Sunday Reflections
It was awfully nice to be able to "sit back" and relax today at church. I love to preach. It's my gifting and it's my calling. I'd shrivel up and die if I couldn't give expression to that calling. But I need a break from the pressure every once in a while. It's amazing how much spiritual and emotional energy goes into a single message. I still preach each message like its the most important message I've ever preached. It's just the way God has wired me. So it was really nice to "get fed" this morning. It was also great to introduce Pastor Paul in a preaching context to all of NCC. He said several things that really resonated and encouraged me. He said, "God is vulnerable to people's feelings." I love that about God. John 11:35 says so much despite being the shortest verse in the Bible. "Jesus wept." He also said that unmet expectations is the way God gets our attention. That is so true in my life. They force me to recalibrate. I feel recalibrated at the end of the day today.
1 Comments:
wow-I haven't heard something so nicely put as that- "unmet expectations are God's way of getting our attention". For a long time I had thought that unmet expectations were the end in themselves, but now I am beginning to wonder if they are the means to something better. What I mean is that often when things in life do not meet my expectations, I fall into despair, hopelessness, and experience afeeling of failure that zaps my strength and steals all joy. Lately it seems all I have had is one unmet expectation after another. And through many nights I have begun to wonder if there is something more to these unmet expectations. That perhaps if it weren't for them we would not be open to what the Lord wants to do. They can give us the opportunity to replace all our hope in Him rather than our own agendas or perceptions. I have come to desire so much more for Prov. 3:5-6 to be a way of living. That I would trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. To acknowledge Him in all my ways and He will make my path straight. If we are so caught up in how we think things should be, we are closed to what He wants to do, and since He knows the plans He has for us... So if these unmet expectations are the catalyst to trusting fully in Him and make us open to something the Lord has in mind which will exceed our expectations, than I welcome them and even the mixed emotion or dissappointment they may bring.
May our prayer be "My soul, wait silently for God alone, from Him comes my expectation(hope)."
Ps. 62:5
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