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Rev. Dr. James M. Capers
Mission Developer
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I was with a group of buddies of mine. We were traveling on the interstate from Atlanta somewhere south of there to attend an official gathering at a church. I think it was the installation of a minister who had just arrived at his new charge. We all piled in the vehicle. We road for miles to the destination. I’m not sure that we were speeding. No, in fact we weren’t. But, we missed the church. In fact, we had traveled almost 1 hour south of our destination before we knew what had occurred.
What happened? Why did we miss the exit? We were told explicitly when to get off. But we missed the exit because we were not paying attention. We were so pre-occupied that we failed to notice our turn off. There’s a song in the movie Sister Act 2 that says, “If you’re going to be somebody; if you’re going to go some where; you better wake up and pay attention.”
We often don’t pay attention because we are in such a hurry to get where we believe we are going. Perhaps what is needed is that we will stop, slow down and pay attention. Perhaps we need to stop, slow and down and ask the question, “What is God doing in my life right now?” What is God doing in our world?
Most of the time, we look at our reality with the same carnal eyes that don’t see the miracles that God is performing. We don’t see how even through some of the heartache and pain we have received more strength and gumption so that the next time we went through a time of trial and/or testing, we were able to hold up better and not go crazy on our loved ones and co-workers.
The writer of 2 Peter in that first chapter writes of a progression that it might be good to meditate on; he says beginning at verse 5:
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us together meditate on these words.
Pastor Capers
