Helen and I began our spiritual renewal leave with a conference event in Shueyville where the United Methodist Church there was teaching some pastors what they have done in ministry and how God has led them in ministry. It was there we received the blessing of knowing in April our congregation will be the teaching church to share what God has done in Williamsburg.
Then we got the surprise that my step-mom was sick, so going to Kansas City as planned on Friday afternoon was not going to work. She did not want to gives us an illness to battle while on spiritual renewal time. So, instead of our plans to spend the first four days of our time in Kansas City, we moved that to the back end of our trip. We then began to drive to Tennessee. We were not sure how far we would go because instead of a 5 hour drive we had a 12 hour drive and left Williamsburg around noon. We thought we might get a hotel somewhere, but in the end we drove all the way to Crossville arriving at 12:30 am.
God has already changed our well thought out plans, so I am wondering what he is up to? Then I began my personal reading today with a classic "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This man's life is just amazing as he lived in Nazi Germany and decided instead of running away from the evils in his home country, he would stand for God's truth. This led to his death in a concentration camp where he was executed. As I was reading about our need for personal time of meditation he gave a specific word to pastors. He said when pastors have their quiet time they should not be thinking about how to communicate God's Word to others or how they will teach or preach the text. He said pastors should be asking what the passage they are focused on has to speak to them.
Now I knew some of my spiritual renewal time would be for me, but mostly I was planning to be preparing how I can teach or preach better. Now I hope to really see what God wants me to learn so that I may grow closer to him and rely more on his Holy Spirit. I do pray that as God teaches me I can pass on that learning as well, but only as an added bonus of God's work.
So in my time away as God teaches me, my prayer will also be that everyone back in Williamsburg will be learning their personal lessons from God as well and we will have much to share with each other when we are back together.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
If I may quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens while you are making plans." Sorry your trip got messed around but happy you made it to TN without difficulty. Enjoy your time away. The message yesterday was very well done. Too bad there were no credits at the end. It was quite a production! Take care and drive safely. PS: I talked to Carol U today and she said that Robert would be taking daily radiation for two weeks and then begin a regiment of chemo. I told her to let Sonja know what the schedule would be and we would try and find drivers to get him there for her. Also, Denny W came out just fine from his rotator cuff surgery.
Jeanie, glad the video was good. Jim Hollensbe did the video taping and then we had some trouble with the editing, but thought it turned out okay.
Thanks for the news on Bob U.
Post a Comment