Are You a Sponge or a Duck?

John is a great friend to me. John has spent his career as a lawyer, a law school professor, a seminary professor of homiletics, a 16-year mayor, a fund-raiser, and a Renaissance man. In the last several years, John’s sister-in-law introduced us. I had expressed to her my need for a coach and friend to come alongside me.

She said, “I think you’d like John.”

I do.

In the midst of seasons of heavy burdens in leadership, John pours into me the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his lifetime. One of the most profound and powerful lessons John is teaching me has to do with how I handle stressful situations.

In the midst of one of my heart-sharing moments, John looked at me and commented, “You have a choice. You can either be a duck or a sponge.”

A duck or a sponge? What does that mean?

Think about it. A sponge absorbs everything around itself. As it absorbs, the sponge becomes heavy with the weight of its surroundings. Only when the sponge is squeezed does it lose its weight.

Do you remember the old joke, “How do you get down off a horse?” The answer is that you don’t. “You get down off a duck!”

The downy feathers of a young duck are water repellant. Even in adulthood, water runs off a duck’s back. As the duck glides across the surface of a pond, it appears placid upon the surface. However, all of the activity is taking place under the surface of the water.

I looked at John and protested, “But being a sponge has worked pretty well for me most of my life.” Then I confessed, “Well, not always. I think it’s time that I learn to be a duck.”

I remember when I was a student life officer. God allowed me many hours of listening, counseling, and pastoring students. They dealt with a wide range of issues including family dysfunction, sexual abuse, substance abuse issues, and sexual identity issues. I poured myself into those young people. I wept with them, empathized with them, cared for them, and led many of them on a journey to a place of wholeness in Christ.

Being a sponge seemed to work pretty well for me.

But not entirely. I made some deliberate decisions when I left the office each evening to leave the brokenness and burdens there. I sought to go home and give myself completely to Beth, Katie, and Nathan. After an especially difficult day of listening to pain and trauma, we would slip off campus to one of the few restaurants in Jackson, Kentucky, and enjoy the escape of a family meal.

I was learning to be a duck.

But it is hard for a caring, compassionate person to live as a duck all of the time. There are moments that the sponge in me really comes out.

My greatest challenge with being a duck is when I face conflict with another person. After a conflicting conversation, event, or series of events, my sponge really starts absorbing. I mull, ponder, complain, analyze, evaluate, and generally obsess about the problem and people involved. Absorbed in the problem, I find myself weighed down.

So, throughout my professional and personal life, I have found myself alternating between being a sponge and being a duck. I was never able to identify the process until John asked me the probing question.

Recently I returned to my office after having been out and about. I spied several foreign objects throughout my office. I grinned. Yellow rubber duckies were strategically placed on my desk, shelf and credenza.

My wife had been to a local dollar store. While there, she spotted a package of three small rubber ducks. They now grace my office as a reminder of my attitude, focus, and faith.

Yokes

Matthew 11:28-30

II Chronicles 10:1-14

Dear Father, 

Burdens are heavy to carry. I find myself frequently exhausted under the load. I watch people who work in warehouses and those who stock shelves, and see their back braces and support. They are taught how to lift burdens and carry loads in order to avoid injury.

The load which you call me to bear is heavy. I confess that I do not know how to carry it on my own. I can’t do it. To my desperation You cry out, “Let me help you.“

Your tender welcome insists: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I stretch out my hands to You, one laid up on the other in the form of a cross, as if I am to receive the Lord’s supper. You offer a yoke that I am to receive in worship and thanksgiving. You have a job for me to do. It is too heavy for me alone. You promise to be my yoke fellow—to carry the burden with me. After all, You tell me that my yoke is really Your yoke. 

You say, “Come.” I hear your welcome. The burdens insist, “Go.” They are too heavy for me alone. Life insists that the weight of my burden is not enough. Burden piles upon burden, seeking to immobilize me. The world screams, “More. Work harder. Work longer. More.” Like King Rehoboam of old, the world insists, “You think the burden was heavy before? I will double it.”

You gently step in beside me, positioning my yoke so that it will not chafe. “Here, let me teach you how to bear the load.” And You step into the yoke with me. We step forward, one plodding step at a time. The pace soon becomes even, the load shared, the burden seems lighter, the movement is forward. 

Thank you for being my yokefellow. Thank You for bearing the burden with me. I cannot do it alone. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

From Surviving to Thriving

Haggai 1-2

Dear God,

You have plans to restore, promote, and defend your people. You did it for Israel. You do it for your church. Thank you.

