Retrospection
So I ended up not going to bed last night at 7. It was 11. I really needed some sleep and I'm definitely paying for it today, but it was well worth being up late to do what I did last night. I'll recap.
When I was a freshman in high school we switched churches to Northside. Before that, I grew up in a very small congregation, South Clark Church of Christ, of about 50 people (on a good day) that was comprised mostly of my parents, brother and I, my mom's parents, my uncle, and a bunch of other elderly people. Well, last night South Clark was having a Gospel Meeting and I decided that since I haven't been to a worship at SC in about 7 years now and I haven't seen Grandpa in a few weeks (I'm a horrible rat of a granddaugher) that I should go. I am so thankful that I did. It was a great night for me and has really gotten me excited about going to camp this weekend just because I'm feeling "spiritually insightful" right now (whatever that is, because my wisdom is the foolishness of God!)
I was definitely the youngest person in the assembly last night. I'm cool with that though, because I was surrounded by people that I love very dearly. The sermon, which I will try to abbreviate now, was really good. The text that was used was from Proverbs 30 and talked about how incredible the eagle is. He then described the courting rituals of eagles. First of all, eagles are like penguins-they have one partner for life and that's it. This speaks first of the immense committment of eagles. When the lady eagle is ready to start looking for her mate she flies high in the air and struts her stuff, so to speak, in order to be visible to the male eagles. If she catches the eye of a male, he will fly up towards her and fly around her, basically showing off. If she is impressed by him, she will fly to the ground and pick up a stick in her beak. Once she flies back up to where the male is waiting, she drops the stick and the male swoops down to try and catch the stick before it hits the ground.
If the male catches the first stick, the lady eagle will fly back down to the ground and find a heavier stick this time, in which she will drop from an even lower height in order to see how good the male really is. If he catches the second stick and the lady eagle is impressed, then they will mate and spend the rest of their eagle lives together. When the eagles have babies they are very protective of their young; but the eagle knows when it is time to let go and let their children be independent. They teach the young to fly by taking them to a cliff and allowing them to try and fly off. When the young start to fall, unable to sustain their own flight, the male eagle swoops down and catches them in his beak, much like he did with the sticks the mama had dropped for him long ago. She was testing him for this very day all along.
There were many other illustrations with eagles in that sermon, but this story was the one that I really thought a lot about all evening long. As I looked around the auditorium at the people, at the building, I was flooded with memories and thoughts. The baptistry where I obeyed Christ and admitted that I could not save myself, that I needed his blood to do that for me; Irvin Williams, our minister who baptized me(yes I know for all of you 1 Corinths fans that we should not boast in who baptizes us, but please note that that's not my intent here); the pew I sat in when they announced to the congregation my mom had cancer; the place where I sat with my grandmother and grandfather during services and listened to her beautiful alto voice which made me love music, particularly church hymns; the table that says, "this do in remembrance of me" which I would read over and over again every Sunday as a child anxious for the day that I would get to take the Lord's supper too; and most importantly, all of the people sitting around me who showed me Jesus, who taught me the Bible, and who in general are responsible for me being a member of the body of Christ today. Looking at all of these people and thinking about the history of all of our lives; my mother's upbringing with most of them, the conversion of my father because these people took an interest in his soul, and now the start of my adulthood which has been directly influenced by those people. It's all connected, and I can assert that we serve a God of PURPOSE! And now, since I am currently in the stage of "dropping my sticks" I am making decisions and testing myself and others around me to see who can help me along my path of influencing other in the name of Christ. Who can I trust to catch my children when they fall? Will one day my granddaughter be sitting in a congregation looking around and thinking about my decision to be faithful in the Lord helped bring her to be reared in church family that would teach her about Christ's love and how it can change our lives and our eternities? God has blessed me so much by placing me in a Christian household from birth and I think that I have been trusted with a great responsibility to utilize such a spiritual heritage.
Well, this is getting rather long, but I had a lot of thoughts and emotions as result of last night. I have a lot more too, but I will stop here with the basic ideas. I hope everyone is having a great and blessed week, and I will see all of you SMBCers in just a few hours. I can't wait!
