The following is more or less
what I shared with my church family today:
Lately in Sunday school and church
we’ve been talking about how the apostles and the early church in
the book of Acts were available and obedient to what God called them
to do through the Spirit’s prompting. I wanted to share a couple
small opportunities that came my way this week.
As you know, Lawrence Efird’s body
has been failing for quite some time. I had visited him at the rehab
center, but hadn’t gone to see him in the hospital. I kept finding
excuses not to go—first the holidays, then the busyness of work,
and so on. And the worse he got, the easier it was to find reasons
not to go. It’s not that I didn’t want to see him and Shirley,
but I didn’t want to see him in that condition, for that to be my
last memory of him. If you were at Dulin’s Grove last Sunday you
heard Matt pointedly urging anyone who’d been thinking about it
to go visit Lawrence, and then he preached on God’s authority and
how we can’t call Jesus “Lord” if we won’t do what He says.
So I told God, “I get the message,
I’ll go see Lawrence and Shirley.” But after church I started
thinking, “Well, I can go Monday since I don’t have to work and
will have more time,” trying to put it off again. But as the day
wore on I kept hearing, “No, you need to go today.” So I finally
got in the car and drove up there. I was nervous wondering who else
might be there that I may or may not know. I arrived just as the
girls were leaving, so it was just Lawrence and Shirley and Amy
there. Shirley and I chatted for an hour or so, shared some tears,
and prayed together before I left. When I got the word that Lawrence
passed Sunday night, I wasn’t surprised, because I knew that God
had a reason for me to go up there and not put it off one more day. I
was glad that I had listened to His promptings when I did.
Then Tuesday after Phyllis Hord’s
funeral, I went over to Burger King to grab some lunch before
returning to work. While I was waiting in line, I heard the cashier
asking the man in front of me, “Have you heard anything? Is he
okay?” And the man answered, “No, he passed away Sunday.” Now I
knew that couldn’t be a coincidence, but if you know me, you know
that I don’t generally talk to people I don’t know. In fact, I
often don’t talk to people I do know. But I felt compelled to ask,
“Are you talking about Lawrence Efird?” And he said yes. It turns
out it was Paul, who had often sat with Lawrence and Shirley and Pat
for lunch at Burger King on Sundays. As I was talking to him and
telling him how to get to the church, the manager came out and asked
about Lawrence. I was able to write down the details on the
arrangements for him. And I was glad to have the chance to be in the
right place at the right time.
Thinking later about the fact that
these “strangers” knew Lawrence well enough to want information
about his funeral, I knew that it wasn’t just because he was a
frequent customer, but because Lawrence never met a stranger. He
would talk to anyone, and I’m sure that the conversations often
turned to his faith, because that was what was most important to him.
He wasn’t one to shirk opportunities that came his way.
I’ll be honest, when we started
the Sunday school series on Acts and when I heard Matt was going to
be preaching on Acts, I was less than enthusiastic. In my mind, Acts
is a nice narrative of how God worked through the Apostles, but it
doesn’t have a lot of theological meat to chew on, and I’m not
sure how to apply it to “real” life. So I had reluctantly prayed
that God would help me figure out what to do with this study. It
turns out that God answers even reluctant prayers! He provides
opportunities to apply His Word if we’ll just pay attention. It may
be small things, but God still speaks and we have to choose whether
to listen and obey. So my prayer for all of us is that we’ll learn
to listen to the Spirit’s promptings and to obey Him all the time,
not just when it is convenient or comfortable.
As I was getting ready to post
this, I thought of the song “The Voice of Truth” and its reminder that we can step out in faith
and not be afraid of whatever God calls us to do.
© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise
indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.
