My First Sermon.

I have a toothache. I don't think I've ever had one before (seriously!), so you can imagine my annoyance. It's 5am, I've been up for an hour and can't get back to sleep.

So...I thought I'd be productive. I've been working on a "sermon" (I use that term incredibly loosely) for my home church for a few weeks now. It's been on my mind a lot, but I haven't actually sat down to do any writing until this week. I have no idea why I actually have a toothache at this time and on this day, but I just sat down and wrote a majority of the sermon. I'm amazed at how easily it's coming together.

Several times this week, I've just pulled out my Bible at the end of a long day and paged through some passages-and I somehow stumble upon a verse that becomes a major pillar of the message. I'll be writing an e-mail, and remember that a book I read once years ago might have something good for the sermon, so I dig it out and page through it and happen to find exactly what I needed to include in the message.

I don't think I've just been 'happening' to stumble upon or remember these things. It's been encouraging to see God work things out in front of me as I am faithful in working on the sermon. I haven't actually been all that faithful, but it's really coming together nicely. This makes me even more excited because the fact that I don't really have to work hard for it shows me that He's the one orchestrating the events. I like to write, and research various topics, and speak in public. But even with these advantages there's absolutely no way that I could create a decent, thought-provoking sermon without His guidance and influence.

Say what you want about the way God interacts with individuals- whether or not he opens up parking spaces for you at the mall, or cares about which refrigerator you buy. Some days it's easier to doubt His faithfulness (we know then we won't feel let down if He doesn't come through) than it is to believe He will do what we really need Him to. But when you actually see Him come through for you several times in different ways, you know He cares. And it helps you trust Him to be there in other ways, too.

To sum: God wants your availability, not your ability. In my case, I'm amazed that He would even work through my level of incredibly distracted, disinterested availability.