When I was a freshman in high school we switched churches to Northside. Before that, I grew up in a very small congregation, South Clark Church of Christ, of about 50 people (on a good day) that was comprised mostly of my parents, brother and I, my mom's parents, my uncle, and a bunch of other elderly people. Well, last night South Clark was having a Gospel Meeting and I decided that since I haven't been to a worship at SC in about 7 years now and I haven't seen Grandpa in a few weeks (I'm a horrible rat of a granddaugher) that I should go. I am so thankful that I did. It was a great night for me and has really gotten me excited about going to camp this weekend just because I'm feeling "spiritually insightful" right now (whatever that is, because my wisdom is the foolishness of God!)
I was definitely the youngest person in the assembly last night. I'm cool with that though, because I was surrounded by people that I love very dearly. The sermon, which I will try to abbreviate now, was really good. The text that was used was from Proverbs 30 and talked about how incredible the eagle is. He then described the courting rituals of eagles. First of all, eagles are like penguins-they have one partner for life and that's it. This speaks first of the immense committment of eagles. When the lady eagle is ready to start looking for her mate she flies high in the air and struts her stuff, so to speak, in order to be visible to the male eagles. If she catches the eye of a male, he will fly up towards her and fly around her, basically showing off. If she is impressed by him, she will fly to the ground and pick up a stick in her beak. Once she flies back up to where the male is waiting, she drops the stick and the male swoops down to try and catch the stick before it hits the ground.
If the male catches the first stick, the lady eagle will fly back down to the ground and find a heavier stick this time, in which she will drop from an even lower height in order to see how good the male really is. If he catches the second stick and the lady eagle is impressed, then they will mate and spend the rest of their eagle lives together. When the eagles have babies they are very protective of their young; but the eagle knows when it is time to let go and let their children be independent. They teach the young to fly by taking them to a cliff and allowing them to try and fly off. When the young start to fall, unable to sustain their own flight, the male eagle swoops down and catches them in his beak, much like he did with the sticks the mama had dropped for him long ago. She was testing him for this very day all along.
There were many other illustrations with eagles in that sermon, but this story was the one that I really thought a lot about all evening long. As I looked around the auditorium at the people, at the building, I was flooded with memories and thoughts. The baptistry where I obeyed Christ and admitted that I could not save myself, that I needed his blood to do that for me; Irvin Williams, our minister who baptized me(yes I know for all of you 1 Corinths fans that we should not boast in who baptizes us, but please note that that's not my intent here); the pew I sat in when they announced to the congregation my mom had cancer; the place where I sat with my grandmother and grandfather during services and listened to her beautiful alto voice which made me love music, particularly church hymns; the table that says, "this do in remembrance of me" which I would read over and over again every Sunday as a child anxious for the day that I would get to take the Lord's supper too; and most importantly, all of the people sitting around me who showed me Jesus, who taught me the Bible, and who in general are responsible for me being a member of the body of Christ today. Looking at all of these people and thinking about the history of all of our lives; my mother's upbringing with most of them, the conversion of my father because these people took an interest in his soul, and now the start of my adulthood which has been directly influenced by those people. It's all connected, and I can assert that we serve a God of PURPOSE! And now, since I am currently in the stage of "dropping my sticks" I am making decisions and testing myself and others around me to see who can help me along my path of influencing other in the name of Christ. Who can I trust to catch my children when they fall? Will one day my granddaughter be sitting in a congregation looking around and thinking about my decision to be faithful in the Lord helped bring her to be reared in church family that would teach her about Christ's love and how it can change our lives and our eternities? God has blessed me so much by placing me in a Christian household from birth and I think that I have been trusted with a great responsibility to utilize such a spiritual heritage.
Well, this is getting rather long, but I had a lot of thoughts and emotions as result of last night. I have a lot more too, but I will stop here with the basic ideas. I hope everyone is having a great and blessed week, and I will see all of you SMBCers in just a few hours. I can't wait!