God Watching Day 18

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now." Matthew 6:34a
The Message

This morning I drove about two hours across the state to do some training on setting up an MDG campaign for another congregation in our Diocese. It was early when I left home and the sun was just coming up. The drive was absolutely breathtaking. Over on my side of the state it was bright and clear with just a tiny bit of frost on the low spots in the fields. The sun was glittering on the fields turning the cornstalks to gold. It made my heart sing as I thanked God for the incredible beauty of this earth. As I moved east and into the river bottom I began encountering more haze and eventually some spots where there was some mist and even dense fog. In the foggy areas it was gray and dark and colorless. The world seemed as if some of the life had been drained from it along with the color. But because of where I had been so very recently, I knew that this darkness was transitory, that this fog was simply a veil that hid beautiful sunshine, and that in a very short while this place too would be warm and bright and golden.

Not such a big stretch, this metaphor. When we have not experienced the light, it is easy to believe that the darkness is all there is. But when we know that light is just beyond, the darkness is simply passing and will soon be gone.

The rest of the day was bright as well. I was blessed to spend time with people who are on fire to fight global poverty and eager to learn how to apply the strategies and skills of community organizing with their congregation for an MDG project as we did at my church last year. We started our day with Gospel Based Discipleship and heard Jesus reading from Isiah in Luke, "God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!" Yes, this is God's year to act at St. J's and God has some really good help!