Sixth Sunday of Lent (Palm Sunday): Mark 11:1-11

By Rev. Gina Jacobs-Strain

Imagine you just purchased a new car, perhaps your dream car; the keys were just handed to you. As the salesperson walks away, two people approach you, reach for the keys, and say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” The request is a little vague and, in the back of my mind as I write this, I hear 2 Peter 3:8, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” What would be your response to the request?

Similarly, the disciples, following Jesus’ instructions, take a new colt, never ridden, from a doorway. When asked about their actions, they say these very words to the bystanders. It is not clear in the text that the owner is present, but others in the community see the disciples approach and they release the colt, without resistance, for Jesus’ celebrated entrance into Jerusalem.

These few words raised so many questions for me. Did the “bystanders” recognize the two disciples and therefore knew they were connected to Jesus’ ministry? Did they recognize the term “Lord” as one that distinguished Jesus’ holiness and divinity? Did they know the Lord, Jesus Christ, having witnessed his miracles and having been blessed by his words? Had they surrendered their hearts unto “my beloved son with whom I am well pleased?” The disciples have my undivided attention with these words, “The Lord needs it.” My soul and heart are pierced with these words, no matter how many times I read or hear it.

Jesus, the consummate teacher, is showing us how to live in community. The statement conveys humility and invites the community of bystanders, the colt owner, and the disciples to participate in Christ’s ministry. Jesus also models inclusion and respect as Jesus promises through the disciples to return the colt shortly. Maybe the bystanders understood that all that we have belongs to God. Yet today, we often allocate our time, resources, and spiritual gifts that we have received from God back to serving God in a measured manner. It is funny that the things that God requires are often simple yet our willingness to be obedient make things complicated and not easily achieved.

As we approach Palm Sunday thinking about Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem, we should prepare our minds and hearts for Holy Week. Is God saying to you, “The Lord needs it?” Prayerfully, our sacrifices during the Lenten season, as well as our deepened spiritual practices, will renew and sustain us well beyond Lent because we have become more firmly planted in the holiness of our Savior. Let us persist and ask ourselves, “What does the Lord need from me so that I may participate more fully in sharing and doing the Gospel?” And so, I wonder with you, would I release the keys to my car (which has over 100, 000 miles and persistent issues) to someone who I knew was a devout Christian? Would I release it without resistance and a plan for its return? Where are the opportunities in my life for me to ask for help? Are we too busy, too smart, too “I-know-how-to-do-it” that we forget to invite others into the blessings of Jesus ministry? Let us ponder these words, asking God to show us new ways to witness God’s call to us and new ways to be in community. The Lord needs it.

We introduce Rev. Gina Jacobs-Strain as the new executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries. Welcome, Gina!

Fifth Sunday of Lent: I Want to See Jesus (John 12:20-33)

By Rev. Aracelis Vasquez Haye

Photo courtesy Victoria Goff, (c) 2012

What will your response be, if someone tells you,  “I want to see Jesus?”

I believe that we are living during a time that many are seeking for answers, clarity, in need of healing and restoration, and searching for meaning and purpose to life’s problems and challenges. In my own ministry, like the Greeks seeking to see Jesus in the Gospel of John 12, I have encountered many women in search of Jesus, especially during their crises:

• A 21-year-old college student who dreams of becoming a lawyer one day. However, her future is at risk. She is a DREAMER, a young woman who was brought to this country when she was ten months old. She now fears that the outcome of having to go back to a country that she never knew would rob her of her dream and aspirations. She came to see me to tell me, “I want to see Jesus.”
• A young woman who as a child was sexually abused and now as a young adult has struggled to forgive herself, told me, “I want to see Jesus.”
• A woman who has lost her marriage and children due to drug addiction, and now finds herself homeless and helpless, tells me, “I want to see Jesus.”
• An elderly woman, who spent her life advocating for peace and racial justice, and who has recently confronted bigotry in her own church, told me, “I want to see Jesus.”
• A mother who lost her teenage son to gun violence tells me, “I want to see Jesus.”

