God Shows Up - In spite of Me
I will reiterate that this is a diary, so I will claim the right merely to express whatever is on my mind - sometimes in a rather rambling way.
So... a confession.
You've heard the expression, "Those who can, do. Those who can't do, teach" (Apologies to my son-in-law, a high school English teacher, who can both do and teach.)
I feel I can relate to that old axiom. I feel quite confident in doing both, or either, but unfortunately not always at the same time. I have been involved in Alpha courses for over twenty years. I sometimes think I could start and run an Alpha course blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back, to use an old schoolyard expression. That is both good and bad; a blessing and a curse. What I mean is that while I feel I could step in and facilitate an Alpha course on very short notice, this can be seen as flippancy, even off-handedness, by some who are not so experienced. I have the unfortunate tendency to just do things myself in a project in which I am involved, but this does not so completely facilitate the teaching aspect that is necessary to what I am trying to accomplish. We do have team meetings, and we ran the training at the beginning of the course, but I have to resist the temptation just to run through an Alpha evening in a way that has become second nature to me, without explaining to my team exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it.
All this to say that on my church's current Alpha, which, as I have posted before, I am coordinating to raise up the team and leaders to be Christ the King's Alpha team for the future, I have to have two very separate and different hats, a doing hat and a teaching hat, and I feel I need to take one off to put the other on, sometimes repeatedly.
Which brings me to the title of this post. I caught myself last week (the talk on prayer) doing something I insist should never be done - that is, causing someone in my small group embarrassment (by asking them to pray when they did not feel comfortable doing so. I must have been between hats and actually had on neither.) Of course, I realized my mistake, and apologized for it in private at the end of the evening, but still was worried that I had done irreparable damage. Thanks be to God, I believe I have not. Last night, in our discussion following the talk on the Bible, both small groups had wonderful discussions, and even the previously shy guests in my group began to open up and participate fully and enthusiastically in the conversation. God showed up and covered my mistakes.
This Friday and Saturday is our Weekend Away, so I would appreciate prayers for it - that God would show up in a mighty way and meet every need that people bring with them. Pray that He will show up by His Spirit and move powerfully among us, and that lives would be changed and hearts blessed by this time of focussing on the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
John
So... a confession.
You've heard the expression, "Those who can, do. Those who can't do, teach" (Apologies to my son-in-law, a high school English teacher, who can both do and teach.)
I feel I can relate to that old axiom. I feel quite confident in doing both, or either, but unfortunately not always at the same time. I have been involved in Alpha courses for over twenty years. I sometimes think I could start and run an Alpha course blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back, to use an old schoolyard expression. That is both good and bad; a blessing and a curse. What I mean is that while I feel I could step in and facilitate an Alpha course on very short notice, this can be seen as flippancy, even off-handedness, by some who are not so experienced. I have the unfortunate tendency to just do things myself in a project in which I am involved, but this does not so completely facilitate the teaching aspect that is necessary to what I am trying to accomplish. We do have team meetings, and we ran the training at the beginning of the course, but I have to resist the temptation just to run through an Alpha evening in a way that has become second nature to me, without explaining to my team exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it.
All this to say that on my church's current Alpha, which, as I have posted before, I am coordinating to raise up the team and leaders to be Christ the King's Alpha team for the future, I have to have two very separate and different hats, a doing hat and a teaching hat, and I feel I need to take one off to put the other on, sometimes repeatedly.
Which brings me to the title of this post. I caught myself last week (the talk on prayer) doing something I insist should never be done - that is, causing someone in my small group embarrassment (by asking them to pray when they did not feel comfortable doing so. I must have been between hats and actually had on neither.) Of course, I realized my mistake, and apologized for it in private at the end of the evening, but still was worried that I had done irreparable damage. Thanks be to God, I believe I have not. Last night, in our discussion following the talk on the Bible, both small groups had wonderful discussions, and even the previously shy guests in my group began to open up and participate fully and enthusiastically in the conversation. God showed up and covered my mistakes.
This Friday and Saturday is our Weekend Away, so I would appreciate prayers for it - that God would show up in a mighty way and meet every need that people bring with them. Pray that He will show up by His Spirit and move powerfully among us, and that lives would be changed and hearts blessed by this time of focussing on the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
John
Comments
Post a Comment