‘Available

July 22, 2020

The rain followed me all the way to Rochester, for which I am quite thankful tonight. Mom is doing better than she wishes, and I have the privilege of caring for her for the next couple days.  It will give me time to do some much needed preparation for the next time I preach; time I need to listen, read, and pray. I don’t think I’m much different than most Christians, in that even though I take time each day to read and pray, there are plenty of days when it feels like I’m just going through the motions and not really connecting with God. Listening to some people talk about their walk with Christ, my drought times would bother me more except for one fact: the people we think of as heroes of the Bible often went for years between memorable encounters with God.

I’ve been reading in Genesis about Abraham. We first hear of him when he’s seventy-five. He immigrates from Ur of the Chaldeans to Palestine, then travels to Egypt to escape a famine. According to the text, God speaks to him once between his arrival in Palestine and the visitation of the angels when he is ninety-nine. They converse a couple times over the next year or so, when Isaac is born, and not again until Isaac is around fifteen.

We have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, so we don’t have to endure long intervals before God speaks to us. A few days or even weeks may be nothing more than the ebb and flow of our energies or attentiveness. I’m not always at my peak when it comes to anything, including my walk with Christ. I wish I were, but I’m not. The Good News is that there is never any change in Christ’s availability to me. He is always here, and if I take the time, he makes himself known. For that, I am thankful tonight.