Whoops!............."

This month, for the first time in a looooong time, the third Sunday of the month preceded the third Wednesday of the month. That fact probably holds trivial significance for most people, but when those two points on the calendar are individually assigned to you for ministry at two different locations, the reversing of their order can produce consequences. It took a last minute phonecall from a friend to awaken me this last weekend to it being our turn to provide morning worship at the Youth Detention Center. The news was not all that alarming. With six of us presently participating in such outreach, we have eliminated the practice of “designated hitters”. There is no program. No one, in particular, is scheduled to deliver a sermon. We simply come together and allow the Holy Ghost to speak, sing, or move in any way He wishes. Everyone gets opportunity to “empty their vessel” as the Spirit so directs. Preparation, for the most part, amounts to meeting in the parking lot of a local business area about an hour before departure and sharing what’s on our hearts. What we discuss may not come forth in the service, but, by stirring the waters, hopefully the overflow will be contagious and meet the needs of the kids. Sunday went well…………...

It is basically the same group, then, who contribute to “church” down at the Rescue Mission, and we operate there in much the same manner minus the “get-together” beforehand. What changed the “routine”, on this occasion, was discovering, Tuesday, that circumstances would reduce our number to three. The fellow “in charge”, thinking that there would be a need to “occupy” a longer period of such time as allotted to us, threw the challenge in my lap. His request, however, did not produce fear. I merely jotted down a few notes on a subject “tossed around” in my car with another man as we waited for the others to arrive Sunday. You can imagine my reaction, though, when THAT person began to speak just prior to my own appointed place on the slate and referred to the same chapter and verse from which I intended to address this same “congregation”! His views were not necessarily my own. What do you do now?……………

Actually, though somewhat surprised, I was not all that shaken. If God was, indeed, the REAL orchestrator of the whole affair, then surely He was able to bring it all into perspective. There was certainly nothing wrong with what Tony was presenting. Tony ALWAYS “feeds my soul”. I listened. I enjoyed. And when he finished, I stepped in behind him well aware that there was less than ten minutes left. I saw no need to drown people in an over-abundance of Bible. I spoke but a few sentences tying my own thoughts to what had been already said and then led us into an altar call. Actually, we ended the evening with a song I had brought with me. Its words seemed to “seal” the whole point we had tried to make. As I sang, men prayed and the room was as one. To appreciate that, you have to understand that my voice is not all that great. I found out long ago, nonetheless, that little is much if God is in it. HE is the Healer, not I…………….