The Sunday Question

The sermon heard today did not exactly pose the question I wrote down on the back of an offering envelope pulled from the back of the pew in front of me.  What I also know is that sometimes God has a way of posing questions the preacher does not really ask.  So it was today.  The question I brought home for pondering is, "What if I have not yet come to the moment for which God has been preparing me all of my life?"  Of course, this is not the question of a young seminarian back in the days of beginning, but of a seventy-seven old worn out Methodist preacher sent to the pasture of retirement.   

My first thought took me into the future wondering if there was something waiting out there which has yet to be revealed.  And while such is always a possibility, if also occurred to me that God has more likely been preparing me all my life to live today.  Today has seemed rather ordinary.  I went to worship, ate some lunch, and took a nap before sitting down to think again about the question raised by the sermon.  There has been nothing grandiose about the living of this day, but then, what I also know is that this is a description of most of my days.  In the midst of what I have come to know as ordinary living, I have also become aware that God is likely to break into the minutia of my life at any moment and that He has often brought me to moments which I could only describe as extraordinary moments of grace.  

Instead of the grandiose, maybe God has been preparing me all my life for a moment of affirming a preacher in his preaching today, or holding a door open for a stranger as an act of kindness, or maybe even the silent prayers offered this morning in the midst of a quiet moment this morning with Him.  Maybe it was not the preacher who asked the question today, but the Spirit who was working through the preacher.  Or, maybe it was both.