You have called me to serve in a place whose survival has depended upon your restoration, promotion, and defense. As we move from surviving to thriving, we move in your strength alone.

In the midst of Hebrew repatriation to Israel following Babylonian captivity, Haggai was faced with the prospect of an unfinished temple to Jehovah God. He marshaled the forces of Hebrew contributions and labor, prophetically urging the people finish God's house.

Dennis Kinlaw summarized Haggai's message: "God will take us to the place where He wants us to be. He will restore to us the things we have lost through our own foolishness. He will never abandon us in exile."

Lord, I am trusting you to take the ministry I serve to the place you want us to be. Help us to embrace the journey to go where you send us, maintain the mission focus you desire for us, and have the impact to make disciples of Jesus Christ as  command us to do.

As we enjoy the season of thriving to which You are calling us, we hear Your words ringing in our ears: "Be strong, all you people... and work; for I am with you... the silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine... the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former... And in this place I will give peace" (Haggai 2:4, 8-9).

Thank You for the confidence we have in You and the victory You assure as You move us from surviving to thriving.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Amen.

Best Practice

I Chronicles 21:24
"Then King David said to Ornan, 'No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.' 25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering."

Precious Father,

I want to live for you with holiness and obedience. But I recognize that there are many snares set for me. Snares of neglect, pride, and ambition would distract and deter me from fidelity to you. Self would assert itself in me and seize me in a trap of my own crafting. 

King David dealt with such a snare. God blessed David with an expansive kingdom. Enemies bowed at his feet in surrender. David established the capital city of the Hebrews, Jerusalem. He relocated the tabernacle to Jerusalem. He build a personal home there. And he had ambition to build a temple as a permanent house of worship to the Lord. God limited David's temple work to site preparation and building materials. The job of building the temple would fall to Solomon. 

At the height of his career and dominance, David succumbed to Satan's temptation to count the people in a census. A census was a common royal practice. The census established the tax base and the military conscription rates for a king. God was displeased that David resorted to such secular methods to rule God's Covenant people. The "best practices" of the surrounding nations were not approved by God for His Covenant people. Seventy-thousand Hebrew citizens died by plague. The plague stayed when David offered sacrifice to God. He insisted on paying full price for Ornan's threshing floor where he built an altar and made burnt offering. God answered David's prayer with fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. 

The watchword over my soul is "Be careful." You are holy. You are love. You are a jealous God. I would not grieve you. Place a guard over my heart. Refine my ambitions by Your Holy Spirit. Fill me with Your perfect love. Protect and defend me as Your own. Preserve me from exercising carnal methods I deem as "best practices," but You determine as fleshly. I must exercise great care to live in step with You. 

You are my Lord and my God. I trust You. I love You. By Your grace and strength, I will serve You.

Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Run it Like a Business!

I Chronicles 13:1-14

Precious Father,

I am struck with the awesome responsibility of leadership. King David was a man after Your own heart, yet his blunders caused others death, pain, and sorrow.

Saul had gambled in warfare and lost. Saul lost the ark of the covenant in a cavalier gamble. The ark of the covenant which Saul had risked, abusing it as a good luck charm, and bringing it to the battlefield to motivate the army, was captured when the Philistines overran the Hebrew military. Saul and his sons lay dead on the battlefield. 

David sought to correct the sins of Saul, by restoring the ark of the covenant to its rightful place at the tabernacle in Jerusalem. But he failed to consult Your requirements for moving the ark. You required priests to carry the ark on long poles inserted through load bearing rings on the ark. Instead, David used a common oxcart. When the ark appeared to slide dangerously off the cart, Uzza, one of the workmen, touched it and died. 

Recounting that story from scripture sends chills through my body. You remind me that holy tasks must be conducted with holy methods. Holy methods must be driven by holy motives, not mere expediency. You judge my motives. 

Often, church and ministry boards proclaim, "We have to run this place like a business." Frequently, such a proclamation misses the mark. If we simply seek to run Your work like a business, Uzza ends up dead. David is mourning his failed leadership. And a tabernacle remains absent of Your Presence. 

