I played an older hymn this morning as I think about the future. “I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, over mountain or plain or sea. I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord, I’ll be what you want me to be.” I don’t know why this song led me to think about the game, hide and seek. We cannot hide from God but He is constantly seeking us for our own good. If we seek Him – we will find Him. The fields and the workers belong to God. Matt 9:36-38 reads, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers ARE few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest'”. Again, the fields and the workers (we imperfect wanna be’s) belong to God. In a works system, everyone would be subject to conscription or draft. We have not failed God if we do not have a ministry position. That false security that our job is God is not common but it does happen and we know those people. I’ve mostly worked in the world but tried to not be “of” the world – going for what the world offers to tempt us away from higher things. Matt 11:28 reminds us that we should, “Come to Him, all YOU who labor and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest”. This is the same message to say what God wants us to say and go where He wants us to go and also sit in His rest. In all things, the greatest of these is love. Why do you go or not go or speak or not speak? When I married, the wonderful pastor, who had previously been in the funeral business, had a canned wedding. I like original so had a friend, Ron, read Chaper 13 of Ist Corinthians. This is often referred to as the love chapter. “…and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”… “Love suffers long AND is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek it’s own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endured all things. Love never fails…”. So there you have it. This is impossible and we need help. I am not God’s gift to the world or my church but God is the gift. To go or not to go – that is the question.
