Ever had the feeling that you might be at a watershed moment (no pun intended with the weather and all)? Today might be that day for me.
So much to learn in so short a time.
I have a series of meetings today that will truly begin the process of remaking, restarting, rekindling, re-beginning the church we're headed to. We, hopefully, will learn things like budgets and visions and such. We will share our combined vision, my co-pastor and I.
So, I thought it quite appropriate as we covet your prayers, that I dig farther into Psalm 139.
The Bible says most beautifully, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand -- when I awake, I am still with you."
I don't want to get all spiritual on you, but this morning as the day dawns dreary, I feel like I've -- we've -- been born for a purpose. I really do. I have never been more sure of anything in my life. This, for lack of a better term, feels right. This feels like what I was called for, planned for, made for. And this honestly feels like we are all in this together.
As my man Rich wrote, "we are frail, we are fearfully, and wonderfully made; forged in the fires of human passion, choking on the fumes of selfish rage; and with these our hells and our heavens, so few inches apart, we must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are."
I don't know who feels this sure of anything in their lives, whether this is common or uncommon, but I believe that all the days ordained for me were written in his book before one of them came to be, which means this one, this one special one, this most beautifully made of them all, the best of that which is to come, is one of them.
How that fits with free will and such, I can't say. Above my pay grade.
But I believe that this is the moment I've been waiting for, this is time I've been made for. It has taken me a long and winding road to reach this moment, this present day. Every bad choice, every mistake, every good things was known to God before I took them, made them, welcomed them. They made me who I am, they welcomed me into understand of whose I am. Whether successful or not, this is the road for which I was made, the path for which I was created, the moment for which I was called. Nothing can stand in the way of a powerful God. Neither rain, nor mishap, nor mistake. Nothing.
So, today I share with you a prayer that I've said this morning, from Sue Augustine:
“Dear God
Please take away my pain and despair of yesterday and any unpleasant memories and replace them with Your glorious promise of new hope. Show me a fresh HS-inspired way of relating to negative things that have happened. I ask You for the mind of Christ so I can discern Your voice from the voice of my past. I pray that former rejection and deep hurts will not color what I see and hear now.
Help me to see all the choices I have ahead of me that can alter the direction of my life. I ask You to empower me to let go of the painful events and heartaches that would keep me bound. Thank You for Your forgiveness that You have offered to me at such a great price. Pour it into my heart so I can relinquish bitterness hurts and disappointments that have no place in my life. Please set me free to forgive those who have sinned against me and caused me pain and also myself. Open my heart to receive Your complete forgiveness and amazing grace. You have promised to bind up my wounds Psa 147:3 and restore my soul Psa 23:3 .
Help me to relinquish my past surrender to You my present and move to the future You have prepared for me. I ask You to come into my heart and make me who You would have me to be so that I might do Your will here on earth. I thank You Lord for all that’s happened in my past and for all I have become through those experiences. I pray You will begin to gloriously renew my present.”
May this day strengthen you, enlighten you, empower you. May you feel his presence each step of the glorious way.
As the Irish would say, and have said for hundreds of years, May the blessing of the rain be on you -- the soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air. May the blessing of the great rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines, and sometimes a star.
You are that star, friend.
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