‘To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.’Those words struck me as something of an encouragement at the beginning of the day.
The small reflection that I was considering went on to quote from Colossians 3:1 & 2:
‘So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’
As I write this piece the clock is ticking around to 10.02. For those of you who were in church on Sunday morning hopefully you took home a 10.02 card calling us to pray each day at 10.02 for a few seconds, or minutes. The idea comes from the passage in the Bible where Jesus says: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into the harvest.’ Luke 10.2
These past weeks have been very busy for several of our number as we have been working hard to set up our new Ministry Centre at Annangrove Road. I know that I have spent an inordinate amount of my time focused on giving this new era every chance of success. However, my heart is not encouraged by property, or finance or structure of any particular kind.
I find encouragement in people and that encouragement is made most clear through an ordering of my life. I love people; but unless I spend time with the Author of life, my love for people is very easily diminished. You see, twenty six years ago I made a decision to risk this journey with Christ as head. I read the Bible and began to haltingly pray and decided – with a very incomplete knowledge – that above any other philosophy or ‘ism’ the claims of Christ were authentic and deserved respect. Indeed, I came to a place of agreeing with the great missionary Studdert Kennedy, who once said when challenged about his highly focused faith – ‘If Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice too great can be..’
In the busy times of recent weeks I have on occasions been knocked off course and forgotten that I am ‘raised with Christ’. If I am raised with him then I need to be seeking the source of strength that was the basis of His life. I need to seek the things that are above because my heart and mind are too easily nourished by short term – yet quite tasty – stuff! It might be tasty, but it is hardly nourishing and within a very short time period I am hungry again, seeking the next fix it pill.
There are so many claims on our time these days; so many attractions bidding for a place in our hearts. Until my mid 30’s I was always in the market place trying on the latest trifles for size. I wasn’t the world’s worst husband or dad; but I was conscious that try as I might I just wasn’t making headway. The more ‘successful’ I became the less traction I seemed to have in my life; it was a crazy time.
Then through a number of ‘God-incidences’ I found myself in a local community of faith that nurtured and nourished me. I don’t think that I am overstating things when I say that this group of Christian people saved my life! Some people wonder why I believe so strongly in the local church – it’s where my heart is.
No comments:
Post a Comment