Eat your frog early

Three times (at the beginning of each 'trio' of plagues) Moses is told to get up early and confront Pharaoh during his morning ablutions (or whatever it was Pharaoh was doing went he went down to the Nile.)

Yesterday (at the recommendation of my sister) I looked at reviews of a book called 'Eat that frog' to see if it was worth reading. If I understood correctly the key idea is that if you have to eat a frog you should get it over with as soon as you can. Hence each day you should pick the task you really don't want to face and deal with it first thing.

So is God telling me that I should be routinely getting up early and knuckling down to something distasteful? By 'distasteful' I simply mean the kind of job which I don't particularly relish even though it is clearly important. This strikes me as a good motivational concept. The only snag is that nothing immediately springs to mind as today's frog. Perhaps something will come to me as I complete my own morning ablutions...

Daily bread needed

My thanks to Ian at yesterday's ministers fellowship who reminded us that the provision of manna in the desert represented God's daily gift of nourishment. Any manna stored until the following day became worm-ridden. And if we do not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of God, then it is important that we take on board God's fresh word for today rather than the stale word of yesterday.

I wouldn't dream of missing my breakfast on any given morning. I need to be equally committed to receiving God's word for the day.

Today I noted the parallels between Moses and myself. When Moses first told the people of Israel that God was going to rescue them from slavery they were all delighted. But when Pharaoh punished them by making them work harder the people complained. Without going into details, one of my churches recently faced a controversial decision. The outcome at first delighted me and (I think) others, but the grumbling and opposition has not gone away and even those who felt we made the right decision are dismayed by the sour atmosphere in the church. This is a gross oversimplification of the situation, but I can see parallels with the story of Moses - a leader tries to do what he believes God wants and it seems to make the situation worse.

So what? Is God telling me to hang in there and it will all work out for the best in the end? Is God reassuring me that the problems are not my fault? Is God challenging me to be pro-active in addressing the concerns of the grumblers? Or is God simply highlighting an issue I need to pray about? Prayer sounds a good idea. I'll do that...

I can't do this - or can I?

This morning's service involved me stepping a little way outside my comfort zone. I bared my soul to the congregation to this extent: At my testimony service, just before ordination my message was "I thought being a minister was within my capabilities, but now I've discovered I can't do it. It's beyond me. I need God's help." Twenty three years later I've had much more practice and ministry is well within my capabilities. I can do it well enough to get by. And my impression of the church is that we are experienced enough Christians to be able to run a church pretty well without relying on God.

I went on to challenge people as to how much we mention God or Jesus in our conversations after the service and asked whether part of the problem is that we have nothing much to say. What has Jesus done for me this last week which is interesting enough to share with others? Most weeks the answer is 'very little' because I've got used to living in my own strength and not attempting anything which would depend on God's resources instead.

The second way in which I stepped outside my comfort zone: I ended my sermon by inviting one or two people to come and share what difference Jesus had made to their everyday lives in the last few weeks. After a short awkward silence two people came and spoke. Afterwards several more people told me their stories, which they would have shared if they'd had the confidence to speak in public. So I have returned home with a sense that God has been at work. People were stirred up. Jesus became a topic of conversation. Many told me that I had said what needed to be said.

I am grateful for God's blessing this morning, but (after a typically delicious Sunday lunch) I could very easily relax back into my comfort zone. So I mustn't forget the first part of what I did. I have gone public with the fact that my ministry has become routine. The implications are that I have to change. I have to become reliant on Jesus much more. I have to expect God to work with me and through me. This is more than a little worrying. How am I going to live up to the standard I've set this morning? But that's the point. I can't do it on my own; Jesus and I can do it together.