A Birthday Gift

This year our church participated in two dynamic, outwardly focused events in our community. One occurred the Saturday after Easter, sending an eclectic gathering of over 1,000 volunteers into the community to perform a variety of acts of kindness, support, caring, and grace. The afternoon and evening continued this ministry effort around a continuous celebration of praise music and faith testimony. The second event occurred on Christmas Eve, gathering over 800 people in a local convention center for a worship celebration and to distribute Christmas gifts and food to over 600 children in need and their families. Both events came about through God's vision impressed on our church's skilled and gifted Worship Coordinator, Brad Aycock, and hundreds of willing leaders and volunteers. And each event united people of several churches, various religious affiliations and no religious allegiance, all ages, and all racial background. (We live in a wonderful town, but it is a community, like many, that has had some painful moments of division between Caucasians citizens and African-American citizens.) It has been a joy and blessing to watch events like this unfold, to see God's mighty hand at work, and to join with others in humble obedience to the mainstream of God's heart.

For most of my adult life I have kept prayer journals. Most of my prayer life, both listening for God and speaking to God, is expressed in writing. Lately I've been glossing through some journals, just to be reminded of God's faithfulness and action in the past. Yesterday, my 59th birthday, I saw these words that I wrote about dreams I'd had on August 9, 2009 while on a sabbatical retreat. In light of the paragraph above, note this entry:

" I usually forget dreams in the morning, and these two (from last night) are fading. Still, I recall enough of the sense of them. The first was a grand, positive, outdoor worship experience in Sikeston. Several things I recall about it. First, it was multi-ethnic. Second, it had the energetic and happy involvement of children. Also, I felt excited about it; eager to do my part without the constant, simmering anxiety of failure, opposition or whatever..."

I know now that God gave me a glimpse of what was to come. This was a great birthday gift. Sometimes the road can seem long, and any of us can wonder if our passion for a God-sized vision is worth it. Simply put, what God seeks, God will bring about, some way, some time.