Thursday, August 2, 2012

LESSEN YOUR BOREDOM TIME

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The sermons found on this blog are selected sermons preached by Rev. Wyrick during a ministry of over 50 years.  This syndicated columnist/minister thanks you for visiting.
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I am not recommending poverty when I share the following, but listen deep and think about the message it sends.

I have lost the name of the author of these words, but they could have been written by many,  "Take somebody ... who knows what it means to walk to school with a lunch wrapped up in a little brown greasy bag; somebody who knows what it means to be required to move but nowhere to move to; somebody who knows what it means to be forced to pay up but with nothing to pay down; somebody who knows what it means ’to wet their pillows with the midnight dew.’ 

“Take somebody like that, and you will find passion, you will find feeling. For people like that, God is real; they live on the edge. Life is not boring for those who know they are needy.”

The trail of on-going, consummate ease can make anyone bored…and yet it is so often a trail that is filled to overflowing. 

Pure and simple…

We all need some days in which we do not just float but have to paddle. 

Some of the most productive times of my life have been when I was not striving for security. 

I remember back in the late 1950’s and through the 60’s, putting on the Easter Pageant in the Orange Bowl.  With the hard work and talent of a lot of people from all over this area, it was an anticipated annual event.  I was the director, writer… and on-board optimist.

Although it was sponsored by the Miami Ministerial Association, and much was donated to help hold down expenses, and even though we would have up to 70,000 people in attendance… We still had bills to pay - there was insurance, parking personnel, police, etc…and one year we began with only $17 in the bank. 

So how did we raise the money each year? We passed the plate… but if you are part of 70,000 people you don’t know, it is easy to give nothing…and that’s what many gave…and then one year, to make matters worse, it rained.

Sheer lunacy?  Perhaps.  Complete faith?  Definitely! 

But we sure weren’t bored.

I had been flying planes for years and one day I decided I would like to fly a glider.  From planes with motors I was going to learn how to fly a plane that was motorless.

 Taken up in the air, you are cut lose at 3,000 feet and besides searching out updrafts to keep the plane afloat you also have to be sure to find the right place to land because you won’t have a second chance. 

But I certainly wasn’t bored.

When I left a thriving 600 member church parish experience in Virginia to start a church here in Miami, there were 8 people in attendance the first Sunday morning in school auditorium that held 800.

I had to believe a lot.  I had to dream and hope a lot.  But I certainly wasn’t

bored.

We all need some days when we are to be challenged by something rather than on fire for nothing. 

We all need days that cry out for deeds rather than living willy nilly.

Why are so many so bored with God and their faith and worship and the whole process?  Becaue that is what it has become...little more than a process.


And to find our spiritual selves, it must be more than that. 

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