The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do!
"For we are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10
In today's world we are plagued with "isms." For the elderly, we have ageism. For the genders, we have sexism. For those of a different color we have racism. For those of a different belief we have sectarianism. For those living in a different neighborhood we have ethnocentrism. And, the list goes on and on.
The reason we have so "isms" is quite simply we have a lot of hatred and prejudice in the world. As Christians we must overcome these shortcomings and realize that in Christ, there are no differences between us.
We all have "isms" in our lives. On the day after Hurricane Katrina struck I found myself in a basically normal weekend. Saturday morning, the news had said that a military base about three miles from my parsonage would receive an influx of storm victims from Hurricane Katrina.
I went about my normal day. On the news, reports started to come in that the 1,000 refugees they had originally thought would come had now bloomed to over 5,000.
I decided to add the feeding of the 5,000 into my sermon, quite pleased with myself for my ingenuity of using real time events. And, I thought I'd throw in a little something about donating to the Red Cross or United Way.
Sunday morning when I woke up, instead of 5,000, the base had received over 12,000.
Now, a real crisis existed.
All over the television, calls were being sent out for food, clothing and baby supplies. It was a sad deal. And I made mention of it in my sermon. I even told them where to go to drop off supplies.
After church, I had planned to go out to eat at a restaurant in Fort Smith. We asked some of my congregation members to go. As we sat down at Western Sizzlin' to eat, we prayed, thanking God for the food and asking that He help those at Fort Chaffee who were in need.
As we ate, I talked about how sad it was that all those people had lost their homes. We reflected on how the government needed to plan better for emergencies such as this and, we decided that the broccoli and cheese was a little too ripe.
While we were talking, I had a thought burst forth from the back of my head. It simply said, "They need you at the base."
While we finished our dinner, the thought kept popping up. And, then, when I had just about gotten the thought out of my mind, something even more strange happened.
The waitress came over to our table to refill our glasses. She saw my ministerial collar I wore and said, "Have you been out to the base yet? I heard they're really needing pastors."
And, I just looked at her dumbstruck. How could this waitress be reading my mind? Why did she ask me exactly what I was thinking?
Then, the thought became something else. It moved from my head down to my stomach. You know the feeling. We've all had it. It's an empty feeling. You don't quite feel sick, just an emptiness inside. It compels you to do things. It moves you when you can't move and it tells you that something bigger than yourself is going on.
I said to the waitress, "No, I haven't yet. But I'm fixing to."
That statement lead me down a pathway I would have never imagined or dreamed of. God's blessings flowed like never before and when I arrived at the base, I felt definitively what it meant to hear God's calling.
The biggest "ism" I think we all face is narcissism. Learning to get over ourselves and start doing what God calls us to do. God's calling you today to be a part of something bigger than you can ever imagine. All you have to do is listen and learn to get over our "isms."
PASTOR TROY CONRAD IS MINISTER OF FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. EMAIL: [email protected].
Religion on 02/03/2016