Friday, August 16, 2019

Life Spinning on a Dime

·      The test the doctor gave you for AIDS or a myriad of diseases is positive
·      The extra in your pay envelope is a notice to clean out your locker
·      The drunk driver that hit your car head-on (coming close to making your husband a widower) has no insurance
·      You find out you should have read the fine print on that paper you signed
·      Your child announces he’s gay, and doesn’t believe in God
But that stuff is all hypothetical, right?  I mean, nobody here has had any of those problems…that stuff only happens to other people.  Except when it happens to you!  Life turns on a spinning dime all too often; Puerto Rico had three different governors last week and is now considering a fourth; their dime is whirling!
Ask the families of 29 people in Dayton and El Paso, or the families of nearly 3,000 who died in 9/11 terrorist attacks, or the families of countless soldiers who went marching off to war, but were carried back home.  Measles immunity is possible; all the other stuff is on the table, all the time.  Life turns, spinning on thin dime.
Life at the United Methodist Church charge of Mt. Zion and Pleasant Hill also spins regularly, like when the D.S. informs the PPRC Chair they will have a new pastor next year.  You hear all about the new guy and you’re just getting used to the idea of change, and the superintendent calls again to say he can’t come, so you’ll have the same old pastor.  Just when you were getting used to the idea of a break from Brownworth you’re back in the same old harness.  This is church life, itinerancy spinning on a thin dime; an ecclesiastical/denominational spinning dime! 
I can tell you it feels much the same from either side of the pulpit.  Whether it’s 60 people getting used to one new pastor, or a pastor’s family trying to get used to 60 new people, and a whole new town to live in, the spinning of the dime can cause a run on WalMart for Tums™ and Rolaids™.
What can ordinary people like us do when life comes at you this fast?  Let’s take a bit of wise advice from the war room…there are at least two certain things we can do; we can PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION. 
Praise the Lord

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.  My victory and honor come from God alone.  He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.  Psalm 62:5-7

For those who are trusting in Christ, there is nothing which can touch our life.  Remember the song Martin Luther wrote:  A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.  In the final verse it says, the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever.  Luther must have been reading Psalm 62 to pen those words…your life and whole eternity are untouchable by any earthly spinning dime.  Praise him!
Pass the Ammunition

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  Philippians 3:13b-14

What Paul said about pressing on is a matter of keeping your foot to the pedal in God’s Kingdom at whatever He’s called you to do and be.  He is the general; we are enlisted troops.  Life may spin on a dime at times, but your home is in the heavenlies, and you’re not there yet…so, press on!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!

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[i] Title Image Thanks to my dear and talented daughter and sister-in-Christ ,Jennifer Klim, original drawing by Illustrator.                                             All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated) 

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