Good morning High Places,
We continue this Sunday talking about F-A-T, or becoming increasingly faithful, available, and teachable as God prepares High Places for life post-pandemic. Last week we saw Peter's faithfulness, without it God wouldn't have placed so many teachable moments into his life, moments that have been written down for us so that we too can be taught. The storm and Peter's courage to follow Jesus onto the seas, teach us that God will take our faithfulness and use it to teach us a deep faith, a reliance on Him and Him alone in the storms of our lives.
This week, we will talk about "availablity." The kind of availablity that Jesus calls us to is audacious. (See what I did there using assonance you literary types?)... we will be looking at some of the radical sayings of Jesus when it comes to following Him, and taking a peek into one of the most crippling things in the lives of Christ-followers: Busyness!
"We are going as fast as we can, living life at a dizzying speed, and God is nowhere to be found. We're not rejecting God; we just don't have time for him. We've lost him in the blurred landscape as we rush to church. We don't struggle with the Bible, but with the clock. It's not that we're too decadent; we're too busy. We don't feel guilty because of sin, but because we have no time for our spouses, our children, or our God. It's not sinning too much that's killing our souls, it's our schedule that's annihilating us.”~ Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality
Availability is maybe our biggest challenge in a world saturated with commitments, responsibilities, work, and a culture that is always pushing us for more. Jesus had some super-difficult things to say about busyness, and he issued some pretty hard challenges to those following him. We will look at some of those this Sunday and pray for more availability in our lives to follow Jesus in our time-crunch culture! We hope you will join us!
On Monday, May 3rd at 7:00PM, any who'd like to come are invited to a Bible Question and Answer time for an hour in the lobby. We will stream it live and take questions from the virtual world too. If there is a Biblical idea or a thought, doesn't have to be deep or profound, that always been a head-scratcher for you, bring it to this event. I won't promise to know the answers, but I will promise to be completely honest with us in my responses. My life is full of questions too, and sometimes the questions are more valuable to God than the answers... at least we see Jesus living that way!
This Saturday if there's another person who'd like to glean produce from the Farmer's Market here in Oak Ridge and distribute to a needy population, we want to invite you to join us. It's early in the season so there isn't as much to do as there will be later this summer, but the work is still rewarding! Let's continue to work together and brainstorm ways of helping address food scarcity in Oak Ridge (yes, this is a real thing!).
Finally, let's all be in prayer about the way we show love to our neighbors in these trying times. Smiles are returning from beneath masks. Hugs are returning as we re-gather together. There are painful stories that some need to share, and joyful responses that some are ready to give. Let's continue to BE THE CHURCH in new, exciting ways post-pandemic.
More than anything else, I want to encourage us all to take a quiet walk this week. Feel the breeze of Spring, and as we inhale, allow a spirit of gratitude to overtake us. Life is short, the people and things around us are fragile. But there is a wonderful sweetness to it all that I believe God wants us to take inside and treasure.
Much love to you all,
David