Day 157: On The Same Page
Read: Jonah 4:1 - 11
Have you ever not been “on the same page” as someone? Consider this amusing little anecdote: A new resident was walking down a street and noticed a man
struggling with a washing machine at the doorway of his house. When the
newcomer offered to help, the homeowner was overjoyed, and the two men
together began to struggle with the bulky appliance. After several
minutes of fruitless effort the two stopped and just stared at each
other in frustration, on the verge of total exhaustion. Finally, when they caught their breath, the first man said to the homeowner: "We’ll
never get this in there!" To which the homeowner suddenly looked up and replied: "In? I’m
trying to move this thing out of here!"
As funny as this may be I
believe the one thing we can agree on was that was a very definite
communication breakdown. When have any of us not been there before? The
truth is we only get things done when we are in mutual agreement with
the goals and objectives for the task before us. In short - we have
to be on the same page. We so need to know that either the goal is to be
going in or going out. I have also found in my own experience that it
is good to be “on the same page” when you're trying hard being part of a team, working alongside a group of strangers in a challenging ministry area with one shared goal being that God should be working through us to transform lives.
But (there always seems to be one of these lingering in the background) Have you (be honest) ever been in a place where you became upset with the 'same
page' God is leading you to read? For Jonah it was the Babylonian city
Nineveh to take the Word of God to people you were not sure were of God. In my own case it is the Prison Ministry called Kairos. Being sent into a place as alien and foreboding as a prison, knowing not one thing about it, but fully realizing from the host of movies and TV specials I have seen, that these individuals are here because they have been convicted of a crime I cannot ask them about. Working on the same page as God within the grey walls here is echelons beyond essential.
This was clearly an extraordinarily challenging area of ministry
working in a culture I did not have anything in common with
experience-wise. Yet, like Jonah, my spirit felt that God was nudging me
toward there, and reluctantly, I began a slow process to educate myself
what this ministry was all about. Initially, it was no surprise that
like Jonah, I thought God had to be kidding me so I essentially, like
Jonah tried to run in the other direction. However during the whole
situation, God would not relent and neither would a friend of mine who
had been involved with it for many years. I prayed if this was 'the same page' the Lord wanted me to be on. Well, we shall see what page God and I are on in April.
Let Us Pray: I thank you for being above me and knowing what is best
for me. In this life, we are all searching for our purpose and asking
for your will to be done. But let us not be blindsided and naive to
think that as we ask, so we are ready for it to be revealed and respond
accordingly. I pray that as each of us comes to a point in our lives
where we dare to ask you to reveal your will for us, you would put us in
a place of acceptance, you would put us on the same page of what you
reveal to us. It may not be what we want, but it will surely be what you
know we need in order to live a life fully invested in you. Help us to
realize that anything you bring into our lives and anything you reveal
to us is for our good, working alongside us to transform lives.
http://www.youtube.com/
Read: Jonah 4:1 - 11
Have you ever not been “on the same page” as someone? Consider this amusing little anecdote: A new resident was walking down a street and noticed a man struggling with a washing machine at the doorway of his house. When the newcomer offered to help, the homeowner was overjoyed, and the two men together began to struggle with the bulky appliance. After several minutes of fruitless effort the two stopped and just stared at each other in frustration, on the verge of total exhaustion. Finally, when they caught their breath, the first man said to the homeowner: "We’ll never get this in there!" To which the homeowner suddenly looked up and replied: "In? I’m trying to move this thing out of here!"
As funny as this may be I believe the one thing we can agree on was that was a very definite communication breakdown. When have any of us not been there before? The truth is we only get things done when we are in mutual agreement with the goals and objectives for the task before us. In short - we have to be on the same page. We so need to know that either the goal is to be going in or going out. I have also found in my own experience that it is good to be “on the same page” when you're trying hard being part of a team, working alongside a group of strangers in a challenging ministry area with one shared goal being that God should be working through us to transform lives.
But (there always seems to be one of these lingering in the background) Have you (be honest) ever been in a place where you became upset with the 'same page' God is leading you to read? For Jonah it was the Babylonian city Nineveh to take the Word of God to people you were not sure were of God. In my own case it is the Prison Ministry called Kairos. Being sent into a place as alien and foreboding as a prison, knowing not one thing about it, but fully realizing from the host of movies and TV specials I have seen, that these individuals are here because they have been convicted of a crime I cannot ask them about. Working on the same page as God within the grey walls here is echelons beyond essential.
This was clearly an extraordinarily challenging area of ministry working in a culture I did not have anything in common with experience-wise. Yet, like Jonah, my spirit felt that God was nudging me toward there, and reluctantly, I began a slow process to educate myself what this ministry was all about. Initially, it was no surprise that like Jonah, I thought God had to be kidding me so I essentially, like Jonah tried to run in the other direction. However during the whole situation, God would not relent and neither would a friend of mine who had been involved with it for many years. I prayed if this was 'the same page' the Lord wanted me to be on. Well, we shall see what page God and I are on in April.
Let Us Pray: I thank you for being above me and knowing what is best for me. In this life, we are all searching for our purpose and asking for your will to be done. But let us not be blindsided and naive to think that as we ask, so we are ready for it to be revealed and respond accordingly. I pray that as each of us comes to a point in our lives where we dare to ask you to reveal your will for us, you would put us in a place of acceptance, you would put us on the same page of what you reveal to us. It may not be what we want, but it will surely be what you know we need in order to live a life fully invested in you. Help us to realize that anything you bring into our lives and anything you reveal to us is for our good, working alongside us to transform lives.
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Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United
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Included in the Hillsong United's "Zion", the third studio album by Australian Contemporary Christian
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