Lonny Poe, our pastor, is an effective communicator. He has the ability to thread Scripture and personal experience together in a way that is powerfully thought provoking. This past week, he was in Las Cruces, N.M. at the boyhood home where he grew up and decided to take advantage of a nature trail he had visited hundreds of times in the past.
His description of the trail drew me in. He said something closely akin to: "The Lost Conscious Trail Head in Northern New Mexico is not far from my mom and dad's place. You can hike back into the canyon that is kind of like a conch shell that overlaps in places. It is a narrow canyon with a creek running through it. One can vividly see the different shades of green on the mountains. The sound of the river that is almost tucked in under an overhanging cliff on one side adds to the ambience of the environment. It was there that I pondered on a Scripture that I read earlier: "We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and shield." (Psalm 33:20).
As he talked about the commonality of waiting; we all wait, he contrasted that with the experience of "waiting in hope." How often in our lives are we waiting for "the other shoe to drop?" That is a vivid contrast to waiting in hope for the Lord.
He defined the impact of the Scripture as feeling like a pebble in his shoe. Though he didn't question God's ability, he faulted his tendency to sometimes not wait in hopefulness. Wow! He was now meddling in my life rather than preaching to someone else.
On Friday of this week, I took my truck to the body shop. They needed to have possession of the truck to expedite the insurance company's attention to the need to ante up with the actual costs of making the needed repairs. I may have expressed that wrong. Expedite may be the wrong word. It has already been over six weeks.
I felt a little uncomfortable when I was asked to sign an authorization for the body shop to do the work. In fact, I felt very uncomfortable. In order to repair the hail damage to my truck, the body shop needed an additional $6,880 dollars on top of the $8,700 already approved.
How could I in good faith provide written authorization for them to do the work? I didn't want the body shop to do anything until the claim's adjustment is made to cover the cost. Consequently, I asked: "Do you mind if I make a notation that the authorization to do the work is contingent on the insurance company approving the cost?"
They looked at me as though I had crawled out from under a rock. Of course, they weren't going to proceed without the insurance company doing their part. Sometimes I'm overly cautious, but I thought it best to be clear in my expectation.
As the pastor spoke, I thought about waiting. The day before I had stopped by the grocery store for two or three items. I gravitated to the light on the register that read: "Fifteen items or less". Perfect I thought. The problem is that the light was on, but there was not a person at the cash register.
The other two lanes that were open after skipping over six closed lanes to get there, had people in line that looked as if they were buying a month's worth of groceries for a family of twelve. What could I do but wait?
My examples of waiting are the superficial kinds of waiting that everyone of us experiences. But what about waiting for solutions to problems or difficulties that weigh heavily on our lives? I suspect that there are times that we all fall into that category. Do we exercise the faith to wait in hope upon the Lord?
Perhaps the most vulnerable people in the world are those waiting in an intensive care waiting room, those waiting for a response to a job application when they are out of money with a stack of unpaid bills, those hopeful that marriage or family counseling works, those struggling to find themselves and get some sense that life can be meaningful.
What about you? I know that we all wait with things that vie for our attention and weigh heavily on our hearts, but do you wait in hope for the Lord? Pastor Poe's message was powerful and may have exclusively been just for me, but I suspect that some of my friends might benefit as well.
By the way, going forward, Pastor Poe's sermons are being posted weekly on YouTube. https://youtu.be/_Fs_U8KB5Es
All My Best!
Don
No comments:
Post a Comment