There will be no business meetings in Heaven!

(As I am writing this Martina McBride’s “Do It Anyway” is playing on the radio. What a perfect song for my heart today.)


Well, it’s Sunday. I would like to be able to share an uplifting story or a stirring moment from this morning’s sermon. I would like to be able to write about the joy of spending a Sunday morning worshipping with fellow believers. I would like to, but I can’t. If I am going to be honest, I have to write about the discouragement and disappointment I feel. I have to mention the frustration and weariness that come easily on a day like today.
I am a member of a struggling church. A church that has lost focus and purpose. A church with little agreement and much animosity. I am a member of a church no one wants to claim, but all want to critique. And the worst thing is, we are a church whose main objective is gaining membership! (A friend of mine recently put it this way, "You can’t talk about grand vaulted ceilings and fine leather furniture when your foundation is made of mud, and it’s raining.")
I am not writing to vent anger, although anger is one of the many emotions I have to contend with. I am not writing to gain pity, although I have compassion for anyone who has ever struggled with a similar situation. I am writing because I am encouraged.
No. I am not intoxicated. I am not disoriented. I am not confused.

I am encouraged.

Don’t get me wrong. I long to move on. I want to be a part of a loving, growing, healthy church family. I have given up hope for recovery and reconciliation in this church. I struggle daily to stay involved and look past the politics that have crept into God’s house.
But every one of those sentences starts with “I”. God isn’t leading me to leave; He continues to put it on my heart to stay. God hasn’t given up hope, He is in control and whatever the outcome with the buildings and people we call “our church”- His plan is perfect and I have no reason to question or doubt that. God doesn’t struggle to see past the problems, He is at work in our midst, even if we don’t see it now. As much as I would like things to be different right now, God has made it perfectly clear that I am where I am supposed to be and that is encouraging. It’s not easy. I don’t enjoy it. But I was never promised ease. And I was never told it would always be fun.
We recently had a guest speaker who said something that I can’t forget. He asked if we knew why there wouldn’t be business meetings in Heaven. His answer? “Because God doesn’t care what we think!”
Sounds harsh, but so true.
God isn’t deterred by the disgruntled. And He doesn’t give up on us when we lose our way. He is always there, always the same, unaffected. It’s time to realize that God's direction has not left us, we just aren't following.
My personal prayer each night is that we will not be too blinded by our own interests to see what God has in store for us. He, no doubt, has a beautiful plan for using us. Will we be ready and willing to participate or will He have to use us despite ourselves?