Today’s Readings: Psalm 102; Genesis 47:1-26; Luke 8:1-15; Acts 20:28-35; Psalm 125
For those of you who are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am a strong “J”. For those of you not familiar with Myers-Briggs, let me take a moment and tell you what that means. When it comes to the way people use information, there are generally two types of people. First, there are those people who are labeled “P”; these folks dislike making a decision because they are enamored with the idea of keeping all of their options open as long as possible. Then, there are people like myself who are labeled “J”; these folks tend to be decisive – they love to make a decision and arrive at closure as quickly as possible. As you could probably figure out from my brief description, as a “J” one of the things I love most in life is experiencing a sense of closure or completion. This aspect of my personality presented me with one of my greatest challenges when I first answered my call to ministry. I say that because one of the few things you rarely experience in ministry is a sense of completion. There are always more people to visit, more causes to help out, and more books/articles to be read than any one person could ever accomplish. Consequently, if a person is going to last in ministry; he or she needs to learn how to be okay with not personally seeing every project through. In many ways, this is the same conclusion the author of today’s passage from the Book of Acts was pushing. For as the author was getting ready to move on with his ministry, he wrote these sage words to those he left behind: “Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends” (Acts 20:32 – The Message). That sense of being able to let go before closure is achieved is a crucial element of our spiritual lives. Today, I would invite you to examine your own issues around completion and control. All of this makes me wonder what type of person are you. Are you the sort of person that expects to see everything through on your own time and according to your own terms; or have you cultivated the ability to let go and trust God to see things through to completion? My prayer for today is that God will help each of us grow in our ability to step back at crucial junctions in our lives and trust the Creator of all things to see things through for us. Til next time…
For those of you who are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am a strong “J”. For those of you not familiar with Myers-Briggs, let me take a moment and tell you what that means. When it comes to the way people use information, there are generally two types of people. First, there are those people who are labeled “P”; these folks dislike making a decision because they are enamored with the idea of keeping all of their options open as long as possible. Then, there are people like myself who are labeled “J”; these folks tend to be decisive – they love to make a decision and arrive at closure as quickly as possible. As you could probably figure out from my brief description, as a “J” one of the things I love most in life is experiencing a sense of closure or completion. This aspect of my personality presented me with one of my greatest challenges when I first answered my call to ministry. I say that because one of the few things you rarely experience in ministry is a sense of completion. There are always more people to visit, more causes to help out, and more books/articles to be read than any one person could ever accomplish. Consequently, if a person is going to last in ministry; he or she needs to learn how to be okay with not personally seeing every project through. In many ways, this is the same conclusion the author of today’s passage from the Book of Acts was pushing. For as the author was getting ready to move on with his ministry, he wrote these sage words to those he left behind: “Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends” (Acts 20:32 – The Message). That sense of being able to let go before closure is achieved is a crucial element of our spiritual lives. Today, I would invite you to examine your own issues around completion and control. All of this makes me wonder what type of person are you. Are you the sort of person that expects to see everything through on your own time and according to your own terms; or have you cultivated the ability to let go and trust God to see things through to completion? My prayer for today is that God will help each of us grow in our ability to step back at crucial junctions in our lives and trust the Creator of all things to see things through for us. Til next time…
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