It has been mentioned in every conversation around me lately. It has required me to maneuver around sales racks of NFL t-shirts and caps just to reach the produce section at Wal-Mart. And it has meant that even the newborns at a local hospital are being given black and gold caps.The Saints winning the Super Bowl--call it a sigh of relief to finally have Louisiana in the news over something our state can be proud of. The week before the game, you could feel the electrifying excitement around town. Like many, we live vicariously through our state's football team. When they win, we win.
But tonight, I didn't watch the first half of the game.
I wanted to.
But my love for the Saints is trumped by a greater love that resides in my heart--a love for worshiping my Jesus.
But if I'm really, really honest, I expected to attend just "another" routine worship service for an hour, and then I'd go home and do what I wanted to do--watch the game.
But then God showed up.
In the midst of my brain-scattered, unfocused attempt to worship Him...
God. Showed. Up.
And He spoke to me. He answered one of those questions I'd been throwing heavenward for months without really expecting an answer.
"Why not me?"
Why not me receiving God's call to life as a missionary in some exotic locale or at least in the place my brother and his wife are moving? Why not me and my husband receiving God's call to move to another state and start his career over?
Why didn't God call me to something big?!?
A dear, dear Christian friend, Lyla, posted awhile back about two men who sold themselves into a lifetime of slavery just so they would have a chance to share Jesus' love with 3,000 slaves who lived on an island with their atheist master.
Ever since I read the story, I've thought, wow, what a calling. But what about me? Why didn't God call me to some awe-inspiring mission like that? Have I just been missing it?
God led my Pastor to preach tonight's sermon on the story of the demon-possessed man whom Jesus healed, casting the demons into the swine. After Jesus literally gave him his humanity back, he wanted to do something "BIG" for Jesus, too.
But his story concludes, "As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, 'Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.' So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed" (Mark 5:18-20).
My soul felt the message God was speaking.
Just like God had a mission for this man to stay and witness to his village, God has made it clear that He desires me to stay in the not-even-on-a-big-map town of Watson. My mission is here.
It may not be what I (or anybody else) would consider big. But at least I know it is God-ordained.
When God speaks...I'm still awed.
What an unasked-for blessing as a result of my obedience in putting my desire to watch a ballgame beneath my desire to go to communal worship.
Oh what comforting words I would have missed had I just stayed home.
What a blessed time you must have had at the communal worship! Obedience, that is what it was all about. The Super Bowl was only incidental.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a blessed post. Thanks for sharing.
We are able to reflect Jesus more by our obedient choices, than anything else we say or do.
Love
Lidj
Jennifer, I so often give God my list of brilliant suggestions and ask Him, why have You not dropped me into these amazing avenues of service to You? I find that when I just pay attention to what He's asking me right now, I am much better positioned to serve Him in the moment.
ReplyDeleteYesterday a friend and I hooked up a computer and streamed our SS class and worship service to another friend three states away who has been ill and homebound and unable to worship with her own church family for the past few months. Knowing how she has missed being with the body, we piped ours over to her. She doesn't know my church or my friends. Yet the experience, even thru a clumsy web cam and live stream was such a blessing to her.
These are the things -- ordinary, one-life-touching -- that God has called us to.
I'm so glad.
Wow, I never gave that scripture much thought like it is due. Here Jesus tells a man to go back home!? I always thought He wanted us to travel the world and preach the gospel. But...not everyone can do that.
ReplyDeleteI had big dreams too, of being a world-traveler preaching the gospel, and maybe some day I will do just that. But for now, sigh, here I am, blogging and watching the blizzard out my window, the 10 feet of snow predicted is already starting to swirl and sputter with a flurry of whiteness. God, hello? Hehe...
Amen sister, and your light so shines where He has called you to be His witness and share His love.
ReplyDeleteGinger