More Glimpses

Glimpses

(written by Harley Castleberry)

TRUST 

Several years ago I was relating a personal experience from my youth, to our youngest son.  I know I heard many such (learn from this) experiences from my parents and my grandmother.  Most of these stories I heard again and again.  Maybe I was a slow learner or I failed to jump up and excitedly exclaim, “What a story!  What a lesson!  You have just changed the course of my life!”  Knowing that these stories had a boomerang affect, (they just kept coming back) I determined early on to try not to hammer my boys with rerun stories.  Anyway, here I was telling this marvelous story, and David, still a preteen, looked up and me and finished my sentence.  I was caught off guard and immediately abandoned that project and moved on with “Let me tell you something that you don’t know!  When I was your age, there was no sun – and the moon was real small.”  There!  Poor kid – staggered back with a look of bewilderment.  Truly he did not know that! 

Back in the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s there was a nondenominational weekend program in which churches participated, and they proved be very successful in enhancing the lives of their congregations.  For those of you who are too young to even imagine what life was like in that time period, let me give you a peek.  “There was no sun – and the moon was real small.”

Essentially, the weekend went along these lines:
A volunteer “team” of other Christians, sometimes as far as two hundred miles away, began to arrive at the host church, late on Friday.  The host members provided a covered dish meal and then everyone met in-group.  The guests provided music, songs and testimonies, after which everyone was split into small groups of maybe six or eight people.  Discussions were carried out that were designed to help the participants to become aware of what God was doing in their lives on a daily basis.  Afterward, everyone would come together again and volunteers from each group would give a brief overview of what was discussed in their particular group.  That would conclude activities for Friday. 

Saturday, about mid-morning, various church members hosted coffee’s in their homes and similar activities occurred with these groups.  The “mix” of attendees was different whenever we met in small groups.  Each time, one or more guest team members would give their testimonies.  Everyone was encouraged to participate in the discussions, but the whole weekend was a low-key affair with no pressure being applied at any point. 

At noon, everyone met back at the church, or a local restaurant, for lunch.  The women and men met separately.  These meetings were similar to the previous ones, but by now, the guests were no longer strangers and some of the church members were beginning to poke their heads out from their protective shells and publicly admit that maybe God was active in their lives, other than on Sunday.  At the close, everyone was dismissed until time to arrive at the church that evening, for another covered dish meal.  Basically, Saturday night’s activities were similar to those of Friday’s, but with each meeting, the discussion topics changed, and participation of guest church members grew and became more relaxed.

It was during the Saturday night small group session that I attended at my church, that I got completely bogged down.  I was not put on the spot before the group, but one of the questions that were asked hit me right between the horns, and inwardly I staggered back, knowing that before the weekend was over, I was going to have to sort this out for myself.

During this weekend, guests stayed in the homes of volunteer church members and often long term friendships were formed.  On Sunday morning, the out of town guests conducted all Sunday School classes in a manner befitting the theme of the weekend.  The Sunday morning service was also conducted by the team members.  After the morning service local church members went their separate ways, and the team enjoyed sandwiches for lunch before they departed for home.
 
The Sunday evening service was conducted by the church members and generally led by the chairman of the group who organized the weekend event.  After that, opportunity was given for any and everyone to relate what they had learned and experienced during the weekend.  UNBELIEVEABLE!  I have never attended anything like the closing meeting on Sunday night.  Barriers were demolished.  There was a new appreciation among people for each other.  Some old grudges disappeared.

Above all, they were now free to openly discuss their active faith.  That opportunity existed all along, but neither the church leaders, nor the members knew how to release God’s glory that dwells within us.  All they needed were living examples found in, of all places – laymen.  The life changes of that weekend were just that – life changes.  This was not a “fad” activity on which our commercial world, and some church programs, thrive. 

What stopped my clock that Saturday night, and opened the door to a deeper relationship with God?  It was just a simple question:

 “What prevents you right now, from giving as much of yourself
 as you can, to as much of God as you understand?”

In my case, it took about two days to wrestle through that concept.  The question asked me to give as much of myself as I can.  That’s not asking me to pick up additional load or acquire deeper understanding.  It’s like, right where you are – with what you have right now!  And the last part: “to as much of God as you understand.”  On that basis, I have all the wisdom and understanding that I need to respond.  I don’t need one extra study course or to pray and fast for a week before I can do this.  I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there is something in that question that was biting me.

Finally, for me, I figured out what “prevents” me.  Even after realizing what it was, it still caused quite an internal struggle.  It was a matter of “letting go – and let God.”  It was a matter of TRUST!  Oh, I say that I’m saved by the grace of God and that I trust Him with my very soul, for eternity, so why is the answer to this simple question so difficult?  Occasionally, I will recall this question and try to get myself back on track by submitting, but to tell you the truth, there is something within me that always fights to hold back.  I still have to struggle through that barrier.  Is it possible to genuinely trust God’s gift of salvation, and not be able to simply give Him what that question asks?

Before I go, I’d like to ask YOU a question:
 

“What prevents you right now, from giving as much of yourself
 as you can, to as much of God as you understand?”