I was present as I listened to their stories and I asked myself, “How do I show them Jesus?” I heard their grief, felt their pain and brokenness, and I saw their desperation. They wanted to see Jesus: that Jesus who healed the sick, cared for the marginalized, and resurrected the dead. For some, this was the point of no return: they desperately needed Jesus. And they came to me because they knew that I know Jesus. My response to them? “Look, Jesus is here.”

Through life’s ups and downs, I have learned that behind the shadows of my own sorrow and brokenness, Jesus was and is here. Though it is hard to comprehend and, like Mary and Martha, I may have said in various occasions, “Jesus, if you had been here…”, (John 11), I later realized that he had been there the whole time.  I learned to look further and deeper into my situation. It was there that I changed my request into an invitation, allowing Christ into my crisis and seeing him intervene and interrupt my circumstance, even if it was solely with his presence and peace.

Like the Greeks in our Scripture passage, and like those women who shared with me, I wonder if they initially knew what they were asking. The request may seem simple, but at times Jesus’ response is anything but simple to the human condition. There are moments where Jesus will invite us to sit at the foot of the cross, and perhaps other moments when we will witness the resurrected Christ.

Do you want to see Jesus?

Rev. Aracelis Vásquez Haye serves as associate pastor at Church of the City in New London, Connecticut, and as Protestant Chaplain at Connecticut College and The Waterford Country School. 

Fourth Sunday of Lent: No Condemnation (John 3:14-21)

By Karen Yee

 

http://bit.ly/2CbtKkM Used by permission CreativeCommons.org

Before becoming a pastor, I taught 6^th grade at Taylor Middle School. One of my best friends was a fellow 6^th grade teacher, Mr. Alvarez. We were always talking, sharing ideas, and working together on a variety of projects. We were partners, except for one week during the school year: Big Game Week. You see, I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (Go Bears!), and he was from “the Farm,” Stanford University. For that one week, our classes would taunt and tease each other, drape the other’s classroom with the other school’s school colors, and blast our respective fight songs as we paraded into each other’s classroom. Finally, the football game would be played and there would be a quick “we won” cheer, and things would return to normal. At the end of the day, we respected each other and knew the most important thing was to let our students know the importance of going to college.

Unfortunately, our society no longer knows how to have differences and still get along. We live in a polarized society where we are quick to judge and condemn the “other,” or anyone who doesn’t think, vote, believe, look or act like us. People are grouped: you are either good or bad, for us or against us.

John 3: 16 is the most recognizable verse in the Bible. We see it on posters, at sporting events, and on the bottom of the soda cup at In & Out Burgers. However, it is only part of God’s story. I always want to scream, “Keep reading!” “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him,” (John 3:17). We have become so polarized that we think it is our job to judge others and decide their validity or worth. However, if Jesus did not come to condemn, then why are we doing it? Jesus came to love and save the world and our purpose, our job, is to point people to Jesus so that they can be saved: saved from hopelessness, saved from the lack of purpose and meaning in life, saved from death, and given abundant life, now and everlasting.

These verses are part of the story of Nicodemus, who came in the dark of night to meet Jesus. He was too afraid of what others would think. Even back then there was division in society. There were those who loved Jesus and those who wanted to condemn him. Jesus reminds Nicodemus, and all of us, that, “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil,” (John 3:19). We must come out of the darkness, step away from our cliques and groups, go beyond our stereotypes and presuppositions of others, and come together in the light of Christ to love, to serve, and to point each other to the One who saves.

Rev. Karen Yee is English Ministry Pastor at lu-Mien Friendship Baptist Church in Richmond, CA, and is Associate Pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship in Castro Valley, CA.

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/4123864009/in/album-72157624840737437/ Used by permission Creativecommons.org.

Third Sunday of Lent: Zeal for God (John 2:13-22)

By Rev. Christine Smith

See bottom of post for citation

The reading of John 2:13-22 is striking for many reasons. A few verses earlier, Jesus was attending a wedding with his mother and friends, being a “hero” of sorts, turning water into wine. A few verses later and the ground work is being laid for his crucifixion!

