More Ascension Thoughts

I linger today with the reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians (see May 1 posting).

There are times when, in "doing" church, we become components of a tapestry of interwoven threads of thoughts, programs and plans. We can get tightly wound, even bound up, by our desire to produce something that can be quantified or measured. We spend hours debating over how something should be done....and then close on the heels of our activity we analyze how we "did" and how we might "do" things differently in the future.

Prayer and the discipline of "surrender" enable us to literally loosen the threads of the tapestry created by what we can "see" when we look at our mission. We are reminded that all must be given to God's hand so that we can discern the fruit of our work. As we dwell in a spirit of prayer and gentle contemplation rather than analysis, we can discover a bit more about the essence underlying our actions. In between the thoughts and the programming and the plans, what is the quality of gentleness, peace, trust, faith and love? How are we with one another as we seek to serve others? If "others" were to eavesdrop on our conversations, would they see that we are able and willing to set aside our own personal investments of ego and interest in the name of following and trusting the head of all that the church is and does?

It is important to remind ourselves and one another regularly about the abiding sovereignty of Christ who is "the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" Ephesians 1:23