It's Almost Over...thank God.

As we near the end of forty-four days of prayer and the drama, “Heavens Gates, Hells Flames”, there is definitely one thing that is noticeable. I could say it is the devil attacking us, or the Holy Spirit is so present in the drama, but what it really is, what is really defining about this time period, is how invincible we believe we are.
Now I know that we should believe that we are super, that nothing can defeat us, but when we get like that we become lazy and mundane. I noticed it last night. There were people laughing, farting, and generally discouraged about how they were doing in the drama. There was no uniformity, no sense of purpose, and no end in sight. Could I somehow chalk it up to exhaustion? Could it be that people were so tired that they were getting punch drunk? Or had we as a group lost our vision…
One thing that has bothered me over the last few days is the lack of a “saintly presence” in the evening services. We have older adults in the church who we consider “saints”, and they are being perfectly absent from the drama. I have seen a few faithful, but there are a lot of missing faces. It is puzzling to me that a praying church does not have more people actually visible, and praying. Maybe you are one of those people, just not there. Maybe you don’t like the thought of new people possibly coming to church, or maybe the NCAA tournament is more important, I don’t know. But I am really aggravated by it. If we want the church, and the kingdom of God, filled to overflowing, then maybe we have to be involved in the process. Maybe we have to sacrifice. I have only missed a few nights of the forty days of prayer, and I didn’t feel right when I did miss. I want to be at the drama, if for no other reason then to be support for the cast and crew. But I end up at the altar every night, praying for and with people. And then I stick around, just in case someone needs to talk. The first night I am glad I did, because a young man lagged behind, regretting that he had not gone forward earlier in the evening. I walked him to the altar, thirty minutes after the drama was over, and led him to Jesus. I stayed to talk to another young man, and have made sure that I am around if someone needs to talk.
Am I going to miss a favorite television show tonight? Yes I am. No I care? No I do not. I have the ability, or rather my television has the ability, to record it for me so I can watch it later. So do I have an excuse? Of course, I have several. Our dishes need washed, my back hurts, my feet hurts, I am tired, and the house needs attention. But I have discovered that people and their lives are more important than a wooden spoon with dried egg on it. My back and feet will get better, souls are more important.
There is a lot of work to do before we can grow as a church. Getting past our small church mentality is a priority. We are not a small church…we are not a small congregation…and we need to realize that we are being watched by the community.
And we need to get off our dead butts and start telling people about our God, who we can yell at, who we can not understand all the time, but who loves us anyway. The God who sent his son to die for us, me, you, that guy, what’s her name, and all the people in between.
We are not supermen or wonder women. We are flawed beings that need to show others that, so we can all work together for the greater good. It is almost time to go, and we need to be ready.

Dieting people around the fat not junior senator from Illinois.

I hate people that make you diet along with them.
If it is working for you, then great. I personally cannot eat that much meat and cheese all day.
I like bread.
So shut up.