It was such a relief to be back at Prime this Monday night. It really is my favorite day of the week. I missed seeing all of my buddies and buddettes for those few weeks over the holidays. It was a big honor to have Carrie McDonnall join us to share her story of how God uses the ordinary in extraordinary ways. Her story is a little overwhelming to me. Even as I wrote out some of the questions for the interview, I just kept feeling uneasy because I wanted to make sure that we honored her, her late husband, and those 3 workers that died that day in Mosul, Iraq in 2004. I just kept thinking..."don't let this be a program or just a service, let it be about the people and their stories". I don't know if you've ever felt the pressure to try and manipulate something (for a good cause), but I constantly have something inside of me that serves as a "governor" on my motives. And, I'm glad. It's called the Holy Spirit, I know. I desparately want to have pure motives. That is one of my life's goals as a believer in Christ. But, sometimes good things and expected outcomes can bring dark shadows over pure motives. I say all that to say, it was a great night. I felt like Carrie's message to us fit perfectly with our series "World Changers" in that one person really can make a difference, and you don't have to be a superhero....matter of fact, as you recall- Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 that God chose the foolish things, the weak things, the lowly things of this world to shame the wise, shame the strong and prove that outside of Christ, there is no boasting. Remember Matthew 5:13-16? WE are salt. WE are light. Salt permeates a substance and loses its identity, so should we. Light works silently, pointing people to the Light of the World, Jesus. So, should we. Finally, we are not called to be God's glorious chandeliers, drawing attention to ourselves. Rather, we are like a single unadorned light bulb along a dark corridor showing the way to the throne room of Jesus. This week, "May you always trust God that you are exactly where you are supposed to be"- Mother Teresa
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See ya next Monday if not before,
Steve