When Jesus entered the Temple and observed the “money changers,” most probably taking advantage of poor people, manipulating their desire to honor and obey the Temple system of sacrifice, the text says that he fashioned a whip and chased them all out! Grappling with what they just beheld, understanding the power of the religious leaders and the significance of the Temple in Jerusalem, the disciples reflected upon a verse in the Psalms, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (Psalm 69:9, NIV).

What could Jesus mean? Why was he being so disruptive? Did he have the authority to challenge the “Temple business?” The answer is a resounding “YES!!!” Jesus still has the authority to challenge, “Temple business!” Back then and today, Jesus is not concerned with a physical structure, but rather the “temples” of our bodies, hearts, and minds.

When the disciples considered Jesus’ apparent “zeal” for the Temple, they didn’t realize the power and implications of their reflection. The Temple represented the presence of God. It was meant to be a place of high worship, praise, education, sacrifice, and atonement. Religious leaders and thieves turned it into a place of oppression, abuse, and hypocrisy.

Jesus, however, wanted the people to have a deep love of God…a reverence, a desire, a hunger, a “zeal” for God. He wanted them to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). The shallow religious activities that evolved over time in that sacred space grieved Jesus and thrust him into righteous indignation.

What about us? Has our worship become distorted and shallow? Do we recognize our bodies, our hearts, our minds as the “Temple of God?” Have we allowed religion to replace our relationship with God? Do we recognize how our stale “religiosity” impacts or even oppresses others?

As we walk through this Lenten season, may we seek to regain our zeal for God. May we hunger and thirst for righteousness. May we, like deer, pant for the “living water” that is Christ. May our relationship with God flow over in sweet, lifting, liberating, and strengthening ways towards all we encounter.

Rev. Christine Smith is senior pastor of the Covenant Baptist Church in Euclid, Ohio, and author of Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling: Equipping and Encouraging Female Pastors (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2013).

 

Photo credit: JESUS MAFA. Jesus drives out the merchants, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48271[retrieved February 28, 2018]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).

Second Sunday of Lent: Being Counter-intuitive (Mark 8:31-38_

By Rhonda Compise

Mother Teresa Statue. Photo used by permission CreativeCommons.org

Sometimes I feel like my life is going against the flow. Things that should be simple somehow feel complicated and difficult. And, the harder I try to get something straight, the worse it usually gets! I wonder if that is how the disciples felt when Jesus was teaching them.

I read the passage of Mark 8:31-38. Then I looked at the previous verses to see what had happened before. I saw in verse 29 that Peter had a moment of clarity when he told Jesus that he believed Jesus was the Christ, or Messiah. Already by verse 32, Peter had changed course and pulled Jesus aside and rebuked him for the comments that he made. Then in verse 33 Jesus called Peter “Satan,” and told him to get out of his sight!

I can relate to Peter, because everything was simple in verse 29: Jesus was going to make everything wonderful. But the more Jesus said, the more confusing and complicated it was getting. He was asking the disciples to believe something which was completely counter-intuitive. Every Jew believed that the Messiah would set up an earthly kingdom which would never end. But Jesus was telling them that he was about to be killed by the very religious leaders who were expected to serve the Messiah in his kingdom.

Just when it seemed things could not get more complicated, Jesus made another statement in verse 35 which was even more confusing:

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

2000 years later, I think we are all still having trouble understanding this concept. It is still counter-intuitive! For me, the observation of the time of Lent helps with understanding what Jesus was trying to communicate. During Lent we give up something in order to get something: the enrichment of our spiritual life. This self-discipline requires faith, it challenges our faith, and our faith grows in response to the challenge.

As I pondered this counter-intuitive concept in Mark, I thought of Mother Teresa. She is a great example of an average person who gave up her life for the gospel. She took an oath of poverty and lived in the ghettos of Calcutta to bring the love of Jesus to people who had nothing. This woman, who had nothing during life, and nothing at the time of her death, did have the respect of the world and also a Nobel Peace Prize! I read that she refused the acclaim of the awards dinner and requested that the $192,000.00 that would have been spent on the dinner be given to ministry with the poor. In every way that she gave up her life, it produced results for the gospel.