Today, help me to live in holiness. Help me to lead Your business like it's Your business. Fill me with your Spirit that I may perform holy tasks from a clean and holy heart. Protect me from "end justifies the means" living that legitimizes any sinful method to attain the pragmatic conclusion, "It worked." Help us to run it like God's business.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Amen

The Crucible of Leadership

Luke 6:12-16
12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; 15 Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

I Corinthians 12

Dear Jesus,

You were incredibly skilled at taking a group of diverse men and melding them into a cohesive unit. Of course, there were moments that the group called disciples looked anything but cohesive, but those moments were really temporary.

"There is nothing which the church needs more than to learn how to yoke in common harness the diverse temperaments and qualities of different people. If we are failing it is our own fault, for, in Christ, it can be done--and has been done." (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 96).

Thank You for diverse gifts and abilities in the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul described this unity within diversity beautifully. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit... But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ... But now indeed there are many members, yet one body... Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."

Teach me how to unite people around a shared vision that can inspire, direct, and move them forward in Kingdom purpose. When I pray, "I want to lead as You led," I have to remember that You were headed to a cross. Eventually, most of Your faithful apostles would die as martyrs for their faith and obedience to You while they were taking the Gospel to the nations. 

• Andrew--beaten severely and crucified in Edessa, Greece.
• James, the brother of John--the first martyr of the church.
• Philip--martyred in Syria.
• Nathanael--martyred in India.
• Thaddeus--crucified in Edessa, Greece.
• James, the son of Alphaeus--thrown from the temple tower and then clubbed to death.
• Matthew--axed to death in Ethiopia.
• Simon the Zealot--crucified for his missionary work in Britain.
• John--survived being deep fried in oil and died of natural causes in Turkey.

Teach me this surrender of sacrifice that I may lead as You led.

I embrace the crucible of leadership. I recognize that this journey is more about melting me down to be reformed in Your likeness than it is about manipulating others to perform my will. Thank You for inviting me to serve You by serving others.  

In Your transforming Name,

Amen.

Beauty

Psalm 104, I Peter 1:1-9, Revelation 21

Dear God,

Help me to embrace the serendipity of beauty that surrounds me. So often, I find myself obsessed by going from point A to point B, that I miss the obvious beauty which is just in front of me.  The beauty that You have positioned in my path is Your special gift.  All too often, I rush right on by without bothering to study the package, the paper, or the bow.  In my rush, I fail to take time to notice, to open Your gift of beauty to me.  Slow me down that I may savor Your serendipitous gift with wonder.

My task-oriented nature is such that I define myself by doing. I hear Your sweet and tender call just to be in Your Presence. You call me to enjoy the beauty of You, the splendor of Your character, the beauty of Your creation, and the beauty of Your image imprinted upon Your creative crowning glory, humanity.  Help me to notice.

Thank You for Your beauty which surrounds me. The natural beauty of the lake, a stream, a large buck prancing out of the forest and into a meadow. Thank you for the beauty of mountains, trees–each one unique.  A bird on the wing, a gleaming fish breaking a glassy surface, a dragonfly buzzing, a woodpecker’s flash of color and eruption of clatter. Thank you.

Thank You for the miraculous beauty of childbirth.  An infant’s soft skin, a child's unrestrained laughter, happy smiles, a loving kiss, busy play, an unrestrained hug.  Thank You for the beauty of Youth, vigorous, muscular, and attractive. Thank You for the beauty of character in a life well-lived.  Thank You for the one who shuffles forward, shoulders bent, whose heart and mind is filled with a wisdom that has shed the trivial and focused on the eternal.  Thank You for an aged face, mapped with living, that points with anticipation to an eternal destiny.  Thank You for people who show me the path of the well-lived life and inspire me to do the same.

Thank You for the breeze in my face, the breath in my lungs, and Your indwelling Holy Spirit. I have set my sail toward the wind.  Fill me, propel me, define me. Help me not to miss the gift of beauty which you place right in front of me every day. Prepare me to see the beauty in Your face and in all that You have prepared for us in heaven at last.  I never want to insult You, the Giver, by missing Your gift of beauty. Thank you.  I accept Your gift.

In the Name of my Creator and Lord, the Author of Beauty,
Amen.

Time

Psalm 90:12, Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Lord Jesus,

The pressures of leadership are great.  The competition for my time is fierce.  I find myself longing for more time in Your Presence.  Each day when I wait before You, the tyranny of the urgent murmurs incessantly in the background, crying for my attention.  Help me to shut everything out, but You.  Help me to encounter You authentically, sincerely, and meaningfully.  I need that sort of intimacy and quiet in order to be whole and complete as I face the day.

