resident alien day 14: aliens have no assuptions

Living life  as a resident alien, one who belongs to God and not the world, requires us to be  inflexible in dedication but flexible in implementation.

We live by God assumptions, not our own. We assume certain truths and model our lives around them; 

We are assume and are inflexible our in Biblical and Creedal beliefs. We stand on the truths of faith as handed down. We are inflexible in our  belief that the human sin-condition is still the same, and that Jesus was the one atoning sacrifice for all time.

We assume that apart from Christ, we are helpless to save ourselves.

These truths will not change. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

We assume we are to be flexible in how these truths are applied to the world. Changes in social structure, technology, and media tell us that how we deliver and proclaim God's grace needs to be adaptive. To often our programs and agenda's become our idols. We are called to daily die to our agenda and desires and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Anything less than this James, the brother of Jesus, calls satanic.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. 

Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:13-18

Yesterday God exposed my assumptions, and His. 

I left my house at 7:30am assuming an easy drive to a warehouse in New Jersey to deliver items we had collected and to be home around 2pm in time to go to my daughters Thanksgiving pageant. 

We were sidetracked all day because trucks cannot drive on the parkways
We delivered our items to the basement food pantry in a church
I missed my daughters show 
I pulled in just before 10pm. 

We assumed an agenda. God assumed we would be faithful.

Our little band of alien misfits finally arrived at our destination only to have the chief of police look into your truck and announce they were not taking any of the items we had collected.  We prayed, and our contact made some phone calls and we ended up in at his church. He is a deacon at a Catholic church with 1,200 members and here we were, a little band from a church of 60, part of a denomination that had split many years ago from Rome. 

We stocked their empty pantry shelves with diapers and cleaning supplies that folks who need help cannot buy with food stamps.  John, the Franciscan Friar who runs the pantry could not stop talking about how thrilled the families would be to see all of the diapers and wipes we had brought.  A husband and wife had just "happened" to stop at the pantry to see if they had enough stock to open tomorrow. While we were there a woman who attends the church just "happened" to stop by with a number of bags of food that she could not donate anywhere else because of so many donations coming in from around the tri-state area.

We piled up bag after bag of clothes, mostly new, into another room. Such a spirit of joy came upon us that folks sat on top of them for pictures.What at first looked like a problem in the back of the truck had become a source of comfort.

Before we left the deacon wanted to show us his church. It was immense. I felt dwarfed. I told him of our church, of how we have been meeting in homes, parking lots, schools, senior centers, other churches and schools. I told him we were part of the new Anglican movement, and that his Pope had been blessing us and supporting us. It was a holy moment for me.

As we stood on the sidewalk preparing to leave I asked the deacon to please pray for us for our trip back home. He showered a blessing on us, thanking God for us and our work. Invoking protection and love to cover us and proceed us. It was a unification of a fractured Bride...and the unity came about due to a hurricane named Sandy.

I turned to load up and it finally struck me. We had ended up at a church named "Assumption".
Indeed, this is how God assumed it would be.

brocalli