During this season of Lent, let’s pray to find new ways to give up temporary material things to receive eternal spiritual results. Let’s live counter-intuitively!

Rhonda Compise is the president of American Baptist Women’s Ministries of Indiana/Kentucky Region.

First Sunday of Lent: Being Overwhelmed (Mark 1:9-15)

By Yana Pagan

John baptizes Jesus. See postscript for more information about this image.

This Lent, let’s take what is perhaps a distinctive look at this passage, one that we may be very familiar with. I’ll be honest and admit that when it comes to Lent I get a bit overwhelmed. I try to think of my favorite beginnings instead of thinking of my childhood, in which somehow we were somber all the time: no laughing or playing, and just weird stuff. Consequently, as an adult I have adopted new traditions, like the practice of self-care, that go with Lent. For example, I now have an intentional practice of contemplative prayer and exercise.  I’ve tried to incorporate lots of play and laughing into my spiritual life. If I think too much I get overwhelmed.

Since Jesus was also human, he too may have felt overwhelmed by everything. I mean, can you imagine? He comes up from the waters and sees the heavens open, and we are told that a voice came from heaven (think Hollywood). In fact, it’s not just a voice but, to top it off, the Spirit descended like a dove on him.

This had to be a proud parent moment! But, as funny stories are often told about Greek, Spanish, Italian families, this also could have been a big family embarrassing moment! Notice that I’m only mentioning the “how do I hide” moments, the “oh dad,” moments. Well, when you trying to be holy sometimes family can mess it up! Here, Jesus is a young man and he is trying to do his own thing; he just found himself proclaiming his own experience to his cousin so there could be a family dynamic here. Then the Father God couldn’t be more embarrassing! Amid the family dynamic, a young man being baptized by his cousin, there is a calling! Jesus’ Dad makes a big announcement: Jesus is sent forth! Jesus must have been aware of his cousin witnessing all of this. This is a true test of that human family relationship!

It’s tempting to think of this solely as Jesus’ story. While it is clearly the story of the affirmation of Jesus’ humanity and divinity, it is also our story. It is here, with Jesus, that we to are sent into the wilderness. It is here, with Jesus, that we are tempted. It is in the wilderness that we find God’s words come to us when we least expect it. Jesus was at his weakest in his humanity; let’s not forget that! When he is sent forth into the wilderness, we are not told in scripture his state of mind as a human being. We do know that he then experiences the human feeling of hunger, the temptation of riches, the temptation of all the promises that Satan comes to offer each of us in our lowliest points of life. Yet Jesus is able to prevail, to come out to the other side.

This is part of the reason why I choose to focus on self-care. In a way, self-care is a discipline of drawing nearer to God. For me, Lent is a season not of sadness like I once thought, but instead it is a time in which I must fill my jar with all the oil that I will need for the rest of my journey.

What is it that you need in your wilderness so that in this season of Lent you can focus on God and your journey together?

Rev. Yana J.C. Pagan is national coordinator of Young Adult Women’s Ministries for American Baptist Women’s Ministries.

Postscript: JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings. 

 http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48290 [retrieved February 8, 2018]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact). Used by permission, CreativeCommons.org. 

 

Easter Sunday–The Stone Is Rolled Away

By Mary Etta Copeland

This is the final post in our Lent/Easter series. To read past posts in the series, click on “Lent” in the tag cloud at the right.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance…. As she wept…she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus… but after hearing his words “Mary”, …she went to the disciples with the news ‘I have seen the Lord!’” (Selections from John 20: 1 – 18)

JESUS MAFA. Easter – Christ appears to Mary, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48389 [retrieved March 6, 2017].

Throughout my just-completed 50 years as a choral director at the high school level, students became acquainted with my many quotations from a variety of sources. One with lasting impact comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Today we’ve arrived at a most significant point in our annual Christian pilgrimage, and while we celebrate amid great joy, the question to consider is what difference will this make in the coming year.

“Oh, my gosh! Look at all those Easter eggs,” said my four-year-old grandson, Jonny, as he looked out the window of a high-rise hotel. What those young eyes were seeing was not Easter eggs, but rows and rows of silk flowers marking graves in a cemetery. This memory from almost two decades ago brought two insights to my mind for this day of Resurrection: the excitement of what a child thought he saw, and the symbolism of the egg that we now recognize on this most holy of days.

