We had our commissioning service yesterday and it was a tremendous time. We were asked to speak about 5 minutes or so, with more leeway in the second service. We practiced our talk in the week leading up and made sure all was good for Sunday including limiting my (John's) ummms to less than 2 per minute.
Well the service came and God laid on my heart something different to say during our worship time. I whispered to Tracey that I felt like I needed to say that we weren't super Christians, just a family seeking to do what God would ask of us and ask the others in the service to do the same with their lives. That wasn't in the prepared speech and I am not much of a public speaker so my legs went into shaking overdrive as we went up in the first service. Why couldn't my wife, who has all the experience in front of people get that word?
Well, the jokes went well, Tracey gave a really good history and my talk about the role we would be taking and the new impromptu addition came off well and I added in that "we are scared sometimes, but just want to do what God has called us to do". Like I said everything went well and I still only used an acceptable amount of ums and no leg shaking was noticed in the crowd.
Second service comes and we are up again and things are rolling along well. More laughs, less umms, all is good. Then I get to the new part (can't really call it impromptu any more if is the second time through) and when I mention that we aren't super Christians and that "we are scared", I completely choke up. That choke up really came out of nowhere. Didn't happen in the first service but definately happened there without warning. I think the Spirit just moved in me at that moment. That was an unplanned word and when I said it this time I was completely moved. I struggled through the rest but at the end we had lots of people mention how real that made our experience to them. Tracey and I have talked about wanting people to really feel like a part of what we are doing and identify with it in their own lives.
We are excited that the Lord used our commissioning service to let people know that God is there when He calls us to something scary and is okay with us voicing that as long as we continue to trust Him in those fears. I Peter says "cast your cares (worries) on Him", it doesn't say don't have any but to let them go when they come and let Him take care of it. We are more excited that I learned that as well, because I don't think I have been doing a good job of letting those cares go. The need to do that wasn't real for me until I reflected on how the Spirit moved in that second talk. Really cool how the Spirit moves to say the right thing at the right time.
