9:45, the red numbers stared back at me this morning as I awoke from my slumber. The ever familiar buzzing sound of the alarm accompanying the numbers blaring back at me.
“I guess I should get up”, I thought to myself.
Sitting on the edge of my bed looking at my pitiful plastic window blinds that don’t do such a great job keeping light out, they just diffuse it…
“You should go to Marysville, Ohio today for church”, said the small still voice in my mind.
I always love it when God decided to start speaking to you when you’re not fully conscious and still trying to adjust to the fact that it’s daylight outside.
I then began the excuse list in my head, “I can’t, I have no gas in the Acura, it’s a 45 minute drive AND I didn’t tell anyone I was coming, oh yeah, and it is already 9:45.”
It then occurred to me that I just attempted to “rationalize” not following this thought or burden I had. I was quickly reminded of my pastor, Mark Fuller, who speaks about “rationalizing” as being simply “rational lies” that you’re telling. I sat there a minute more, 9:48, FINE… but only if I can make it to church on time.
I for some reason think in my mind that I have to always be ON TIME for church that if I’m one second late then I might as well not go. Who knows why I think this way…
I get up and the wireless isn’t working so I can’t check service times. So I decided to reboot the router and laptop and take my shower.
“I’ll never make it in time and no one I know is going to be there”, I kept telling myself.
I finish up with my shower, get dressed, and finally give up on the wireless and use the desktop computer that is hardwired into the router. I found out that church didn’t start until 11:15 AM. I then looked at the cable box clock, the time, 10:05 displayed in bright green.
I gathered my things, opened the garage door, and set out to go to church in Marysville. So I ended up having plenty of time to get gas and I made it to church.
As I entered the parking lot I looked around for cars of my friends who attended here. As I parked, I thought to myself,
“HA! I was right, everyone went to the first service.”
So, I make my entrance and sneak into the back of the sanctuary, quietly waiting for service to start. Now, for those of you who don’t attend this church, let me fill you in. It is a smaller church and they’re very friendly. Being an “unknown face” I had an all but quiet entrance.
After the pastor and several of the church members welcomed me and I returned to my silence I surveyed the sanctuary.
“Maybe they got new cars… I have had 3 different cars since I was here, a few months ago”, I thought.
I then spotted Derek. So I knew one person there, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Sitting in my silence it was had to ignore God. I felt like he was trying to get across to me that I was here for multiple reasons and I needed to just stop trying to pick this day to death and just enjoy what He planned for me this day.
So the worship was moving. I enjoyed the lyrics and the atmosphere of worship. Being a media/sound guy at heart I tend to over analyze churches from that standpoint, but I tried my best to let the overhead projector with transparencies and the sound mix… slide (Sorry guys… haha).
Moving along… In the middle of worship I’m standing there and look over to see none other than Kelly Snook standing there with a look on her face like a cross between, WHAT THEY HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE “JOHN MASSIE-JOHN MASSIE” and YOU BETTER HUG ME BEFORE I HIT YOU. I give her a hug and we exchange hellos and then she tells me that I need to come sit with her group. So in the middle of worship I trek over to where she is sitting and there I find Kelly’s husband Dave, Shawna and Casey. I was also quickly introduced to Scott and Cheryl. Shawna also seemed happy to see me, we exchanged hugs and went back to worship.
The sermon was on generosity. It was some interesting scripture and it had points of comfort that I needed to hear. There was a lot in the sermon that I think God wanted me to hear. That, however, is a whole other blog post.
Afterwards, I went with a group (Shawna, Kelly, Dave, Doug, Harla, Emily (I think that was her name), Scott and Cheryl) to Donotos Pizza. We all sat around, joked, laughed, put ice down people’s shirts, retrieved ice out of people’s shirts, were loud in general and had an overall good time of fellowship.
It seems like all the cool people are in Marysville… What’s with that? I guess good ol’ m-town has it goin on when it comes to the people to be around.
So that was my day in a nutshell. Just thought I’d share and also point out the hidden blessings that God gave me. I was so skeptical of even going today but then I got to see some people that I greatly missed (I promise, I won’t stay away so long this time… and trust me, you’ll all get sick of me eventually, haha) and I heard a much needed message that has provoked some ideas and some changes that I want to make and hopefully I’ll be able to share them on here. Hopefully I served as a blessing to those who were around me as well.
Goodnight folks, I start my new hours of 7-4 tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!
God Bless,
- JM