Help me to live a well-balanced, complete life.  All too often, it seems that my work consumes me. My role as a leader and team-builder stretches well past an eight hour day and a 5 day work week. My smart phone is my ball and chain, tethering me to the temporal.  I neurotically check my e-mail, interrupting quiet moments with family, grandchildren, and even You.  My wife glares at me.  Do You?

It seems as if there is never enough time to accomplish the tasks related to my job.  Help me to remember that “There is enough time in each day to do God’s Will.”  Grant me the sensitivity to know Your Divine priorities.

I find myself questioning my worth of the executive salary and benefits I receive.  In order to validate these privileges of leadership, I work harder.  I allow work to encroach into private moments of my life.  Teach me to shut it off.  Teach me to unplug.  As I do, You will refresh me in Your Presence and make me better for the tomorrow’s tasks.

Teach me to be fully available in the moment to You, to my wife, to my children, my grandchildren, my siblings, my elderly parents, and people you have called me to serve.

Exhausted by the day, a few moments of mindless media often anesthetize my mind and emotions, but what I am seeking is not numbness.  I am seeking rest.   Teach me to rest in You.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.

Joy

Galatians 5:16-26, Philippians 3:1, 4:4

Dear Jesus,

All too often I allow circumstances to diminish by joy.   I understand that happiness is an emotion that may fluctuate based upon circumstances, but scripture teaches that joy is a fruit of the Spirit that transcends circumstances.

I have been praying for a specific miracle for over one year.  I am in the midst of seeing that miracle birthed.  I acknowledge the miracle of it all.  I rejoice on some level.  I give You praise and thanksgiving.  I don’t believe that I am ungrateful for the work that You are doing in response to faith and prayer.  But I find in my heart the conjunction “but.”  I can thank You for the miracle that is underway, but I always want more.  I always need more from You.  And my “but” strikes me as ungrateful.

You are the One True God, not some superstitious product of my imagination.  I want to be able to worship You.  I want to thank You unconditionally.  I don’t want to treat You like a vending machine.  I don’t want to abuse You like some genie in the bottle, and confuse that for prayer.  I don’t want to manipulate You like some rabbit’s foot.   I don’t want to treat You like a fictitious Santa Claus, appealing to You with my proclamation, “My name is Jimmy, and I’ll take what you gimme!”  I don’t want You to judge me as worshiping You from the “First Church of the Four Leaf Clover,” where I practice horseshoe religion.  You are not some saccharin Candy Man who always keeps me on the dole with periodic sweets.  I don’t want a god my size.  You are God.

So, I know that I need.  I know that You give.  I know that You want me to ask.  I want to ask with joy and thanksgiving.  I want to approach You with worship that is worthy of You.  In my state of constant need, I don’t want to miss the celebration of joy at the miracle You are accomplishing in this moment.  I don’t want to have an ungrateful spirit that says, “Yes, God is doing a miracle, but if another one doesn’t happen soon, He has failed us.”  That attitude is ungrateful.  I reject it.  I refuse it.  I choose praise.  I choose joy.  I choose to celebrate You and Your marvelous acts!

I want to live out an irrepressible joy, the fruit of Your Spirit in my life, that transcends circumstances.  Paul lived out joy in prison.  Believers throughout the centuries counted martyrdom for Christ as a joy and a privilege.  Teach me to live with deep roots, grounded in You, that tap into Your Holy Spirit’s vast supply of joy.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

Faith

Isaiah 35

Dear Jesus,

I have known people of great faith.  I want to be one of them.  I have known people who faced impossible odds, yet persevered.  I have known people who ignored the hopelessness of what they knew and saw, fiercely trusted You, and moved forward in sheer faith and obedience.

I remember when You called me to a new assignment, very few had faith to believe that these doors would remain open.  Yet, You ignited such an undeniable passion and vision in my heart, that it was obvious to me that You wanted the institution, and You wanted it to move forward by grace through faith.

Obstacles arose to discourage the faith You were fanning into flame in my spirit.  Fear and doubt are chief among them.  Fear quenches the fire of faith when I indulge the gaze with eyes of sight rather than focusing upon the steady gaze of faith.  Circumstances challenge faith.  Doubt questions and obscures what faith has revealed.  A quest to be data driven, rational, and assessment oriented must not be allowed to be positioned as an enemy of faith.  You reveal Yourself to us through all of these means; they are not the enemy.

