Sunday Again

Waking up this morning was difficult, and I can't imagine going through today without finding a nap in there somewhere. We're getting ready for church - important thing is that the coffee is ready; got to have good coffee when your church meets in a theater with great cupholders! - and I'm hoping to be a little earlier than normal. I want to check in with Pastor Jeff, see if there's anything I need to do/know for Monday evening's Small Group Leader HUDDLE, and see what's being promoted for our Sunday morning Q&A time that starts in a couple of weeks.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night, when all of the small group leaders will gather for the HUDDLE, seeing what the vision is for Seacoast, being challenged and empowered to do what we're called to do. I'll be meeting people, and then coaching people I'm just now meeting. No pressure there, right? And then in two weeks the Q&A Morning Study will start, giving some time on Sunday mornings before the service to dig a little deeper into the Word; probably a bit more expository in nature, hopefully a bit more discussion oriented than lecture. Again, no pressure, right? As I've blogged before, I am pumped by the challenge - and I'm nervous, anxious, unsure at certain levels. But that's a good thing. Keeps me honest.

Here's the thing I've learned, and I'm believing will happen again: God is there when you move on what He's calling you to do, but He's hard to find when you're sitting still and scratching your own itch. That's basically what Oswald Chambers said in UTMOST/HIGHEST this morning:

Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. In this passage [John 14:31], after having said these wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected our Lord to tell them to go away and meditate over them all. But Jesus never allowed idle daydreaming. When our purpose is to seek God and to discover His will for us, daydreaming is right and acceptable. But when our inclination is to spend time daydreaming over what we have already been told to do, it is unacceptable and God’s blessing is never on it. God will take the initiative against this kind of daydreaming by prodding us to action. His instructions to us will be along the lines of this: "Don’t sit or stand there, just go!" [02/20 devotional]

It's not about the daydreaming; it's about the doing. And the planning, and the getting ready, and the preparations to do this thing right. But it's not about sitting and thinking and possibly worrying about it.

This kind of thing really drives me. I'm passionate about leading discussions, studying God's word and seeing where we intersect with His Story, helping others and gaining from them insights into the kingdom being lived out here and now. In both challenges - coaching small group leaders and leading the new discussion time - I am humbled to be a part of something bigger than myself, and excited to be a part of something that will have life-changing possibilities for me and for everyone involved.