Doings And Goings-On

Things have been busy – very busy – over the last few days, hence my lack of posting.
First off, I was officially installed as an elder of my church this past Sunday. I had to give my testimony in brief (read: less than 5 minutes, a real chore, for those of you that know how much I love to talk… *grin*). I spent most of the weekend trying to pull together my testimony and condense the salient points into a mere 5 minutes and found myself utterly frustrated at every turn. Finally, around 11pm Saturday night, I threw my hands up in frustration and said “Well, God, I’ve got nothing. You’re going to have to do all the talking for me, ’cause my wit, insight, knowledge and natural abiliities aren’t going to cut it.”
Believe it or not, I actually walked to the front of the theater as I was about to give my testimony with no idea on what I was going to talk about. God completely stepped in and led me to talk on Acts 22 (which was the subject of our pastor’s sermon this week) and how Paul, under the Jewish law, was flawless. If anyone had a claim on “righteousness” and “zeal”, it was Paul, yet his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus revealed to him precisely how little any of that legalism matters to God. I talked about how, by way of my upbringing, I had a similar claim on church-y “righteousness” – son of a pastor, well-versed (no pun intended) in my Bible, I said all the right things, I did all the right things (well, for the most part…), and yet, as God has been leading me to see, all that means precisely bupkiss. I talked about the vision for our church that God has been laying on my heart and I talked about my excitement at being able to serve as an elder. God completely came through for me.
Secondly, I’ll probably be occupied for 95% of the work day for the next three days training a team member in Apple Open Directory Fu, so there likely won’t be much time for me to slip in any postings. “See” y’all Friday, most likely.