When tasked with a great challenge, someone told me that they had given up on that enterprise because they could not see a path forward.  I questioned them, “What is it called when we cannot see a path forward, yet assured of a Divine imperative in our soul, we step forward into an unknown?” That is obedient faith.

Faith is obedience in action.  Faith sees Your Finger of Direction pointing to the unknown path of obedience and takes the first step.  Faith embraces Your assigned route of travel, which is always the Highway of Your Holiness.  Faith monitors the journey with a Divine GPS, the Witness of the Holy Spirit.  Your roadmap is the inerrant and inspired Holy Bible.  Your fuel is the oil of Your Holy Spirit’s Presence and Anointing.  You are the Light of the world and the light of my way.  You are the Bread of Life who feeds my soul.  Holiness is Your rest of faith for the weary traveler.  Eternal rest is promised at the end of the road in Your Presence in the New Jerusalem–Heaven at last.

Teach me the walk of faith.  Teach me the destiny of faith.  Teach me to overcome the obstacles to my faith.

In Jesus Name,
Amen

Solving Problems

Proverbs 16:9

Dear God,

Today, I am facing some problems that seem to demand a solution. My mind has been spinning with analysis and plans. In my Quiet Place, You convicted me of how wrong I have been.  Simultaneously, conviction and rest entered my mind.  I knew that You had just whispered the solution to me.  I must simply trust You.

I once heard someone define stress as “mental rehearsal.”  I know that I have a tendency to over plan and over prepare on many things.  I recognize that my speculation about the future is my attempt to manage everything. I am trying to control the future through mental rehearsal and planning.  I find that all of my speculation yields an artificially constructed future state that rarely exists in the way I had imagined.  I find myself spending great amounts of energy planning and responding to an imagined reality that never really exists.  I plan for contingencies upon contingencies that never materialize.

The results of my speculative failure to control the future are stress, a loss of peace, mental exhaustion, strained relationships, and a diminished faith in You.  My spinning, speculative, solution-seeking mind thinks I have a grasp on the situation.  Then, something happens that I failed to predict.  All of my plans have gone awry.  As Robert Burns penned, “The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.”

Lord, how much effort and energy I might have saved by simply trusting You explicitly, completely, and always?  My intention has never been idolatry, self-sufficiency, or doubt.  My motive is always to please You and bring You glory.  Even in the planning, the preparation, and pondering solutions to the problems I face.

Is it possible that my extensive plans and preparation are, in part, my way of reducing Your size?  Am I trying to scale You down to a size that I can manage?  Oh, God, forgive me for imagining You to be too small to manage my problems!  My perception of You is too small.

Now I realize that I must speculate less and trust You more.  I ask You to forgive me for trying to control things rather than consecrating them to You.   I choose to seek Your peace, Lord, and to trust You with today and all it holds.  Grant me the poise and grace to face the situations of today with dignity, love, and kindness.  I need You.  I love You.  I trust You.

In the Name of my Lord and Savior who is big enough to handle my problems,
Amen.

Mentors

I Timothy 6:11-21, II Timothy 1:1-7

Dear God,

Thank You for the mentors and advisors that You have brought into my life. Thank You for all who have taught me, both deliberately and by default. Thank You for those mentors and advisors who are a delight, as well as for those who have taught me simply because they are difficult. Thank You for the time, care, constructive criticism, and challenge each has brought into my life.

There are those mentors You have brought into my life who delight me. Thank You for their investment of themselves into my life. Seeing these folks has always been a cause for joy. I find my spirit responding like that of John in his mother Elizabeth's womb when the pregnant Mary came into their home. Elizabeth felt John leap within her. Something within me leaps with joy when I am privileged to spend a few moments with these dear people.

Thank You for serendipitous moments of inspiration, guidance, and care that so many have invested in me. Thank You for my friend who is always optimistic, encouraging, and believes in me. Thank You for my friend who never misses a moment to pray with me. Thank You for my friend who asks the deep, probing questions that intensify and enhance my journey of conscience to be like You.

However, there are those colleagues and acquaintances who are more difficult and challenging to me because of the sense of conflict and adversity they bring into my life. I would often seek to avoid these encounters. I shun relationships with such. But You, in Your mercy and grace allow these precious one to cross my path. They often love You no less than I, but my instinct is to label them as the problem, simply because I find them difficult. I find myself wanting to engage in the extremes of fixing them or ignoring them.

