February - A Time to Pray

We moved to Riverside 19 years ago this week. Drove through a blizzard for 3 straight days. We'd been living in Indiana, where we served in a wonderful church in a rural community of just 800 people while I went to seminary at Anderson School of Theology.

God had used our time in Indiana to grow us closer together as a family and deeper in our walk with Him. Now we were coming home to California to accept our first pastorate... didn't dream of all God's given us at Central Community. Our children have become adults who love The Lord and serve Him with their whole hearts. I have the opportunity to work with each of them as Julia has stepped up to at first fill in at the office after I'd been sick and lost staff to not just filling a gap but helping us see how much we were missing. John has accepted God's call on his life into the full time ministry and is in his third year of growing a dynamic ministry to students at Central Community. Debi and I have been blessed beyond measure.

It's been said that it's not adversity that challenges us but success. I believe it. It's easy for us to get lazy in our little victories and lose sight of God's great challenges. John Maxwell says that "when we DO SUCCEED it's time to try something harder." We've built much of our lives and our ministry on this philosophy. God continues to stretch us... and it's been good.

From our first month in Riverside, a lifetime ago, I realized my need for prayer to guide and sustain me in our work. February has become a time of personal renewal for myself and many others at Central Community and throughout Riverside, as we've given ourselves over to the discipline of prayer. The early years, when the buildings seemed strange and the neighborhood so new to me, I began to make the short walk from the parsonage to the sanctuary, where I'd open the doors to the world, extending an invitation to anyone that might happen by and then get on my knees and pray in the sunrise. Some mornings I'd hear the inner doors of the building open, foot steps fall quietly up the center aisle, the cushion at the altar gush out air as knees joined me in prayer... only to open my eyes and discover that I still appeared to be alone.

It frightened me. I questioned my hearing, pre-sunrise awareness, even my sanity. I'm a slow learner. It took numerous visits before I realized that God was making Himself known. That in a work where I often felt young, ill prepared and on a fools errand, I had not been abandoned, His Spirit knelt beside me. More times than I can count, I've looked back on those very real visitations and drawn comfort from God's presence.

This morning, February 1, 2007, so many years, I knelt again and prayed, long before sunrise. After a time at the altar, I sat to read my Bible, soon, the familiar, early morning sound of the inner doors of our sanctuary touched my spirit. Footsteps moved towards the front. I snapped my head around and there was Rosie Weir, a long time February prayer companion. We shared morning pleasentries, then, returning to prayer, I smiled and thanked God, incarnate, this morning in Rosie. It's been a long time since I've felt alone in my work. God's sent His Spirit in His children to move and work along side me. He's better than I deserve. I realized as we shared communion, it's going to be a great month. It's been an amazing 19 years. No blizzard could have kept me away. The adventure at Central Community is just beginning. Our best work is still ahead of us!