Wednesday, June 11, 2008

"In Between Places"

OFTEN...the best ministry (Kingdom-work) takes place in the unexpected moments of life. They come in between "point A" and "point B." My concern is that we spend too much time writing agendas and planning programs for planned ministry instead of opening our eyes to the spontaneous ways that God is moving in the world around us.

I am not condemning agendas, programs or intentional/planned ministry.

However, what I want to grasp as a Christ-Follower and a minister is that God is still at work in between point A and point B.
Look at the life of Jacob. We know the story of Jacob's dream (Gen.28) and we know the story of the greatest wrestling match in all of Scripture (Gen.32). However, both of these stories come while Jacob is traveling to and from Isaac and Rebekah's home and Uncle's Laban's.

How often do we pray while driving in our cars for God to help us to have courage to live the Christ-life...while we pass cars broken down on the side of the road?
How often are we amazed at the stories of Jesus touching the untouchable (lepers, the dead, the ill, etc.)...yet we fail to enter into the world to touch the homeless people on the street corners?
How often do we make our 30-45 minute commutes or drives, dialing number after number on our cell phones...instead of turning off the radio to allow God a little time to massage the wrinkles of our hearts?

May we open our eyes to see God at work in the "in between" places of life.

2 comments:

phil said...

Josh,
Thanks for your thoughts! An example in scripture I was recently reading about has very much to do with your post. In Luke we are introduced to this question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” In other words, what must I do to get to point B? In one instance, Jesus tells a parable about the Good Samaritan, in the other encounter, Jesus’ response is to obey the commandments, sell everything, and give to the poor. First I will note that nowhere in Jesus response are the “good ole 5 steps of salvation” but second his response has everything to do with what happens between point A and B! In other words, to answer the question of how to inherit eternal life, Jesus says, has everything to do with how you are living now; How is God working in your life in between A and B?

James T Wood said...

Hey, Josh, we haven't met, but I wanted to say I'm glad you're at Sycamore View. I can see from your blog that you're a voice that they need to hear.

Without taking too much space on your blog - I'm a Harding Grad School student who has moved from Memphis to Portland, Oregon to pursue church planting. When my wife and I were in Memphis, SV was a home and a refuge for us. We're glad to see them find you after their long search.