Jump Start Faith

This morning, at our first official prayer meeting at Church, it was me and the Pastor. It was 10:00. Kind of early for the faithful. I just wake up early on Sundays. During the week, I awake at 5:20. On the weekends, I can sometime stretch the sleep to 6:30 if I am lucky. Slacker. I don't think I am entirely an early riser by nature. But, my job at the high school requires it. And I don't get paid unless I show up. Pretty simple. I am aiming for perfect attendance this year. Last year, around this time, my Appendix burst. I think I missed 2.5 days of school. The Dr. said that patients normally take 2 weeks off. Maybe I should have been a Marine. We have had some, OK a lot, snow days. We were even cancelled last week because it was too cold...

Regardless, today at the prayer meeting--where two were gathered in His name--we both prayed that our church--Veritas--would grow in depth. Many congregations evaluate effectiveness by butts in the seats. By that standard, we should show movie premieres.  We both prayed that Veritas would serve effectively even if it could not be quantified on the Quicken accounting ledger of this world. We are a faith backwards congregation. It undergirds what we do but it is not front and center. We want to do good whether we get credit and recognized or not. Counter-intuitive to in your-face-Christianity.

God answered the prayer in a shockingly instantaneous manner. In my carnality and worldliness, after the hard core twenty minutes of prayer requiring an exceptional amount of spiritual discipline, I walked over to Square One to get my 12 ounces of organic inspiration. On King Street, the main drag in our two horse town, there were a couple of young women in distress. Their cars were parked parallel, with one of the girl's battery's dead as a doorknob. Apparently, she had the key in the ignition running the heat and etc., without actually turning the engine over while she chatted with her friend for an hour.  She drained her battery to the grave. Her friend had jumper cables but it was obvious to me that they had not a clue of what they were doing. They were out-of-towners from the distant lands of Maryland. I have been there. Once. 

It was kind of strange. Earlier in the week I had mentally reviewed the protocols of starting a dead battery with jumper cables. It has been Siberian weather-like here in Central Pa., so I suppose that prompted me in that direction. Although, I have Triple A and would just call if I needed a jump. I took the cables from the young women and proceeded to give them a lesson on how to safely use the cables. Big Tip: Don't let the red and black cables touch on the dead battery side. I may have got a "D" in high school Physics, but I know that much. 

The dead car battery came to life like Lazarus. I did not stinketh. I invited the young women to Church but they had other plans. Nonetheless, I did good. And let them know why I did. Which is really enough. Too often we want reciprocity for our good deeds and they did express thanks. But, I went on my way and so did they.

Acts of service require sacrifice. I had to look and see. I had to be willing to come late to the Church service which is hardly a big deal because we never start at the stated time of 10:30. My big sacrifice is that I cut my right thumb on some sharp edge on the girl's dead engine. Fortuitously, the coffee shop had a Band-Aid and I staunched the flow. Although it does hurt a bit right now as I type. Little sacrifices may require a little blood. Just like prayer takes a trickle of faith. What small acts of service can we do that express our big God?

It is important that we get out into the world of need rather than contemplate this question from the pew...