Easter Sunday
It isn’t always easy to touch an old man’s heart, even one dedicated to serving others. As recorded in the book of Acts, chapter six the apostles were faced with a dilemma. There were matters that needed their attention but to address those problems would require them to take time away from their calling. To solve the problem they appointed men of honest report to take care of the business. These men were called deacons.
I am a deacon, the only one in my church as we are small and really need none but the church was set up with deacons to serve and so it is why our church has one. I would suppose that deacons serve the church differently in different congregations but in our church my service is to the pastor. My duties cannot be spelled out specifically as a deacon is not an office. I view my duties as serving the pastor as "doing whatever the pastor needs me to do." Fortunately my pastor seldom asks me to do anything. Occasionally he may need me to fill in when a sick person needs a visit and he is unable to go or when a problem arises in the neighborhood and he can not take care of it as he lives far from the church. Most of what I do is done because I want to do it.
I do repair work, mow the grass, make the videos for the shut-ins, and teach the Sunday School lesson. Teaching is what I do best and I love to make the scriptures relevant to our everyday lives. I love my lord and savor and I want people to feel the passion I have for serving him. I live what I teach but to be honest, I am only human and make mistakes as does any other person. I make mistakes in my marriage too but that does not mean I love my wife any less nor does it mean that she loves me any less either. Sometimes she loves me more because I made a mistake because she recognizes the effort and passion that went into my efforts. Jesus is good to forgive me when I fall short.
We all fall short of God’s expectations for us. We aren’t always as faithful as we should be, sometimes we misapply scriptures or forget to realize that just because God took some desires away from us we can’t go around criticizing others that aren’t Christians because they still have those desires. It is our job to catch the fish and God’s job to clean them up.
I treat people with respect but it does take awhile to begin to trust someone to live up to their word. Many times I’ve been told "I’ll be there Sunday" but have never seen that person darken the doors of the church. People do what they want to do and not always what they should do. It isn’t often I’m disappointed by people but seldom am I touched by them either. When I do something nice and unexpected for someone it is more likely that I will be greeted with skepticism rather than thankfulness. It takes a lot for others to recognize that one is sincere
with no hidden agenda.
Being small like we are it has been a long time since we have had children in the church, especially children old enough to understand what is going on. On Easter Sunday we had three such children and for Sunday School too. It was near the end of the lesson when one of the two girls raised her hand and announced "I saved a little kitten"in response to a statement I had made. I told her I wanted to talk to her about her cat so as soon as Sunday School was over I made my way back to where her family was sitting and let tell me about her cat. We talked awhile and then she showed me a pocket notebook she was writing in. I was shocked when I read what she wrote.
She had taken notes of my Sunday School lesson and she had recorded accurately the most important points I had attempted to make. I was impressed.
The pastor preached his sermon and as we were to the point of dismissing the congregation the little girl walked to the front and handed the pastor a little piece of paper and said "I have a question." The pastor was pleased and said "Wow, a question for our question box." Then he handed the slip of paper to me and said, "You are good at handling these."
I opened the paper half expecting a simple child’s question and half expecting to not be able to understand what she was asking." I was totally shocked when I read her question. She asked "If I write to God in my journal will God write to me?" I was not expecting such a sincere and mature question from one so small. I was totally touched by her question and her desire to know God.
I walked down the aisle and stopped in front of her and handled her my bible. "God has written you a love letter."
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