"What are you doing here?" is a question with several different connotations or implications. One is "What are you, a United Methodist, doing here in a Universalist National church?" That is a relevant question and I am agnostic on a simple answer. Another facet is, "What are you going to do while you are here?" That answer is clearer to me, so let me address it.
Marking time or waiting for something better to happen, are not on my "to do" list. Just to "fill in" while a real pastor is located is not on my agenda either. I have the sense that God was in the process of my being here and that there are things which God wants to do with us in the "interim." I am not just sure of what "they" are at this moment, but through prayer, meditation, a collective waiting on God, we can sense God’s leadership. I am trusting that our direction will open up for us.
The Apostle Paul only spent six weeks in Thessalonica when he had to leave because of persecution. He left a church to which he later wrote, "...you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit and you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Archaia ...your faith in God has become known everywhere."
We can sit back and wait or we can begin to run with the baton which has been passed to us. Shall we leave the starting blocks?
Jim
Posted by Mark McNabb at September 8, 2005 08:44 AM