Seeking Me... and Seeking You

            One of the preaching professors in my early years of ministry who had an impact on me  was the late Rev. Dr. James Cleland.   He was the preaching professor at Duke for many years and also the Dean of the Chapel there.  Though I never formally was a student in one of his classes, I stayed alert to what he said as a “wannabe” preacher.    At some point in time in those early years, I recall hearing him say in his thick Scottish brogue “Remember your conversion experience.”  I find myself doing this when the month of October comes around each year.   As  God in his wonder and wisdom turns green leaves  into hues of red, yellow, and the like, I think of how God changed me.   You see, it was in the month of October when I gave my life to Christ.  I was a high school senior when a group of men, women, and youth came to my church in 1970 for a laity-led event called a Lay Witness Mission.   In the course of the weekend, I gave my life to Christ.  

There is the temptation when a person gives their life to Christ for them to wallow  in the glory of their own actions with perhaps a hint of pride and self-congratulations saying to the world and to others “Look at what I did.”  As I reflect today on my conversation experience, I realize it was not so much me seeking God as God patiently and relentlessly seeking me.   Through the course of the human events of my life in ways that I did not see nor completely understand at the time,  God was seeking me and wooing me to be His own.  God sought me through events that seemed like the end of the world at the time (like the separation and divorce of my parents).   God was seeking me and calling me to be his disciple through Sunday School teachers who said in their actions that I was important and the boy next door who invited me to church.   In ways that to this day I don’t completely understand, God was calling me to “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men and women.”.  

I tell this story again and reflect on it again not because I am so special, but because I want you the reader to realize that you are special.    Before you were ever born, God was seeking you and yearning for you to be His own.  And though the years have passed since that day, God still is seeking you!     He still wants you to be His disciple not because you are so great, but because He is so great.   God may not be calling you to be a preacher, but he might be calling you to be th e best “butcher, baker, or candlestick maker” you can be for His glory!  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God,   all glory, honor, thanks, and praise for the call and claim you have on all people including me.   Thank you for loving me and transforming me.  We love you, Lord.  Help us to love you more;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.