Now means NOW!
Sunday 26th May 2024 (Week 70)
Mark 1:14-20
I don`t know about you but I can procrastinate with the best. I`m a writer after all. Ask any writer and they will tell you that they’ll do just about anything but write; make a cup of coffee, take a call from a friend, walk the dog, mow the lawn, etc. And yet, writing is what I`m called to and the thing I want to do most (well, ok, maybe that should be fishing!).
Churches can be a bit like that too. PCCs, committees, or whatever sort of leadership group you`re used to, can sometimes meet time and again before anything seems to happen. “I thought we were going to appoint a youth leader?”, “Didn’t we decide not to use that old hymn again,” “Shouldn’t we have a different brand of coffee?” And so it goes on. If you`ve ever been a part of a decision-making group you can probably hear all the lingering questions that float around the ether of committee life.
The poet Edward Young said that procrastination is “the thief of time”, and I can identify all too easily with that. Example: it`s taken me many years to move ahead with writing these devotionals. In doing so I`m aware that I have at times ignored or missed completely, a direct instruction from God who, when he calls us to a task expects us to respond immediately.
When Simon and his brother Andrew were fishing on Lake Galilee and Jesus, whom they had not previously met, said to them, “Come with me”, these first disciples responded “at once” and “immediately” to his call. A little further down the shoreline James and John responded in the same manner. Immediately.
Unfortunately, and too often I`ve said, “Well, okay Lord, if that`s what you want me to do please give me some clear direction”, each time showing a lack of faith instead of remembering that God's work done in God’s way will never lack God’s provision.
God's “yes” means yes, His “no” means no, and “go” exactly that. He doesn`t say to us “I want you to do this, what do you think?”
The simple fact is that many of us are frightened that the task is too big, that we are inadequate, not old or young enough, or that maybe we`ve just heard God wrong (though at the twentieth time of being told I really should know better!). But God promises to be with us always – that means in whatever we do, wherever we go He will be with us. And if He can help me overcome my fear in writing these notes He can help you overcome yours too.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, fill us with the confidence we need to fulfil the tasks set before us. Set us on fire with your enthusiasm to do what God has already prepared us to do.
Neil Bromage, 26/05/2024