Expectation
I was walking through Lurgan ( small town about half an hour away from home) yesterday minding my own business and I went past a coffee shop which had a very small seating area outside. Now bearing in mind that it is March, Im in Ireland and it is baltic outside I wasnt expecting to see what I saw. There was an elderly gentleman sitting at one of the outside tables, with a rug round his knees and a cup of tea on the table. In his hands he had a tapestry frame and he was sewing!! I was pretty much past the cafe before it really registered what I'd just seen. I wondered who he was and why he was sitting in the cold sewing. He had to have a story surely? So I doubled back and approached him. As I did, I realised that he was embroidering a picture of an angel. He was using a kit and he was about 20% in to the picture. As I walked up to him he put the frame down.
I asked if I could look at what he was making and then asked him how long he had been sewing for. He said about 30 years. Did he sell his work? No. He just had them piling up in the house. It was expensive to frame them and they didnt really work well as cushion covers or anything like that. He just did it to ' keep occupied'. He also did a bit of woodwork. I wasnt really sure what else to say or ask so I told him that I thought his work was great and off I went. And as I went I was asking God what that was about. I mean, its not every day you meet a man who sews. Let alone sews out on the street, in the cold, just because he wants to keep busy. Unexpected.
Now I think about it it's been a while since something unexpected happened in my life. By and large my days are terribly, boringly predictable. Apart from the shock of losing a tooth the other week, really nothing surprising has happened for ages. And that can't be right can it? I mean, if we adventure with a wild and untamed lion, if we party with a Holy Spirit who is fire and wind and fountains, if we follow a teacher who moves mountains and raises the dead and walks on water then surely our lives should be full of the unexpected.
I think perhaps on many days I don't see the unexpected, new, creative, wonderful, funny, challenging things God is doing because Im not paying attention. Or because Im just focusing on the expected. I do the same things every week and get into the rut of not anticipating anything else. It is easy to semi-sleepwalk through our days on auto -pilot. I could so easily have been looking the other way as I walked past that cafe yesterday and missed seeing the sewing man.
I remember having a heated discussion in a worship seminar one time with the speaker who disagreed with me when I said that I believed that part of the role of a worship leader is to raise the level of expectation in the congregation. Not in a manipulative, deceptive way. But just by being that one step ahead of the people. Being already in the presence of God and saying to the crowds ' you'll never believe how amazing it is here, are you coming?' Showing by example how exciting/tender/holy/fierce the presence of God is. I think that if we go to church expecting nothing much, then nothing much is what we will get. But if we go expecting to meet God, expecting to hear His voice, experience His presence, be changed from glory to glory........
This Lent may our gaze be on Jesus who has promised us every blessing. Let us look exectantly for those blessings and expect to BE blessings to those around us.
I asked if I could look at what he was making and then asked him how long he had been sewing for. He said about 30 years. Did he sell his work? No. He just had them piling up in the house. It was expensive to frame them and they didnt really work well as cushion covers or anything like that. He just did it to ' keep occupied'. He also did a bit of woodwork. I wasnt really sure what else to say or ask so I told him that I thought his work was great and off I went. And as I went I was asking God what that was about. I mean, its not every day you meet a man who sews. Let alone sews out on the street, in the cold, just because he wants to keep busy. Unexpected.
Now I think about it it's been a while since something unexpected happened in my life. By and large my days are terribly, boringly predictable. Apart from the shock of losing a tooth the other week, really nothing surprising has happened for ages. And that can't be right can it? I mean, if we adventure with a wild and untamed lion, if we party with a Holy Spirit who is fire and wind and fountains, if we follow a teacher who moves mountains and raises the dead and walks on water then surely our lives should be full of the unexpected.
I think perhaps on many days I don't see the unexpected, new, creative, wonderful, funny, challenging things God is doing because Im not paying attention. Or because Im just focusing on the expected. I do the same things every week and get into the rut of not anticipating anything else. It is easy to semi-sleepwalk through our days on auto -pilot. I could so easily have been looking the other way as I walked past that cafe yesterday and missed seeing the sewing man.
I remember having a heated discussion in a worship seminar one time with the speaker who disagreed with me when I said that I believed that part of the role of a worship leader is to raise the level of expectation in the congregation. Not in a manipulative, deceptive way. But just by being that one step ahead of the people. Being already in the presence of God and saying to the crowds ' you'll never believe how amazing it is here, are you coming?' Showing by example how exciting/tender/holy/fierce the presence of God is. I think that if we go to church expecting nothing much, then nothing much is what we will get. But if we go expecting to meet God, expecting to hear His voice, experience His presence, be changed from glory to glory........
This Lent may our gaze be on Jesus who has promised us every blessing. Let us look exectantly for those blessings and expect to BE blessings to those around us.
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