I'm still a novice at being a Christian. My conversion takes place nearly every day. I'm both new and in kindergarten. So when God works with me all I can do is to say He told me or He caused me to think about certain aspects of His work/my ministry that I did not receive from flesh and blood.
Due to this I have learned to wait with great confidence for Him to supply parts to the sermon each week. He does so throughout; yet I have practiced noticing last minute details that show up as perfect fits.
This morning I was showering and He gave me this thought: My people are one of two categories. They are either needy takers (like in collections plates) passing themselves around specifically to be noticed and stroked or they are selfless givers like communion (fruit crushed or bread broken) which blesses others by their attentive ways.
The former have lines of worrisome foreheads and seldom are willing to get happy while the latter are those who hand out happiness with twelve baskets left over--and in turn--are a very delightful sort.
Not so strangely, both groups have equal burdens. It is the style of the crushed and broken (communion) who choose to be thankful in the midst of difficulty (sharing with others how they are blessed by their brokenness) that lets in the Light from above so that one may pursue His mighty riches beyond imagination.
The hope that excites me is I lived too long in the church as a Collection Plate person. How many times was it said to me, It isn't about you!? My misery was transformed when I learned by watching Jesus give hope to any nearby all-the-while being persecuted and facing a torturous cross.
I am sympathetic to the Collection Plate person. For their misery runs deep. The help and hope is to learn to transform the very things which crush them into useful tools in which to pay attention to others who hurt.
Life is miserably lonely for a Collection Plate person who arrives on the scene to spill their story (again) so that needy words of sympathy might return. Life is brand spanking new for those who convert to glorying in their crushing hardships by noticing the pain in others...for joy returns rapidly.
A Collection Plate person or a Communion person? Which will it be? We decide.
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