Recognizing God

About a million times in my life, I have thought I should do something, then I let it slide. I'll do it later - when I have more time, more money, more energy, more.... Most of the time I get back to it or not and things go on. Some, like losing weight, are probably out there clogging my arteries as I write this!

Occasionally though, what I'm putting off seems to be important to God and God gets my attention. I think and believe that this is what happened when I left my old job. I had decided to leave, more than once, but kept putting it off because I didn't know how to do what I needed to do next. As I dithered, my employers made a decision. "You can quit or be fired." Suddenly quitting seemed to be the most obviously logical and inviting decision I could make. So I quit. It was my priest who said, "I think that was God telling you to get off your duff and move on!"

Well, it is happening again. I'm not leaving my call or anything like that, but I've been less than focused on my plan to learn Spanish. In my senior sermon at seminary I said that I knew that I needed to learn Spanish. I vowed, with all those witnesses, to do just that. I've taken classes, bought thousands of dollars worth of books, tapes, and computer programs, and thought about it. I've even learned enough Spanish to listen to phone calls and other casual conversations and follow - mostly.

But the truth is, I've also been lazy! Every crisis was an excuse not to study. You may not know this, but in a church there is a crisis of some sort almost every day! Someone is sick, or there is a meeting, or the air conditioner breaks, or I can't come up with a sermon topic!

Well, this week everything changed. The gifted preacher who was preaching at the Spanish service got another call from God. He's gone. I can't preach in Spanish. God has spoken.

Getting a call from God to get on with something is not the same thing as saying, well it will be easy now. Jesus calls us not to a life of ease, but to a life of carrying a cross. Crosses are not light. But loving the people God wants me to be able to talk to is a light burden. To serve them is a joyful occupation.

Today there is confusion, and panic in the streets. But in the Lord, there is peace and order and a Cross.

Peace,
Cori