Blessings roll in like waves from the sea

I finished a box of Honeynut Cheerios this morning. I drank the last of the tomato juice. I pitched both containers into the garbage, which I took to the large container outside in preparation for the last time we'll put the garbage out.

I'm going to visit Miss Ollie today, for the last time. Last night I brought the new pastor, my friend Mike Palermo, out to Fitzgerald and we wound up at the altar praying for each other and each other's ministry. Sunday I'll preach from that pulpit (or somewhere close to it) for the last time.

I feel like a graduate, somehow, and I also feel way too ungrateful for the many blessings I've received.

The record is like this: Somehow God made a way for me to be the pastor at Lacombe, when I was without an appointment because of Hurricane Katrina. Somehow God added Fitzgerald to the mix a year later. Somehow ...

In the book of Isaiah, I read this morning of God's statements to Israel:

"Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—
I'm the One who named you!
I'm the One.
I got things started and, yes, I'll wrap them up.
Earth is my work, handmade.
And the skies—I made them, too, horizon to horizon.
When I speak, they're on their feet, at attention."

See, I believe all this is not preordained. I believe I could have said no to any and all of it. I believe, however, that God does offer to me the best for me, and I believe that the best for me is to pack, move, pastor in Eunice. I believe it is hard to leave those persons who I grew to love over the past five-six years, but (and it's a huge, huge but) I believe we're called, actually called by the One who named us.

I believe that he has plans to prosper us.
I believe those plans are offered to those who listen and obey.
I believe that God started things, but didn't just stand by and let it work itself out from there.
I believe God made everything.
And I believe that when He speaks, all we can do it pay attention and act upon what we hear, feel, sense, absorb.

When God declared the time of captivity done in Babylon, He used a man named Cyrus -- who defeated the Babylonians and obtained Israelite slaves at the same time -- to do so.

God said, "I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I'm using him
to do what I want with Babylon.
I, yes I, have spoken. I've called him.
I've brought him here. He'll be successful.
Come close, listen carefully:
I've never kept secrets from you.
I've always been present with you."

Listen, listen, learn, learn, love, love.

It's all there for those who hear that still, small but important voice.

"I am God, your God,
who teaches you how to live right and well.
I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea."

We are loved. We are blessed. We are His.