Wanting the God Things

One of the reoccurring themes that I heard from the people I met in Houston was a side of themselves they had never thoroughly had to claim before: want. Oh sure, they have experienced want; they wanted a new TV, they wanted to go out to dinner, they wanted to get a new tennis racket, they wanted a necklace – but for this group of people they had not wanted before. After 12 days without electricity the divide between the haves and the have nots was brought home to them in a way they had never experienced it before. To pass by homes on their own street with lights on, knowing what other benefits they had, they yearned for what their neighbors had. Not in a covetous manner, but from an inner pull that was missing something so basic in their lives that they felt incomplete. Then they reevaluated that emotion for their own spiritual growth and realized they had never wanted Jesus in that same rudimentary level. In their lives they have wanted to live faithfully, they have longed to discern God’s will in their lives, and they have created a nice symbiotic relationship to include their church schedule, with their work schedule, with their play schedule. But until they had to live in a climate without power, both in electricity and control, they had not experienced that side of submission, that side of necessity, and they wanted to apply that same depth of surrender into fervor for Christ. After the storm left the area, so did the national news media. I didn’t get to drive down to Galveston, and we haven’t heard many updates just a few hundred miles away, but listening to a Houston radio station as they recounted tales of “Hurricane Heroes” let me know that while the storm did incredible physical damage to houses and businesses, it also blew through a time of reconciliation, review, and renewal.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You fill our needs! Let us reassess our desires to determine the difference in things we want and things we need. We need You! Let us know of the deep, elemental need to be in your presence that can only be satisfied by time spent with you, not contented by an hour each week, but to live in constant awareness. As a church body, may we find our desires rooted in submission, not in omission. We ask for your continued healing presence for those who are discouraged, dislocated, and disconnected. Amen.