Very interesting; at least to me.
It started out much the same as any other day, except today I had to prepare for the Wednesday night class studying The Circle Maker. Our pastor asked me to lead since he and his wife were on vacation. I had to watch a video and then draw a lesson from that. It’s pretty easy, really and so I wasn’t too worried about it.
In this video lesson, Mark talked about how hard it was to pray hard, and he also talked about the need their church had for a drummer. My take on this was that God told them to buy the drum set and leave the rest to Him.
I was almost done with my lesson and felt the need to leave it and go on to the church on 9th and Cherokee to pray. On my way I couldn’t help continuing to think about that drum set. When I got there, I started walking and talking to the Lord about stepping out in faith.
“Lord, is there some way I need to step out in faith on this?”
“Lord, if so, what am I to do?”
A word of advice: If you’re not prepared to step out in faith, don’t ask those two questions.
Immediately I felt I needed to send an email to who I knew to be the preacher of the FourSquare church. I’d sent him an email when we were trying to find locations for The Death of Kevin Frye, and I was certain I still had his email. It was my intention to keep it in case there was another need for a film location.
I looked up at the peak of the church and saw something that is as common as seeing the sun. I saw the moon hanging in the day sky. Now most people wouldn’t see that as remarkable, and I can’t really say I felt it was remarkable either. But there’s something about the moon that really speaks to me. Every time I see it I think of the amazing fact that this is the same moon that Adam first saw on his first night on earth, the same moon Abraham saw as he tried to count the stars and found them innumerable, it’s the same moon that Moses saw along with the flame of fire that led them through the wilderness and the same moon Jesus wept beneath.
When I looked at the sign again I found his name and email had been painted out.
Well, I really needed to follow through on sending a message and my mind jumped to Max Colaw, our District Super for the Wesleyan Tri State district. At this point, I was writing a letter to a leader in our church who is also a friend. Max has been very supportive.
Not long after I sent the message to Max I got a reply. He was very encouraging and then he made a suggestion: “Also, you may just want to share your dream and vision for the building with the owner…” then he gave an example of a church within the district that stepped out in faith in just this way for a piece of property. The Lord blessed them exceedingly abundantly.
That suggestion scared me to death.
I began to say to the Lord, “But Lord, I’m not ready…. I didn’t expect anything like this so fast… it’s supposed to take 5 years!”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying to me, “Oh really?”
“But Lord, I don’t know how to run a business! Am I to get the building before knowing…” I stopped.
If I’m going to pray bold prayers I better expect to do bold things to do my part. After all, the Lord isn’t going to drop this in my lap. I have responsibilities to work with God on this under his direction. He was directing me to write a letter to the owners of the building.
And why was this harder than writing the letter to the former pastor?
And why was I worrying about not knowing how to run a business? If God calls a person to do something, he gives them the ability to do it. That’s the great thing about God. If he calls a person to do a great deed, he is the one who gives that person the ability. And of course there are all kinds of examples in the Bible.
Remember the story of Gideon? I laugh when I think of him.
He was threshing wheat in a wine press because he was hiding from the enemy. God sends an angel to say,
“Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” (Judges 6:12 NLT)
Gideon is hiding!
And what about Peter? Peter was the one who lied and pretended not to know Jesus when Jesus was being falsely tried, and yet, after Jesus went back to heaven, Peter became a great speaker and leader of the early church.
God empowered Peter to do great things.
And God still wants to do great things in us. He wants to give us what we need and often he gives assignments to those who are least qualified so that the world will know there is a God who still works miracles and calls people to himself.
So I wrote the letter. And now I wait.