Today
turned out to be one of those days that went very differently than I had
planned. To be honest, I am not normally a person who crafts a detailed
schedule of the day and sticks to it religiously. It's not that I don’t like to
have a plan, I'm just more of a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. This week,
however, I had a lot to get done, and I felt a large amount of pressure
to accomplish a decent number of tasks (pressure that was put on me
by...me). I've found that whenever I try to take complete control and put
this kind of pressure on myself, something always goes wrong. Looking
back, the tasks at hand were important, but not the kind of important that
would cause a minor panic attack mid-day (well...maybe for an intense type-A
personality it would).
I have a
friend who, at the drop of a hat, would stop whatever he was doing to help
someone else — whether in his personal relationships or in serving at our
church. He had asked for help with a project that would take a good chunk
of the day. He never asks for help, so I immediately agreed to do whatever I
could. I had worked out my schedule to allow myself time to complete the other
items on my day's list of to-dos, but as soon as we started the project I
quickly realized that this was going to take quite a bit longer than expected.
I had a quick moment of panic, trying to figure out how I was going to
get everything else done before I had to be back to our worship rehearsal that
same evening. Finally, I was able to calm down enough to realize that the
time I was taking to serve someone who so faithfully serves my family and me as
well as our church, far outweighed whatever tasks I needed to complete in the
next few hours. I was overwhelmed by a sense of thankfulness for this person.
He not only serves in a way that is essential for our weekend services to take
place, but he does so with a heart of joy even when it means giving up time
that he could be spending with family or accomplishing his own tasks.
As I took
the events of the day with me to our worship rehearsal, I was overwhelmed with
that same sense of thankfulness for every person who was in the sanctuary
giving their time to practice. Here was a group of people who regularly serve
our church body in a way that is vital to what we are doing. To stop and think
about all that this team sacrifices on a weekly basis made my heart swell with
joy and gratitude. There was a point during our prayer time where I stopped
what I was doing to express my thanks to all those who were preparing their
hearts to put in a full weekend of serving. One of my favorite sermons that we
hear each year is on Thanksgiving morning (yes, for those of you who have never
been, we have a Thanksgiving morning service). Pastor Randy does such an
incredible job of putting into perspective what it means to be thankful, but
even more, what it means to express that gratitude. It is one thing
to be thankful for something, it is another to actually express this gratitude.
As we focus
our hearts during our worship times on Sunday mornings, a large part of what we
are doing is expressing outwardly the gratitude and thankfulness that we
experience in our life. To stop and think of all that I have to be
thankful for, all the blessings that God has given me, I am brought to a place
of such joy that my outward response of worship feels like the only thing I
know to do. Every week we come together as one body of believers. This is a
body that is diverse in culture, social structure, education and stage of life.
We have the opportunity each week to unite as one, and declare the same truth
of who Jesus is. With hearts of thankfulness, we get to recognize and respond
to Jesus in our lives.
I am not
sure that I can accurately communicate the number of people who serve Beaverton
Foursquare Church each week. From safety and worship team members to children's
ministry teachers, the number of sacrifices that have been made by these team
members would be too high to count. We are so blessed by serving with teams who
desire to be apart of what Jesus is doing in this community.
I continue
to pray that God gives us hearts of gratitude and thanksgiving, not only for
him and the incredible work he has done in our lives, but for each other. I
pray that we take it to the next step of being able to express that gratitude
in our worship times and in our times of community and fellowship.
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