ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 29, 2022
I met a ministry colleague at Starbucks yesterday. We get together occasionally, in part, because he is exceptionally smart and I like to steal all his good ideas. We met over in Kingwood, and since I left directly from the house in the morning, I took 99 around. On the way back, since I was going to the church, I took 69 down to Beltway 8. On my way back to the church, traffic was surprisingly heavy in a couple of spots. At some point in the drive, something hit me. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, I couldn’t have imagined driving the interstates and toll roads of Houston. When I was a young driver, just getting out on the one interstate, I-80, was a source of stress. Yesterday, I maneuvered the usual craziness; I got cut off by a semi changing lanes unexpectedly at 73 mph; I found myself stuck in a group of cars as I approached my exit and needed to get over two lanes, yet everything turned out just fine. I doubt my heart rate went up at all (except when the semi came over without warning). Isn’t it interesting how, at one time in life, you couldn’t have imagined doing something? And then, later in life, it seems almost second nature.
My personal work at Living the Love First Life has some interesting parallels. There are things I do today, acts and expressions of love, that I would not have felt comfortable doing 25 years ago. At one point in my life, there were certain things well beyond my comfort zone, yet now these very things are second nature. Of course, there are new happenings and experiences today that might cause uneasiness, even fear. It would not be unusual to say, “I’ll never do that!” But isn’t that ridiculous? We are a work in progress when it comes to loving like Jesus loved. What I find myself doing tomorrow may be the very thing I never imagined a few years earlier. So if we claim to be a work in progress, let’s just make sure we are making progress.
O Spirit of the Living God, you move among us and with us. You are the life-force moving us forward when we thought our journey had reached its completion. Continue to be our inspiration and motivation in the work to Put Love First In All Things. Amen.
