Somewhere along the line, I got tech savvy, or at least as tech savvy as a six-year-old. There is an app I use for all my notes. It looks like an old-time yellow notepad, which makes me wonder why I don't simply use an old-time yellow notepad and a pen, but that's a blog for another day.
So, when I get multiple ideas for grocery purchases, for example, I one-finger type them on my notes list on the I-phone (six or seven or 16 or some edition). Most of the time that plan works, acknowledging, of course, that there is no way to cross off the words on each line.
God's idea for how to work things is similar. It's a relatively simple idea. God plans. God calls. We answer. God provides.
God says to Abram, go. Abram goes. God calls. God provides. There you go.
God's plans work about the way my grocery plans do, or even how my baking, making, cooking plans do. He plans before time, and when we listen and act accordingly, well, things are much more peaceful and pleasant. He calls. We answer. We act.
Somewhere in there, we put in ingredients of God's plan into a bowl the size of Wyoming and we mix it all, like we were a mad scientist in a Frankey-stine movie.
He calls. We answer. We act.
The Bible says it this way: "I know I the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope."
God knows what he's doing.
Somewhere along the line, God called me to minister to others. Somewhere I heard the call and, er, began to minister as best I could. Somewhere this plan of God came together and we wound up, Mary and I, following the path to the pan of cornbread, or the pan of fried chicken, or the pot of mac and cheese or whatever.
Seriously, is that not the United Methodist last meal? Chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread, greens to the liking of the cook?
This past week we lost man's best friend, Logan, to cancer. A 15-year-old terrier mix, gone. About the same time, our church plant of nine months was dug-up and disposed of. We were re-appointed to two churches in and around Coushatta, La. We announced the appointment Sunday.
Some have wondered if we're, Mary and I, happy about being moved away from our children and grand children, and of course we're not. Those funny little men and women ages 6 to 13 are, to steal a cliche or two, our lives, our joy, our ingredients for funny is as funny does. There are three who have gone to church with us these past nine months, and two who live in Jackson. Their ability to laugh and make laugh rolls the stone away.
But here's the solution to the worry and stress of the situation.
God has called. He said go. We're going.
He said He will provide. He provides.
So, here we go, again. Free of fear. Free of doubt. Free to love to the nth degree.
We took the list of ingredients He joyfully and faithfully gave us, and we have begun to stir and mix and make, knowing the plan and the meal would work only if we took the words listed on our app and crossed them off one after another. No ingredient would be more important than the other because no matter how important, each depended on the next. Dishes of food and churches of people are built the same way.
What we would find is the key ingredient was not sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, or any number of things not thought to be important or thought to be incredibly important. I once heard a recipe that called for an enormous amount of secrets. At the end of them all, someone said the most important was love. Who knew?
I can't wait to meet gloriously new friends. I can't wait to see the almost spanking new church building. I can't wait to begin the process again of making disciples of Jesus Christ. I can't wait to begin to change the community in the name of Jesus.
I will hurt for those we leave behind here, including new friends, and I most especially will hurt to miss another baseball season for Gabe and Gavin and softball season for Emma.
But through it all, God calls, God provides, we go. Though some will say that's the mission of the ministry, I disagree. It's the mission of the reborn. All of us. Each and every one called by God, which is each and every one. Try my second book God Calls for more on that subject.
Till then, as one dear friend reminded me, may God bless and keep you and make his face shine upon you. Do you want turnip greens with that?
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