Welcome to another week! I heard warmer weather is on the way. Meteorologists predict high temperatures in the 40s and 50s starting Tuesday. Whoo-hoo! That’ll melt the snow. But here’s the thing: nighttime lows will be in the 20s and 30s. That means ice. So please be careful.
I’ve titled this column rather strangely. While listening to Don Moen sing on February 22, God gave me a big old kick in the pants.
Don uses his God-given singing and writing talents to draw people closer to Him. It hit me that I have not been obeying God.
For one thing, I don’t praise God enough. Singing is the easiest way for me to thank God for his faithfulness and his gifts. I help our church’s music leader teach songs to the children at my home church. It always lifts my spirits. Why? Because I’m praising God as I sing.
Lately I’ve been listening to Don’s CDs and singing along. When I do, I feel God’s peace envelop me.
However, I’ve been disobeying God in another significant way. God has called me to write. I’m blessed to have this column. I praise God for the opportunity to encourage those who live in or long for the Atlantic community. But I also write devotionals and I haven’t been obedient about writing those.
What has God called you to do? Teach a Sunday school class? Have children? Care for your aging parents?
If you’re hesitating to follow God’s leading, you’re not alone. Sometimes it’s hard to obey God’s call on your life. The main reason I don’t write enough is because I struggle with fear – fear of rejection and fear of pain.
Life can be very painful. I know families that cope with unrelenting crises. People get cancer and have strokes. We wreck our cars and lose jobs. People’s kids give them fits because they make bad choices. Friends betray us.
But, you know what? Jesus knew, and knows, all about pain. It must have been painful to watch his mother suffer after Joseph died. There is no evidence in the Bible that Joseph was alive during Jesus’ ministry.
How about the pain of being abandoned by his disciples when the Roman soldiers and Temple guards arrested him in the garden?
What do you think it felt like to have God turn his face away from Jesus for the first and only time while he hung on the cross?
God never promised me a pain-free life. He only promised his followers that he would be with us during the pain and the good times also. He wants us to know that he’s holding us by our right hands.
Obeying God has nothing to do with how our lives are going. Obeying God is a command and a choice, a choice only you and I can make.
Lenten services continue on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at Fallowfield United Methodist Church.
Calvary United Methodist Church in Greenville is hosting Lenten luncheons on Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. Expect a speaker, lunch, and entertainment. The last luncheon will be on March 25.
Blessings!