beyond what we think

The way the Lord works is amazing!

He's always a step ahead of the rest of us.

And, as one of the early followers of Jesus figured out, he's always intent on doing a whole load more than all that we could ask or even dare to think.

Which is saying quite a bit.

Today was another good example.

These days my day begins with the setting up of the halls. Shifting tables, moving chairs, sweeping floors. Ensuring the place is presentable. And ensuring they're ready for all the folk who'll be in.

It's sort of therapeutic stuff. Sort of.

Most days it takes me maybe half an hour or so. Sometimes less.

Today, though, when I went into the hall it seemed to me that the floor was needing a good-going wash. Wednesdays sometimes leave it like that.

So I washed the floor. You see a job that's needing done. You do it.

There are certain core values we try to express. Service, sacrifice, and excellence.

Right across the board. In all we do.

We like our halls to look good. To be good, for the people who use them all.

Later today, entirely unexpectedly, a couple came in from a different organisation. To see about using our halls.

They work with folk in the community. And they were absolutely overwhelmed by what they saw.

The service. The sacrifice. And the excellence.

It kind of turned their whole perspective on the world quite upside down.

And made me pretty glad I'd taken the trouble to wash the floor!

A little thing. But in the hands of God, something that makes a whole world of difference.

Amazing really.

I didn't meet this couple myself. I only really heard about it afterwards. Almost by chance.

Most of the time it's like that. We don't get to see the full picture.

So we don't really see how all the small bits, which we think are insignificant, are actually part of a whole. A huge, amazing picture which the Lord is painting out across the canvas of our history.

My times along at the school today were really just 'little bits'.

I went along to the P1-3 assembly again at 10am. Only to find the assembly had been cancelled. And instead they were having a 'hymn practice'. I stayed to say 'Hello' and not much else. And that was it.

The SU group later on was much the same. Most of the children who usually come (there have been 20 these last two times) - they were away today on an outing.

So there were only four.

It would be easy to feel dispirited. To think nothing was going on.

But no. God uses the small, insignificant things in ways we can't understand.

And does far more with them than we ever could dare to think.

At least, that's what I learn to trust him to do. I don't have to see the full picture.

I was seeing folk again at night. And I was struck again how bold and how big is the Lord in the dealings he has with us.

How he's intent on releasing his healing grace into parts of our lives that we thought were beyond all healing.

Parts that we bury away. Deep, deep down in the caverns of our hearts. Then lock the door. And throw away the key.

That sort of burying away.

But it's a poison. And it needs to be healed.

And the Lord in his wisdom and goodness slowly draws these bits of 'shrapnel' to the surface of our lives, because he means to heal.

It's been a painful, trying experience over many, many weeks for a person I saw tonight. But the 'shrapnel' has come to the surface and I know it's the work of the Lord.

He means to do the impossible and heal a part of this person's life that the person has thought was beyond all hope of redemption. A running, festering sore that somehow had to be lived with. And like so much emotional radio-active waste was buried deep, deep down within the person's life.

The Lord has waited a long, long time in this person's life.

Until three vital sets of circumstances have all been set in place. Because only then can such healing take place.

He knows what he's doing, all right. And it's a very humbling, genuinely awe-inspiring thing that's going on.

And tonight there was more progress yet again. The shrapnel's about to be removed.

The next bit's far from easy. But the confidence I have is rooted in the knowledge that it was the Lord himself who drew this to the surface.

Not me. Not the person involved. Just the Lord, pure and simple.

He started the process of healing. And he'll finish the work himself. He always does.

Like I said at the start, it's amazing the way the Lord works.

Way, way, way beyond what we could ever ask or dare to think.

And it sometimes quite moves me to tears to see the way he gently, wisely, always very purposefully works in people's lives to bring about a healing and a wholeness that they never dreamed was possible.