2007 wound up being the year that I finally "GOT" it. The
concert in this beautiful and very old church in Murphy, NC
was where I finally started to learn what it meant to serve completely in
a ministry setting. Have you ever cut yourself
with a knife while trying to do something productive? When that happens, what
do we almost always do? Say
something that we probably shouldn't, clutch the finger in pain, run to the
bathroom to wash it out and then as quickly
as we can, wrap it and put on a bandage. Am I right? Ever do that before?
That night in Murphy, NC, God cut into my pride and MY vision...
and for the first time I didn't run for the bandaid
I sat and watched it bleed - to my surprise, I watched God heal that hurt
and build a ministry the right way.
We had come to do a "concert" and only 7 people came. It hurt and
I knew why it hurt. Not because we didn't have
a big crowd (although yes it's always easier to minister to more people).
It hurt because in my heart I knew I had come
to do a "show". You can do a "show" and ministry at the
same time, but only if the heart is right and I knew that mine
wasn't. The amazing thing was that I knew I was broken and I shared that with
the people that night. We sang to a full
house that night, with the angels and God himself filling that place. Later
in the night, we found that every one of the
people there had been broken or were hurting in some way and that through
my own brokeness they were able to
build me up. I watched God restore my heart and open my eyes to what real
ministry looked like.
I haven't lost site of it since and pray that God will never let me forget.
2007 was a neat year!
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