I’m not sure just why it is but for some reason I seem to get sleepy until it comes time to go to bed. Then, once I get in the bed, pull the covers up around my neck, attempt to get comfortable, I think about all of the things we should be doing at church, think about the things at home that I should be giving attention to and the list goes on and on.
I often find myself getting up after everyone else is in bed asleep, and, after I’ve tossed and turned for an hour or two, and decide to go to the computer, read a few blogs, check my e-mails and FB accounts and see if I’ve missed anything earth shattering and, 99.9 percent of the time, I have not. And so I go to my blog page, check the latest total of hits (which incidently is up over 16,400 hits) and then decide to write. The question is always – write about what?
Blog ideas don’t just fall out of the sky for the most part. I do enjoy blogging, however, because it gives me a platform for when I get something in my crawl or I get my dander up over something. Otherwise, I just write because for me, writing is an outlet. It gives me a chance to put some of my thoughts down in black and white and lets me get a few things off my chest.
Like church, for instance. I worry a lot about our church. Not because there are problems, or problem people, but because there just seems to be so many people who are hurting and in need. We want desperately to begin a ministry for the deaf and hard of hearing. God has provided us with an interpreter and we are working on getting the ministry started right after the first of the year. But, I also know that this interpreter whom God has provided us with, can’t be there every Sunday so we need a good back-up interpreter. I don’t want to have to send the deaf and hard of hearing individuals messages on Sunday morning saying they may as well stay home because we don’t have an interpreter for the day. And so I pray about it, ask God to lead someone to step up to the plate and allow us to begin this very necessary ministry.
I worry about our youth. I pray all the time for God to send someone around who will have a burden for youth of our area, and who will have the calling and the skills to help reach them with the Gospel of Christ. And so God begins answering prayer, and we now have a young couple who I have been meeting with who has recently been attending our church. Along with youth, this young couple has a vision for a strong young adult ministry as well. And in today’s society, “Young adults” include more than 20 year olds. In my opinion, a young adult ministry can go up to the 40s or wherever. People are much more young today than when I was growing up because even though they are tagging on some years, they are still young in mind and in heart. And so we keep praying for God, in the meantime, to define the Young adult ministry and I think input from those who would wish to reply would be a great way to know what others think.
My wish list for the church (ministry-wise) is to reach out whereever there is a need, and there are plenty of needs. I pray that God gives us wisdom to reach out where the need is, that we become rescuers and not enablers, that we help and not hinder and that we show others our heart in such a way that they will know our intentions are honorable and our motives are pure.
Well, I said writing is an outlet. I didn’t say it was a problem-solver. Oh well, one thing it does is defeat its own purpose sometimes. Because instead of helping me to solve my “thinking problem”, it sure seems, by the time I am done, to give me lots to think about. And so, it’s off to bed to give thought to these things until I finally fall asleep. It’s a good opportunity and time to pray while I’m waiting to fall asleep. Good night and God bless.
