There are times in my life when I can’t help but notice God trying to speak to me. I usually say, “well that was prophetic,” or “that’s ironic!” When in reality, the situations that I am in are so obviously from God, I just look back and stand amazed at his planning and timing. I love those times; when He makes it so apparent that He is apart of everything I do.

For example. Last Thursday I was talking to my husband on the cell phone, just making small talk and he asked, “what are we doing tonight?” I said, “well I am supposed to be going to Bible study, but I am not sure if I want to. I read Scot’s blog about protecting our time, and I know that Bible study is a good thing, but by the time I get home the kids will be in bed and I haven’t seen them all day, or you, I am just not sure it is ‘best.” I made a joke that the Bible study was going to be discussing prophecy, and that I had told the leader, “I have a feeling I will be unable to make it.” As I was starting to hang up with my husband, my car ran out of gas! How prophetic…how ironic…how coincidental? No, how God! A few days before this I was at church and to kill time I sat down and started flipping through, “Our Daily Bread.” On a date, sometime in April, the heading for the devotion was, “Truthfulness,”  how very odd. Then yesterday I was browsing the bulletin and trying to stay awake for nursery duty and I noticed the scripture for the days message was still rooted in the book of Ecclesiastes. My mind was brought back to the sermon on Ecclesiastes 2, which talks about “Pleasures Are Meaningless.” I thought about how the Author says, “meaningless, meaningless, it is all meaningless…a chasing after the wind.” I thought about the hurt and the anger we regurgitate onto our brother’s and sister’s in Christ and on our families, and find that is just plain stupid; “meaningless,”

Then there is a phrase, or idea floating around my close circle of friends; total honesty or realness. It seems that everywhere I go  this is the topic of the day.  I have spent the past week or so talking about and pondering the idea of, “being real.” I have listened to many personal desires regarding being open and honest with ourselves and with our friends.  I have given my opinion and have tried to play both sides of the table on this matter; and yet after every conversation,  I leave feeling as though there is still something missing; like something has been left unsaid.

After one of the last conversations I had on this idea of, “being real.” I came home and started talking about my ideas, and how I agreed and disagreed. Tim got really excited and said, “you really need to read this article in my Leadership Magazine.”  Quickly, I was quoted part of the article, which I later read in full, and realized once again, God was sitting in on every conversation I was having.

On page 15 of this quarters Leadership Magazine,  James Gilmore talks about his new book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. In this article James Gilmore says this: “To me, the church should not aim to be “real” as an end. The Church is there to proclaim truth. Trying to be hip and cool and real does a disservice to the church. We’re not called to be successful. We’re called to be obedient, even if they don’t come. Ministry leaders should think more like Noah, of being part of a remnant that is faithful. If somebody doesn’t find you objectionable, I wonder if you’re preaching the full counsel of God……………If you truly see people, that comes off as real. If you love you will automatically come off as real. You don’t need to strive to be real. Do what the Bible says you should be doing: giving, serving, loving. Nowhere, nowhere, do we find the modern-day sense of authenticity in  Scripture. But Scripture is replete with references to true and false. Real is telling people about their sin and their need for repentance and their need for a Savior. The church’s function is to proclaim that which is unchanging.” 

 In everything else that is going on, and in every unanswered question, the thing that is missing is LOVE…just love….nothing more needs to be said, nothing more needs to done, we just need to love…that is all. On that thought, I say this; amoung us, there is “realness,” we have shared ups and downs, sins, and repentance. We have borne eachothers burdens. We have fed the sick, cleaned the houses of the unable, we have cried with the hurting, laughed with the rediculous, loved the unloveable, and prayed together with the burdened. We have shown the love of Christ, the way it is supposed to be shown.

I Corinthians 13: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that I can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always, trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails………..And now these remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”