Like a Coal

Sorry I haven't posted very recently, and thanks for the encouragement. I don't think it is the road, exactly, that wears me down, it is the lack of fellowship I experience while on the road. My pastor likes to use a little illustration about fellowship, it goes something like this.

There was a man sitting in a pub, he hadn't been to church for several Sundays. When his pastor walked into the pub and sat down by the fireplace, the man felt a bit defensive and blurted out, "I know I haven't been in church the last few Sundays, but I've found that I can worship the Lord just as well by taking walks in the woods and enjoying the natural world He created." His pastor didn't say anything, but using the tongs he reached into the fire and pulled out a red-hot glowing ember and set it on the edge of the fireplace. As they watched, it quickly went from red-hot and glowing, to grey and ashy, and finally black and cold. The man turned to his pastor and said, "See you in church Sunday."

While I'm not exactly skipping church to go enjoy nature (or the current sporting event on TV); I am missing church. And I feel just like that coal. Sometimes when I'm on the road, God provides me with the opportunity to visit another church. I've been blessed that they mostly have been on-fire-for-the-Lord, Bible-believing and Bible-teaching churches. But most often I'm working 12 to 14 hour days, seven days a week. I try to listen to mp3's of teachings, read and study my Bible daily, and even to pray constantly; but none of that replaces fellowship. (Fellowship doesn't replace an active prayer life and solid Biblical study either!) It's interesting, how it all seems tied together to me. It is difficult to study and pray without fellowship. And without study and prayer it's difficult to stay in fellowship. I'm most-likely willing to skip fellowship, skip church, when I need it most. Same as with reading/studying and praying.

Anyway, I'm currently home and am planning to be in church in just a couple of hours from now (God willing!). That's another thing I've certainly been taught on the road. Whether or not I get to go to church is entirely in His hands! A couple of times (once should have been enough, but I'm a slow learner sometimes) when He made it possible for me to go to a church meeting I told someone there that there was no way I'd be able to make the next meeting... Then I found myself, at that next meeting, giving God the glory and eating humble pie, admitting that He is the one that determines whether I go to church or not!

God has His reasons, and they are good. He tells us that over and over again. I'll trust in Him, and pray that I learn the lessons that He is teaching.

When the man had left, the pastor placed the black coal back in the fire, and in short order it was red-hot and glowing again.

Tag(s):fellowship