Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. July 23, 2010
“Ready For The Overflow?”

It was inevitable. We scheduled a church outing to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox baseball game this past Tuesday night. Every time we schedule a group from our church to go to a game it rains…or hails…or sleets…or is miserably cold…or all of the aforementioned!
Tuesday night was destined…it was summoned…it was mandated to be rained on. When I say “rained on” I’m being kind. It was “baptized”, and I’m not talking about “in the spirit!”
There was so much rain I passed four arcs being built on my drive home (Just kidding!).
There was so much rain that the sold out baseball game had almost no one there when it actually (I can’t believe it!) did start two hours late. We sat there for two hours watching the grounds crew squeegee the field, and then left 10 minutes before the game started. (What can I say? It was about my bedtime!)
The next day I discovered another place that had been baptized- the church fellowship hall! There was so much water that flowed down the ramps to the entry way by our fellowship hall that the drain couldn’t dispel it fast enough. There was debris residue about two inches high on the outside doors.
Let the waters flow!
“Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.”
Could it be…Could it be…that God doesn’t shower us with blessings because we’re not equipped, ready, or able to handle the volume?
Please, put the water cannon down.
Think about it. What could your church adequately handle right now? How many people are ready and able to disciple and mentor another person who is new to the faith?
For example, our church’s day camp maxed out at 53 kids this summer. That’s all we could adequately and effectively handle with the staff and classes we had. We had to turn several kids away, because we couldn’t handle any more. If we would have taken more, to borrow a phrase used earlier, we would have been flooded!
But we were able to effectively minister to the 53!
Most of the time we long for our congregations to have a kind of “church utopia” where everything is perfect and awesome. The parking lot is crowded, and the baptistery is continually being used. The media send reporters to catch some of the spirit, and people are lining up to experience the moving of the Lord.
We have a picture of the vision, but are seldom ready for it. Disciples need someone able to disciple. Prayer ministry needs prayer warriors. Widows and orphans need people of mercy and compassion.
Could it be that God has a better idea of “how effective our drainage system is” than we do? Could it be he knows what we can currently handle, and what we would end up just soaking the carpet with?
My friend, Greg Davis, went to his family’s farm last weekend for “harvest”. Harvesting the wheat. His grandfather has more sophisticated farm machinery then he used to. The combine is bigger, so it takes less time. The mission is still the same- harvest the wheat- but the way its completed is a little different.
But it still doesn’t magically happen! Someone still needs to run the machinery and gather the harvest. It’s more effective how they get it done, and they get it done.
Could it be that God knows how ready we are, and effective we, to gather in the blessings? Dry periods may have more to say about our readiness than the quality of the harvest.

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