I mentioned in my last post, “Connecting The Dots…”, that God will get inside of you and start messing around. It’s always a good thing, but not always the most comfortable. A couple of weeks ago, my 13 year old daughter, Keely told us that she wanted to volunteer at Elevation Church. “Sign up” was my response. Her uncle, the white shiny Reebok wearing Uncle Joel volunteers there and is willing to assist in Keely’s transportation. Nothing happened so I’ve been pushing Keely a bit to pull the trigger and get on with her life. Last night at Elevation, Pastor Steven and the Campus Pastor John Bishop encouraged people to sign up and volunteer. I poked Keely and told her to fill out the card. Instantly I felt myself being poked in my spirit. Why should your kid volunteer when you’re not? Aren’t you supposed to lead by example? Okay, okay, I hear you. But I sat there and did nothing. Just because I heard doesn’t mean I obeyed. I listened to the other voices in my head that sounded much more reasonable. Are you sure that you want to jump back into volunteering? You were Mr. Super Volunteer for 15 years at your last church. You deserve your rest. Put that pen down. Don’t fill out that card. That’s the voice I liked and it’s the one I listened to. I didn’t feel that bad about it either. Then (yes, when God is messing with you, there’s always a “then”), church was over and we stood to leave. As I stood in line to leave I did what most men do when we are waiting, I pulled out my Blackberry. I noticed that I had a new tweet. Must be Joel. He’s a tweeting fool. Sure enough, but it was Joel retweeting something his 15 year old daughter, Sedona, posted. “Serving tomorrow morning! I am excited!! 🙂 // Father and daughter serving together doesn’t get better than that!! Luv u!” She’s referring to the fact that she and Joel would be serving together at Elevation today. Why did she have to go and ruin my complacency and rationalization? It’s not her fault. She was unwittingly being used as a tool of God’s. So I got the message. On the way out I filled out the card and we are set to attend a new volunteer meeting next Sunday.
But God wasn’t done with me yet. Maybe He wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss the lesson. This morning I opened Oswald Chambers, My Upmost for His Highest for the first time in months. A portion of October 10 reads, “If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you…God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already.”
It’s nice to know that God doesn’t give up on His children. Some of the places He wants us to go, some of the things He wants us to do and some of the people He wants us to meet are not on our Top 10 lists, but I’ve learned just enough to know that we are better off following His lead than aimlessly wandering around in the wilderness. He won’t give up trying to lead us anyway. His attempts will just get louder, more obvious and usually way more uncomfortable for us. Thanks, Sedona. Who knows what would have been next for me had I left church last night without filling out that form?
Onword and Upwords by Dennis Brady 