While not specifically portrayed in the resurrection account, the egg has come to represent that huge stone blocking the tomb’s entrance and rolled away by the angels. I’m moved to recognize and admit to those stones which might be blocking the entry to living out God’s plans for our lives: stones of negative thoughts, such as “we’ve always done it this way,” or “what if it doesn’t work?” I am reminded of the distrust and fear we sometimes have of what God can and will do in our lives, churches, and AB Women’s Ministries Ministries groups; our blinded eyes and deafened ears to meanings of God’s plans and calls on our lives. I am reminded of the negative thoughts such as “I’ve done my share;” self-pride; indifference; selfishness…on and on come the echoes of stones blocking the living out of God’s call on our lives.

When we can actually recognize these stones blocking the fulfillment of God’s plans for each of our lives, in obedience to God’s call and with God’s leading, we can “roll the stones away!” With the same awesome excitement seen in the eyes and voice of a child, our lives can live forth that same echo…not just on Easter Sunday, but 365 days a year!

Mary Etta Copeland is president of American Baptist Women’s Ministries of the Central Region.

Palm Sunday–Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

By Renée Langley

This is the sixth in a series of posts for Lent. Click on “Lent” in the tag cloud on the right to see other posts in the same series. Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get updated posts delivered straight to your inbox or feed reader.

Morgner, Wilhelm, 1891-1917. Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54247 [retrieved March 6, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_Morgner_001.jpg.

Matthew 21: 1-11; Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29

“Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” This shout of praise is found in Psalm 118, as well as in the Gospels. In Matthew the people proclaim this when Jesus enters Jerusalem. It is a celebratory moment when the people recognize and receive their King. It is the culmination of the sentiment found in Charles Wesley’s Advent hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”:

Come, Thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

For all of us who have waited to hear from God, who have longed for a sign of hope in troubled times, it is a word of liberation to be able to say, “Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But we who are followers of Jesus Christ also know that the joy of Palm Sunday will be followed by challenges to Jesus’ authority, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion and death – all in the space of less than a week from the cheers of this glad day! Such is the sad story of humanity, that joy can be turned to sorrow, that victory can be turned to defeat, that life can turn to death.

Of course, Good Friday is not the end of the story, either! Beyond the seeming defeat of Jesus comes the great good news that he is triumphant even over death. Perhaps we judge too quickly the people who shouted, “Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” on Palm Sunday. They did not fully understand who this “prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” really was. None of us comes to faith in Jesus fully mature, completely understanding what Jesus means to us. The development of faith and comprehension always takes time.

So, as imperfect followers of Jesus, let us lift up our praises this day to the One that came gently into Jerusalem, and let us celebrate that this day is filled with joy for the coming of the Savior, the King, into his own. Like the people that saw Jesus over two thousand years ago, we do not understand everything that he is and that he represents. But we can shout with others across time and space, “Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Renée Langley is president of American Baptist Women’s Ministries of Michigan.

Fifth Sunday of Lent: Focusing on What’s Important

By Meghan Cubbison

This is the fifth in a series of posts for Lent. Click on “Lent” in the tag cloud on the right to see other posts in the same series. Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get updated posts delivered straight to your inbox or feed reader.

Based on Romans 8:6 (NIV)

National Gathering for Girls 2016

Being a girl who ministers to girls in a society like ours comes with its own victories and challenges, especially when teaching others about self-confidence when you have none. Even when I was asked to apply for the convening position of the AB GIRLS National Leadership Team, I often compared myself to past convenors, convincing myself that “I could never do that.”

Growing up in a Christian home, Lent was always something I was aware of and at least thought I understood. But looking back on my later childhood, I see that it was more of a game to me to see what I could give up the longest, rather than using it to reflect on Christ and my personal relationship with him.

This year, I seemed to go down a road that is becoming more traveled than not, by taking something on rather than giving things up; because, let’s face it, I usually make it a week before giving into my normal cravings of chocolate or soda. Plus, being a senior in high school I wanted to do something that actually meant something to me. So, having been struggling with a lot of negative self-talk lately, I took on the challenge of trying to find a new positive thing about myself.

