27 April 2006

Lord, this is so inconvenient

Last Sunday I was in church. A very "hip" and "spiffy" church. Slick worship, great music. The worship leader felt prompted by the spirit (must have been the spirit because he told us that he hadn't planned on saying what he was about to say) to share about a dialogue he'd had with God three days earlier.
"I came home from work and I didn't feel well. 'O, no', I said to myself, 'I'm getting a cold'. In the middle of the night I woke up and, you know how it feels when you have a cold, my head thick and full, and nose and stuff... I decided to talk about this with God. I said to Him, 'You know I am supposed to lead worship this coming Sunday and a cold is going to be so inconvenient, I can't use this and I really want to stand there and lead the people in worship, so if you please...'. And guess what. I woke up the next morning and my head was clear. The Lord healed me". I was expecting that at this point the whole congregation would give God a big clap but either they are so used to these type of miracles or they were embarrassed. I hope it was the latter.
My wife left her seat to go powder her nose. Later she told me she was so disgusted that she had to walk out of this, and catch her breath.
My mind drifted of and I saw a seven year old African girl, almost starved to death. Just like many of her thousands and thousands of starving contemporaries. She walked to the pulpit and started to share her testimony, "A couple of days ago I was tired after a day of trying to find some food. I hadn't had any food for days and I was really sad. But I know what to do so I prayed to God and said: 'Lord, you know how hungry I am and you also know that starving is very inconvenient. Lord, I want to say to you that I can't really use this. If I may be so blunt as to ask you to fix this thing for me (In Jesus name, of course). I cried myself to sleep and woke up a couple of hours later and to my big surprise I smelled freshly baked bread. I looked and I saw this huge picnic basket full of the most delicious food".
I can say only one thing: Lord forgive me, forgive us in the Western world where you've become a Santa Claus whose job it is to meet my needs and deal with all my inconveniences.

I am ashamed and embarrased. Again I pray: Forgive me.

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