"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways," declares the LORD. (Isa 55:8 NIV)
How true this is and how
evident this has been lately in my life. One week I had three funerals for three
wonderful men of God. Were any of these on my schedule or my to-do list? No?
Did I see the funerals coming? One possibly. The weekly schedule of a pastor is
filled with the unexpected. I like to reflect at the end of a week and look
back on God’s weekly planner as opposed to my weekly calendar and see what He
had in store for me so that I might grow as a Christian, minister to families
or individuals, and mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who
rejoice (Rom. 12:4).
His to-do list for me is far
beyond my thoughts and well beyond my ways. The struggle sometimes is to let
him in to my schedule. I have things I need to do. I have things that have to be accomplished. I have reports
that have to be done and meetings to
prepare for. And just when my day or week gets behind, God brings someone or a
situation forward that redirects me away from myself and what I have to do, to what He needs me to do.
So after the week of
funerals, comforting families and sharing the hope of the Resurrection, the
Lord finds a new way to rearrange my schedule. I get a call from a friend
working with a ministry that shares God’s word with international students to
ask me if I would be willing to do a Baptism for someone before they return to
their home country. So it is off to East Lansing, MSU campus. Then… I receive a
call from one of our parents in our Kindergarten who would like to have her
daughter Baptized before they move away the following week to another part of
the country. We schedule a Baptism for that week during the school day so her
friends can be a part of this glorious event. Then… another one of our school students,
a fourth grader, wants to be Baptized and after talking with family and
classmates, he will be Baptized that next Sunday, with his classmates a part of
this event, sharing in the joy with him.
And so another week goes
by, this time with three Baptisms, and my to-do list is still there. Programs
still have to be worked on, etc.; but God reminds me again that He has a to-do
list for me also, His to-do list. And as I reach the end of another week, I see
that God has His ways, and I had my ways. He is still reminding me
that He is in charge and that the work of a pastor, of a church, doesn’t lie in
the business of running a church, but in having a church running to do His
business. And His business is to Baptize and make disciples. I pray that you
are reminded daily that God is in charge and that you find peace and comfort in
knowing that His thoughts are not ours, and His ways are not our ways. May we
make our thoughts His, our ways His, and our very lives His. Here’s to your
day, week, month, given over to Christ, the One who gave to us first.