Consequences and behavior:
Giving God our best
By Bishop Woodie W. White
Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church
At times things seems to all
just come together! Like writing or preparing a sermon. There are times at
my desk the words simply flow apparently without much effort. The sermon
ideas, concepts, illustrations and scriptural content come together
astonishingly well.
Circumstances in life, too,
seem to express themselves in abundant ways. A long popular song put it
this way, "... everything's going my way." There are those whose
lives are apparently characterized by such good fortune or blessing,
depending upon ones perspective.
But that's not always so. The
same effortless state often comes in reverse. We struggle. The words don't
come easily despite time spent at the desk. The sermon preparation becomes
pure drudgery and there are days when nothing goes our way. Indeed it goes
totally wrong. Some call this misfortune, bad luck or lack of God's favor
when dealing with the big stuff, beyond inconvenient nuisance.
Perhaps it's both -- the
consequences of our own actions and our behavior. Then there is God. Or
some would say inexplicable forces.
The great legendary football
coach, Vince Lombardi used to say, "Luck is when preparation meets
opportunity."
I remember once while a
student in junior high school, I was scheduled to take an important test
in a difficult subject. I had not put in the necessary effort to grasp
fully the content. The day before the exam, I was beside myself. An adult,
who learned of my plight, offered a sure-fire remedy. He told me to
"sleep with the textbook under your pillow." I guess the content
of the book was supposed to mysteriously travel to my brain. But I was
desperate. I would try anything and naively did. Needless to say, I did
horribly on my test.
With this incident in mind, I
now try to convince my son Bryan that there are some truisms in life, such
as output depends on input.
For example in a spiritual
sense, some people use prayer and God in interesting ways. They expect
both prayer and God to do for them what they can do for themselves. On the
other hand, I am absolutely convinced that both prayer and God can do for
us what we cannot do for ourselves. Learning the difference is the test of
life and mature faith.
That we depend too little on
God and prayer is an understatement. That we depend too much on both God
and prayer is likely true as well. A contradiction? Perhaps. But it's true
at least for some people.
As we prepare for another
annual conference year, there are many challenges before us. In the
Indiana Area, we have not yet shown an increase in church membership
despite the thousands in our state who continue to look for spiritual
direction and remain unchurched. Too many congregations have not brought a
single individual into church membership on profession of faith. There are
pastors who during their entire ministry have never recorded a growth in
membership. It must be disconcerting.
In the public arena, much has
taken place in our state and nation that is evidence of a successful
attack on racism and prejudice. Yet too many lives still are scarred by
both racism and prejudice in classroom, community, office, boardroom and
congregation.
This is a season of marriage,
graduation and transition from adolescence to adulthood, from a life of
work to retirement. All these opportunities and transitions require what
life has always required -- one's own hard work and effort, our best. And
leave the rest to God.
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