Moving Right Along

I was reminded this morning during a moment of prayer that I am to be contrite and not contrary. I was asking God to give me something worth saying on this blog site today. I am usually not short of words, but have wrestled with where to begin since receiving an invitation to join this experiment.

Quickly I knew the foundation of my posts would be centered in prayer and hospitality from the perspective of a follower of Jesus. More specifically, I sensed the purpose of my sharing in this endeavor is to be prayer and hospitality in the context of church planting with a disposition toward seeking the Kingdom of God.

No problem.

Sometimes it seems I have so much to say that it’s hard to say anything at all. I have a rambling conversation going on in my head frequently. There’s a lot of talk going on inside of here. I think they call that internal conversation.

I talk to myself a lot.

I also talk with God.

So, this morning on a walk enveloped in prayer I asked God what I should say into the virtual space given to me.

I was reminded of how the invitation to post here came to be. I was introduced to Doug Pagitt by a pastor who gifted to me a copy of Doug’s book A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, open-armed, alive-and-well faith for the left out, left behind, and let down in us all.[1] The title intrigued me upon receipt. The inscription the pastor personally penned in ink pissed me off.

It reads,

“A gift to a God breathed contrarian of a story of another contrarian. Your voice needs to be heard, keep speaking.”

Re-reading those words today makes me smile. I’ve come a long way since my eyes originally tracked over them in 2008.

It took me 18 months to take Doug’s book off the shelf to read it. I read it in one sitting.

I quickly realized a need to consider a move from contrary to contrition.

Words of my childhood came back to me even without the beads,

“O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen”

I called the pastor and confessed my angst and sorrow. I thanked him. I think he laughed…in forgiveness.

That act led to an unexpected meeting of the book’s author.

And now…here I am.

I pray through this opportunity God will use me to encourage another in the ways of following Jesus as a leader of new community.

I vow to remain genuine and true to the call on my life with hope that many, many people will come to a growing faith in Jesus.

He is our hope. I believe.

I invite you to follow along and virtually join in the sharing of an adventure of a church planter named Maggie rooted and established in the love of Christ leading a baby church called Bull City Vineyard in the city of Durham, North Carolina.

I recently read, “Prayer often involves us in what sociologists call “unintended consequences.”[2] I find those words to be hopeful.

Come along with me and together, I hope, we’ll find something we can smile about down the road.