Perspectives: Bent Tree Branch

 I just wonder why the branch on the left is bent.  What obstruction did it encounter that we cannot see?  Does the same thing happen to people?  Aren't there permanent effects on people causes by a past (or present) we cannot see or understand?

Wrong People. Wrong Bus.

Have you noticed in the Bible how God doesn't call the people we would expect him to call? God calls people like Samson.  Like David.  Like Tamar.  Like Ruth.  These are not the people we would have chosen for God to recruit.  He calls the slaves out of Egypt to the Promised Land, and they complain and wander and worship gold idols. 

In the book Missional Leader, by Alex Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, the authors write, "In the incarnation, we discern that God is always found in what appears to be the most godforsaken of places - the most inauspicious of locations, people, and situations."  And also, "This God who pursues us is always calling the wrong people onto a bus that isn't expected to arrive."

As I read that today, it occurred to me that we are less than humble when we think about this.  "God calls the wrong people" we think.    "Surely God doesn't want that person to have a leadership role in this ministry."  All along we forget that we have been called - that we are the wrong people - that God has taken a chance on us. 

If that were not the case, then the only assumption is that we are the perfect, good people, judging everyone else.  That's not the case, is it?

No.  We are the wrong people, called onto a bus by God - a bus that isn't expected.  How can we fail to welcome anyone else?

Sense of Urgency

Yesterday, Marv taught a Sunday school lesson based on one of Moses' speeches from Deuteronomy.  He provided a list from the curriculum of ways we can prepare ourselves for worship.  I thought the list would be the basis of a series of blog posts.

The first item on the list is to have a sense of urgency about worship - Anticipate something new.  When I heard that, a few things came to mind.

In the Walk to Emmaus, we are told not to anticipate.  And during our recently Academy, there was a lot of talk about broken expectations - the way to prevent broken expectations is to not have them.

And yet, there is the passage from Isaiah 43:19 -- I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

While this passage from Isaiah isn't specfically about our topic, it does remind me that God is strong enough to bear our expectations - our anticipations.    If we come to worship with a sense of urgency, expecting God to be present, and for God to reveal God-self to us, then isn't God faithful and reliable enough to show up?

Urgency - coming to worship with a sense of anticipation.  It's not something I usually do, but it is something I should do.