Practice Makes Perfect

Today was a long day. It started early and of course now is ending early the next morning. I did not get to bed last night until very late and I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. Needless to say I am tired. But there has been something on my heart and mind all day that I just had to get down before collapsing and doing it all again in a few hours.



Today was the day I was to teach the Job Search Basics Class for the Cove Church. This is the beginning of what I hope becomes a full lay directed ministry for our church focused on employment call Career Life Ministry. It will evolve into a comprehensive outreach that will assist those unemployed or under employed, people trying to improve themselves in their current employment, or help educate those who want to better there opportunities in the workplace. The timing of this ministry could not have been better in light of the current economic challenges we are facing.



On my way to my office this morning I stopped by "It Don't Matter" Cafe to grab a tea. I was in a hurry but being that this is a small town being in a hurry and stopping in a place like "It Don't Matter" doesn't match up. It's like Cheers in that everyone knows your name and will want to talk to you. Those of you that know me well know I never met a conversation that I couldn't extend. And today was one of those days.



I ran into a friend of mine who was sitting with a young minister and through various diatribes and exchanges about all of the crazy stuff I have going on somehow the discussion turned to people suffering in despair. I am sure it came up because I talked about the Career Life Ministry inviting her to share it with her flock. In the conversation it hit me that in despair we cry out to God to save us but it doesn't always have the quick result we crave. . In that darkest hour we finally are broken to the point that we yell out to God imploring Him to come save us. We are looking for some instant "beam me up Scotty" experience where by which God just snatches us out of or misery and makes everything right again. More often than not, that immediate rescue does not happen. Matter of fact, often times it seems as though that God didn't hear us at all and just leaves us there alone. We feel abandoned and lost and our depair is quickly magnified. Discouragement combines with our misery and often times our thoughts turn to questions about God's existence and participation in our lives. Hitting the prayer panic button it seems is a waste of our time and our hope no longer is there.

As I left the conversation and began walking to my office I thought about this and about a situation a friend of mine is facing right now and I wondered why God does not answer us in our time and it hit me that maybe the problem lies not in God's timing but our understanding of how God works in time.

Maybe, I surmised, had we been the obedient followers of Him and had practiced turning everything over to God, that we would have a better sense for God's timing and through that understanding manage our despair differently. Maybe, if we gave everything to Him, lifted up all of our anxieties, fears, problems, stress, failures, successes, blessings, gifts, family, everything God would use that continual dialogue to reveal time and again how He works in our lives not by our clock but by His timepiece. By practicing our followership of our Father through submitting everything to Him and praising Him for the blessings in our lives we would gather experience in God's timing. This understanding would help sustain us and motivate us to stand strong in our despair, submit to Him, and wait patiently for God to reveal His plan for us.

They say Practice makes Perfect. Practice turning everything over to God. You will be amazed at how Perfect God's plan is for your life.

1 Peter 1 3-9
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3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.