marriage.

So, I’m trying to process what should just be common knowledge.  God answers prayer.  In both the small and the big.

And I ask myself as I consider prayer with God – what world should I live in – a small one of little hope, or a big one where God speaks and creation is born?