Such a Time as This

-Rev Melissa Fain-

It is eerie when plans perfectly fall in place. When the people and pieces come together at just the right time to create something beautifully awesome. Sometimes I think this when I recall meeting my husband. In college, he was in the building right next to me, but it took a Yahoo promotion, and an issue with their programming for the two of us to finally see one another and start dating. When you actually stop and think about it, the amount of things that had to happen for the two of us to get together is amazing.

The same is true of Church events. I've seen the planning process for an event, and watched as just the right pieces and people came on board to make it work. Random donations, or a person feeling they just had to come in at that moment, made that specific event work. Those involved just couldn't help but see God in the process.

That brings me to today: I purposefully did not write anything for Pentecost last week. In the past, before ordination, everything I planned just came together, so much so that after my Kentucky call I just assumed it would happen again. Actually, the opposite was true. If it could fail, it did. Years ago, I would see Pentecost coming up on the calendar, and think if there were a time for an 11th hour miracle, it would surely be Pentecost. A group of us would be spiritually set aflame for God and the real work would begin. Then Pentecost would come, nothing would happen, and I would continue completely demoralized.

That's called trying to force God's hand. I'm sad to say, for the past five years I've tried to force the plan. Others have too. There was one who envisioned me as a mega-church minister. He tried to put me in that role, and when it didn't fit, he quietly left. Another wanted a church that allowed her to be outside community, and when that was tested against Fig Tree and found wanting, she too quietly left. As for me, I mentally set up special days for something to happen, like Pentecost. When nothing happened, it only disheartened me more than before. The whole time I was trying to make God happen. 

God doesn't work like that. There are times people are not ready to be part of the mission. In those times, it is better to wait for the pieces to come together than jerry-rig a solution. We are created for such a time as this. The times when nothing is happening is when life continues. There is always work to be done even if it's not the work you want to be doing. More importantly, God is still in those tasks that are not exciting or adventurous. If we can't find God in sweeping the floors, and fixing the computer/lawn mower/[insert thing you can fix here] then we might not be able to find God. We are created for such a time as this.