On Fridays, Gypsy Mama holds a blog carnival where we all stop and write for five minutes – no editing, no over-thinking, just write. Care to join us?
This week’s topic is: Perspective.
I had given up. I told Chad earlier in the week, or the end of last week – the days run together when we’re busy and the hosue is a mess and everyone is sick – I had told Chad that I was done looking for a Life Group. We had tried so many times since coming to our current church.
It’s like we’re not meant to be part of one, I told him. See, Life Groups all meet on Sunday night. But I teach Awana Sunday night – something I’m not really lookign ot give up. Every time I mentioned it to someone at Church, while looking for Life Groups, I would get a response like “oh, that’s too bad.”
I felt like they were saying, “If you really wanted to connect with us, you would give up your other ministry”. We thought about joining in the summer, when I have no other Sunday commitments – but Sundays are already hectic, what with Church and getting ready for the week and being home with the kids… and the thought of going for two months, only to be relegated back to the shadows during the school year grated on me.
We just won’t try this year, I said. Why bother? And finally – I felt peace about it. Not bitterness that I wasn’t allowed in the group, not stress about whether I was being punished for my choices, just peace. That’s it, I thought, we just weren’t meant to be there.
Then out of the blue, I got a message from a girl in my bible study, asking if she could steal my away from whatever life group we were in, because she thought our kids would play well together and wanted more young families in hers. Here we go again, I thought – I’m not meant to be in a life group. But I messaged back, and said I couldn’t meet on Sunday nights, but that we could maybe come through the summer if she wanted.
So it turns out, they don’t meet on Sunday nights at all. Random nights of the week right now. But probably never Sundays.
Suddenly, “God doesn’t want us in a Life Group right now” turns into “Maybe He just wanted us to wait on this one”… and we’re going to join them for hot dogs and fellowship tonight.
My perspective, is not always (in fact often not) God’s perspective. But it’s nice when the perspective changes, and I can see a little of His direction.