These difficult relationships are unpleasant. Teach me a spirit of gratitude for the difficult people in my life. Help me to remember that it is not my duty to change them, but to allow You to change me–often through them. Help me to understand the gift with which difficult relationships present me. Remind me of the humbling truth that I may represent another’s difficult relationship. Any holiness that You are working in me is not best revealed in ease and comfort, rather amidst adversity, testing, and difficulty. Reveal and refine Your holiness in my character through the frustrating and the challenging relationships of my life. Allow my righteousness, cultivated through adversity, to "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of my Father" (Matthew 13:43).

Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all who are tools in Your Hand to shape me toward Christlikeness.

Amen.

Being

Psalm 131, Psalm 90:12

Oh, Lord,

Teach me the simplicity of being in your Presence. Quiet me. Teach me to BE with you. Teach me to REST in you. Teach me intimacy with you. Teach me the JOY of your Presence.

So much of my life is busy. I multi-task all day long. As soon as I help to solve one problem, I race to write a letter, make a phone call, pray with a colleague, or lead a meeting. I live life at a hectic pace, and frankly, I don’t see an end in sight to that intensity. Teach me to make time to BE in Your Presence each day.

My day rushes on at such a rapid pace that I suddenly look at the clock and wonder where the time has gone. I remember working my first job as a youth and constantly watching the clock. Oh, how time seemed to creep! Today, the weeks, months, and years pass in a blink.

Teach me the slow and quiet pace of spending time in Your Presence. Left to my own fallen reason, I would misconstrue time with You into some sort of superstition, shrinking and deforming You into an idol of my control, conjuring You to perform my will, manipulating You to serve me. Save me from such evil, idolatrous, corrupted worship. Help me to long to enter my Quiet Place with You. Be my reward for time well spent.

I have experienced intimacy with the wife of my youth in which a whisper, a breath, or a tensed muscle communicated volumes to me. Teach me to listen to Your softest whisper, to sense the quickening of Your pulse, to feel Your intimate breath upon me, and to know the depth of meaning in a slight nudge of Your Holy Spirit. Teach me to be with You, to listen to You, to learn Your ways. I want to know You.

St. Augustine prayed, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you." Thank you for making me restless apart from You. Thank you for loving me enough to draw me into You, into Your Presence, into Your Person. I love You. I need You. I find myself sorrowful when I have to leave my Quiet Place with You. I want to remain in Your Presence. I long for more time alone with You.

But I must go. I must fulfill the tasks of Your calling. I go from the Quiet Place to BE with You throughout my day. I go with a simple faith that Your Presence will continue to BE with me and in me.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Who Me?

Jeremiah 1, Isaiah 6

Are You sure, God? Certainly You missed this one! Me? A leader?

Leaders are people like Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Leaders are people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Apostle Paul. Leaders! Do You get it? Not me! I am not like them!

I don’t want that kind of responsibility. I don’t want that kind of danger. I don’t want that kind of risk! I’ve watched Survivor! The leaders are the first ones voted off the island! Let me hide in the background. Let me coast a bit. I can keep a low profile. I can just hang out. I don’t have to lead! Surely, You don’t have to ask that much of me!

So, You’re Sovereign? What’s that mean?

You say You know best. You say that whom You call You equip. You say that You have called me to lead. Me? You have to be kidding! You missed this one, God. You have this decision all wrong. You have me confused with someone else! Surely, You are not calling me to be a leader!

Now that I think of it, I am not the only one to protest Your call to lead. Moses told You that Aaron was a better speaker, a better leader than himself. But Moses was wrong. David did not look like much of a king for Judah, prompting the prophet Samuel to remark that "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart!" Elijah was so exhausted with leadership, that he asked You to kill him; but You did not answer that prayer. Jeremiah was so astonished at Your call that he tried to get out of it on the basis of his youth and inexperience. You responded by filling his mouth with Your words until Your message burned like a pent up fire in his bones. I guess we humans don’t have a very good track record of arguing with You when You call us to lead, do we?

I’ll make a deal with You. I will answer Your call if You will make me a promise. You have to promise to go with me. You have to promise to fill my mouth with Your words. You have to promise to perform miracles to help me to lead. You have to promise to go with me, to defend me, to fight my battles for me, and to be my Companion!

So, You can do that? Thanks, God. I feel like You are calling me to go out on a limb. Don’t cut it off behind me! Don’t fail me! I trust You that whom You call You will enable and empower to perform Your appointed task.

In the Name of the Sovereign God of the Universe,

Amen.