preaching to myself

I was meeting a guy today from way down south.

(Actually he comes from what's still the north of England - even after the way they've managed to re-draw the map: but it feels like way down south from where we are up here!)

I haven't really met him all that much throughout my life. And when I do it's mainly pretty fleeting. But good. We kind of pick up pretty easily, whether it's two months down the line or twenty years since last we'd seen each other.

Those sort of friends are great to have. Not that I know him that well.

He's a long-time follower of Jesus. And honest with it. I'm not saying followers of Jesus aren't usually honest, but a lot of the time I sense they somehow feel they have to put on a bit of a show. Like, yeah, things are going great. When actually they're not. That sort of thing.

But this guy's very honest that way. He admits the sort of struggles that he has. Quite openly. The sort of guy who makes it OK for you to say you're struggling too.

Anyway, he was saying he'd been on sabbatical. Time out. Two and half months in fact. Not doing much, but mainly trying to listen to the Lord.

It wasn't a sort of late-life mid-life crisis or anything quite like that. But he's reaching the stage (like me, I guess, since we're much the same in age) when the time he's got left begins to look a bit tight.

So he wanted to get the Lord's take on his future. And took ten long weeks to listen.

I was interested in what he'd heard from the Lord. Partly because it felt like he'd done the listening for me as well! That what he'd heard was what I too was needing now to hear.

The first thing that he'd heard the Lord assuring him was that the next years of his life would be 'greater rather than lesser'. I think he was kind of worried that his best days now were past and that the rest of his life would be like the DJ slowly 'fading out' the music of his ministry. Like the impact and significance he had would just get less and less.

And God had told him, Not at all! It'll be bigger and better and greater by far. It felt good to hear him say that!

But the Lord had also spoken on the subject of priorities. Like he should concentrate on the things he was good at and, well, kind of made for. Instead of trying to do too much or doing things that were not in the end of the day really 'him'.

You see, he's great when it comes to ideas. And good at turning all these great ideas into things that help the church.

So he starts off simply setting up these 'projects'. I mean he's good at that. Very good.

But then the projects just take over. He ends up spending half his life managing these projects. Running them and doing all the publicity and writing fresh material and thinking up all sorts of things to keep the whole thing fresh and fine and always on the move.

I told him straight to drop it. I didn't really mean to be direct like that. It just came out. But I was glad that it did. And I think he was too.

"You're going to die," I said, "and be known only for your projects." I think he saw what I was getting at. So since I had the floor, I finished off. "And those projects are not really what I think you're all about. What God means and made you to be."

Well, I thought I'd said enough by then. So I shut up.

But he wanted to hear more. "OK," he said. "Tell me, then: what do you think I'm made for?"

So I did. As best as I was able.

I said that he was great in coming up with fresh ideas.

I said that he was wonderful with people: he puts people at their ease. It's a great gift he has.

And he's good at explaining what the good news is about. He's good with words. Spoken and on paper.

"You should concentrate on doing that," I said. Do the things you're best at. Not the things you can do, or are even good at doing. The things you do the best.

It felt like I was preaching to myself!