Teach Me Patience…

As of Wednesday God has really been revealing to me a need to be getting out of the Christian bubble I live in. It’s much like the times the disciples wanted to stay with Jesus rather than go out and be among the people. The reality is I am not involved with anything that is not connected with church or my job. I’m not making the assumption that everyone that attends something at the church is a Christian and doesn’t need to be ministered too, but take a look at Jesus as the example. He didn’t spend all His time preaching in the synagogue, he was teaching among the people that would never set foot in a synagogue. This is what we all need to do, not just hide ourselves in the church. The is the failing of the church today. We are about come to us, not going to them.

Friday I had an amazing time talking with Todd M. about the beginning of an alternative community of faith. Something that is outside of the church, and looks very different then what Christians are used to. Until the more recent work God has been doing in my life, I would have been very resistant to this. The traditional church, and my involvement in it, has been very comfortable for me. This is the probably, God needs me out of my comfort zone to grow me. This He has been doing. The talk we had about this, twice that day, has got me excited to see how God will be working in Fergus Falls in the years to come. What has me hope even more is how this work that God does here could perhaps spread to the hearts of people in other churches, LB or not, around nation and beyond. We need to be thinking always thinking about how we can reach the world of today. Every day, every year, every decade, the world we know changes. God doesn’t change but yet His message is relavent for all times. So it is upon us to be concerned about the world of today as it changes, and not stuck on our own comfort.

Friday night I was up, and out, pretty late working on rebuilding Stan O’s computer. They treated me to supper, then I went to work on their computer. The hardware stuff was easy, it was the bajillion Windows updates that took so long to get downloaded and installed. Needless to say I didn’t get home until 1:30, didn’t get to bed until 2:30, then slept in until like 11:30 the next day, ugh. What a waste of the morning. Actually I did wake up at like 8 but I was way to tired to get up.

I pretty much bummed around the house until that evening. Met at Perkins with a couple of guys for a Bible study. We ended up having meals, then we dicided to just go to my house for the study part. It was really good I think. We’re going through the book of Romans. And even though we didn’t follow the study guide to the T, it really got some good conversation going. This is my hope, that we can be studying the scripture and that it would be the Holy Spirit’s leading in where it takes us. We’re going to be meeting again on Tuesday at 4:00 pm, I’m looking forward to this. We’re not setting a weekly day/time for it. With work schedules changing we’re going to take it week-to-week. I think it’s more important for us to be able to meet than it is that it’s on some set schedule.

That night was a late one too. One of the guys stayed and we had a good time talking about the things of life. I was able to share with him some of my life experiences, and the things God has been revealing to me.

Today, I had my study group on the Life Shapes. We went over the septagon and talked about this acrostic Mrs Gren (M=Movement, R=Respiration, S=Sensitivity, G=Growth, R=Reproduction, E=Excretion, N=Nutrition), many may be familiar with this as it comes from biology. It was very good to talk about this in how it relates to our spiritual life. As we closed the session, we talked about where we will be going with the study, as we’re coming to the end of the shapes. One idea is to come back to each of the shapes and talk about how we are doing on applying these to our everyday life. Something that may help myself in this, I’ve been asked to lead the youth through the Life Shapes at 3D on Mondays. Honestly I kind of feel inadequate, however I will have gone through all of the Life Shapes, read “The Passionate Life”, and been meeting with my Sunday group, this has at least prepared me somewhat. I need to be open to God’s leading in this. I’m thinking I would like to ask another person to lead with me. Not sure who at this point.

Church was good, the thing I am getting a little tired of is all of the life stories. This kind of reminds me of Chad’s comment about how the preaching is done in a lot of LB churches. While life stories are good, I’d much rather have the scripture preached and explained. I love this at the E-Free church in Fargo that Chad & Laura go to. I did enjoy the worship time this morning, I wish there was more music.

After church John O called and invited me over for a game of Settlers. LOL, I’ve been playing that game so much, it’s almost rediculious really. I may have to pickup the Star Wars Risk game as something for a change of pace. I’m not sick of Settlers it seems a little overboard to be playing it as much as I do. Kind of reminds me of my first couple of summers working at camp, there it was all about playing cards, I loved it. We played one game, John won. It was kind of funny because he had won but didn’t realize it right away.

I got to working on Chad & Laura’s wedding DVD during the time I had before the Hillcrest concert that night, at 7:00 pm. I headed off to there about quarter to. I ended up sitting by myself, but that’s ok. I was there for the concert not to socialize. Well, honestly there was a secondary reason, but I was kind of a dork about that. It was a well done concert. The only thing I thought was kind of awkward was the transitions between the choir and band. Part of the difficulty was the setup they had to work with at the church. I don’t have a solution in mind, it was just not very smooth.

That was pretty much the jist of my last few days. After the concert tonight I at least stayed and talked with some people, and didn’t just head out the door. I guess I did that too after church. I saw Caroline Tysver at church today, and wanted to say hi. I haven’t seen her for a long time. She’s a nurse, so I’m not sure if she ends up working so she can’t come to church.

When I got home tonight, Laura msg’d me about their online store. They’ve been getting some sales this week. I think them lowering their prices has helped. With so many people being able to easily do price comparisons on the internet, you almost need to have a bunch of products that are the cheapest otherwise you won’t get any sales. I fixed some information on their shipping on the store, to make it very clear what the shipping details were. They’ve had to do a couple of refunds because they weren’t able to get it to the customer fast enough.

On a final note. I was a litte down on myself after the concert tonight. And I’d been thinking about the whole relationship issue again a little this past week. I haven’t had a chance to chat much online with someone that I’d really like to get to know better. I’ve kind of realized that some of this is due to my own choosing of going to bed so early, she’s on later usually. I think I just need to make an effort to through caution to the wind and stay up late at least one night a week to I can chat with her. My other concern however is that perhaps this is going no where. I’ve also gotten no notifications of new eHarmony matches. I’m not sure what this all means, except for perhaps a need for God to teach me patience. I’m so ready for a relationship, at least I feel like I am, but it all has to be God’s timing. This may in fact be exactly what is playing out. Perhaps something could be in store for me in the next year as I get to know this person, thus no additional eHarmony matchesss, and also my desire to take things slow God is perhaps just blessing that. I need to be listening to God’s lead in this area of my life. I need to continue to trust that he will take care of things and show me what I need as He knows I’m ready. This is how I’m learning patience right now. I know some of my impatience is tied to my fears of never finding someone and living alone the rest of my life. These things I also need to daily give over the Him.

Well, I’m sure this has been a very long post. Good luck to my readers, lol! 🙂 How wonderful it is to see how keep God as the focus in our lives, and following Christ’s example for our lives, can make all the difference in how we respond to the things in our lives. Until next time, valete!