More Thoughts on Making Room
Okay, this may sound like grumbling, but I have a really important point to make.
When you grow old you can speak your mind, right? Even it you are a pastor's wife.
Let me preface my story with a call a couple days before from my older sister.
She was in a specialty shoe store. One of those places where you pay a fortune for orthotics. They come with a life long commitment to replace them when needed. They were not working for my sister so she went in to the store to see what could be done. She asked for the sweet girl who had originally helped her and the man in the store said, "She's gone. She wasn't doing things right."
My sister explained her plight and the man rudely replied, "Can you READ?"
Her southern girl reply was perfect. "Yes, I can read. I can also tell you that my mother raised me to have much better manners than your's did." It got a little spicier and her manners may have begun to wain, but we will stop there.
Sunday morning, before heading to church a text came in from a woman thanking me, my husband and daughter for making her feel so welcome at church. (We even had her to our home for a church function where people were loving and welcoming to her.) But then the text continued, It said the next week she came to church and just slipped through the lobby straight to her seat and no one came up to her to speak. And when people stood to greet one another no one shook her head. She considered leaving at that point.
I needed to get out the door to church and am not sure if I prayed before I responded, but here is how it went...
I noticed you walked right by me last week and figured you needed your space. A church is filled with sinners saved by grace and most are hurting and carrying hurts and burdens in ways we would be blown away by if we knew their stories. Some people come through the doors ready to worship and listen for what God is teaching them and where God is calling them to serve.
Others come not knowing what they are looking for but know they have a void. Some come with needs only Jesus can meet.
Keep seeking Jesus and listening closely to where He is calling you. I find it's usually not something I want to hear, but something that is of great benefit to make me look and love more like Jesus.
You are welcome anytime. Find a place and a small group that holds you accountable, teaches God's Word unashamedly, loves you unconditionally and needs you investing in them as well.
Her reply was interesting. "I've never felt love like this from anyone that I've just met."
Y'all love is speaking the truth. Speaking the truth in love.
Years ago I was teaching Sunday school high school senior girls. As the summer was coming to the time that most of them were heading to college I challenged them related to their church hunt.
I said, "What if instead of you seeking out the church that had the "look" you like, the music that moves you and maybe the most potential to find cute guys, when you entered you were handed a questionnaire asking how you were equipped to serve God in that congregation? What if it wasn't about what you could "take" from that church, but what you were coming to "give" in service and worship to God? They all looked at me dumbfounded.
Let' ask ourselves today...I'm a taker or a giver when it comes to my involvement in my church family? Do I walk in more often than Sunday morning? And when I walk in on Sunday is it all what will be given to me or what I have to give to God?
Y'all are saying, "Whew, she got her feathers ruffled." Maybe so, but I hope it stirred motivational thoughts for you.
It's all about Jesus.
The Song
Run to the Father Cody Carnes