In all reality, I think many of us are guilty of falling short by trying to conform our minds and the way we see ourselves to the world’s standards. But I’ll tell you from personal experience, this rarely makes the case better. For instance, when I try to work out in order to fit into a certain piece of clothing my friends will like, I usually give up within the first 30 minutes; I have no true motivation. The same thing is applicable during the Lenten season. If we go with “norms” of giving up soda or chocolate because we feel obligated to participate, we aren’t taking advantage of this time set aside for us to grow in our faith. So, instead, it’s important that we focus on what’s really important during this time: our relationship and understanding of God, and then we will be transformed by God’s spirit.

Meghan Cubbison is the 2016-2017 convenor of the national leadership team of AB GIRLS, American Baptist Women’s Ministries. This is her second year of service on the team.

Fourth Sunday of Lent: Never Invisible to God

By Deneen Ray

This is the fourth in a series of posts for Lent. Click on “Lent” in the tag cloud on the right to see other posts in the same series. Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get updated posts delivered straight to your inbox or feed reader.

Anointing of David, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55312 [retrieved March 3, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_psaulter_gr139_fol3v.jpg.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Have you ever been in a meeting or class and asked yourself, “Do I really know these people?” Or, better yet, have you been a part of a task force or school government/club and wondered, “Am I invisible? Do they see me, do they know me, or does my presence even matter to this group? And what, if anything, do I have to give back?”

At some point, we all go through life on automatic pilot. Yes, there was a time when someone got you up in the morning, reminded you of your bathroom needs, reminded you to study, get home on time, dress warm, etc. But as you move into adulthood, there is not much reminding. We just do things, visible to ourselves but perhaps feeling invisible in the greater scope of the world around us.

For me, I never truly fit in anywhere. I was not a part of the “it crowd;” every fashion don’t, I probably did; I wasn’t the loudest, nor was I a loner. I was the one who, when given a task, completed it in a timely manner. I was Ms. Dependable. I was the one you never give much thought to, because I always pulled through.

But to God…

God the Creator has meticulously created each of us with a specific purpose and gift for God’s Kingdom-building. This was from day one! Or, more accurately, Scripture says “before you were in your mother’s womb, I knew you,” (Jeremiah 1:5). So, “day one” for real…like, an “in-the-beginning” day one.

My point is that in 1 Samuel 16:1-13, David was out in the field on automatic pilot, doing what he normally did every day; meanwhile, God was activating part of his plan on David’s behalf. There are multiple messages in the text: to Samuel, to David, to the people of Israel, and to you and me.

I can relate to the heartbreak Samuel felt, after Samuel invested long hours with Saul and Saul still couldn’t, wouldn’t, and didn’t get his act together. Saul was feeling himself too much and forgot who was really in charge. Sometimes we have to move into the new season God has set up in obedience, expectation, and excitement.

The strongest, smartest, or richest person may not always be the one chosen for leadership. One who is obedient, faithful, a protector, hardworking, and who doesn’t mind being alone—this may be the kind of person God is looking for.

I am sure the criteria used in appointing Saul king were the same criteria that Samuel was using as he looked upon David’s brothers. But Saul was the king the people wanted; David is the king God wanted. I am sure the job description had changed based on the One now directing the process.

So, why is this important today, for you and me? It’s just a simple reminder that those of us who think we are invisible need to heed this reminder: You are very visible to a wise, meticulous planner who knows just when to step in and activate your purpose and gifts. Are you ready? Have you been studying your pre-purpose exercises? Are you open to the creative and innovative ways God is going to use you? Live life in full expectancy: God will reveals the plan when God is ready, so be prepared and be open. What things look like to us are not the same as what they look like to God. Trust the process, and don’t become impatient in the wait.

Turn that sleep mode off, wake up, and do you, girl! And if anyone has anything to say, you hit them with a “But, God…,” and drop the mic.

 

Deneen Ray is national coordinator of AB GIRLS for American Baptist Women’s Ministries.