Mayhap Monday

Last week was as busy as I thought it would be…almost all of it was really wonderful, though! Looking onward to this week:

Monday – work, spend some time with E, errands, Life Group

Tuesday – work, lunch with ‘da boss’, dinner with M and then we’re off to our first art lesson in a series of 4! I’m very excited!! This week’s topic is “Materials & Techniques”. This is the instructor and my buddy CD is playing along, too!

Wednesday – women’s breakfast, work, driving M to and from Youth Group! She is definitely enjoying being part of this group… I’m still trying to get used to the fact that my baby is now old enough to be in a “youth group!”

Thursday – work and a relatively quiet rest of the day! Hmmmm…. maybe I’ll start painting that chifferobe like I’ve been threatening to do for a couple… er, maybe a few, weeks!?

Friday – work and then book club with a lovely bunch of ladies! We’ll be discussing this book. I’d give it a rating of 4 out of 5. Maybe 3.5. Apparently readers on Amazon liked it a lot more than I did!

Saturday – busy day!! Go with a friend to our church’s “Discovery 101” class, then meet with some writing buddies, then church, then dinner with the “in-laws” (The Boy’s in-laws, that is…. :-> ).

Sunday – church again (long story) then off to catch a plane for Orlando for work!

I thought I’d leave you today with a story our pastor told during his sermon yesterday. (Very much worth listening to, by the way. You can listen or download it here. It’s the Making Room for Jesus sermon.)

In The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority I read about a conversation between the late Adrian Rogers and Josef Tson, the revered Romanian pastor, author, and president of the Romanian Missionary Society who survived years of persecution and exile under cruel Communist rule. Rogers asked Dr. Tson for his perception of American Christianity.

I was surprised by Tson’s answer. After some hesitation, he replied, “Well, Adrian, since you have asked me, I’ll tell you. The key word in American Christianity is commitment.” Rather than being a positive thing, he saw it as an inadequate replacement of an older Christian teaching: surrender.

Tson described the difference, “When you make a commitment, you are still in control, no matter how noble the thing you commit to. One can commit to pray, to study the Bible, to give his money, or to commit to automobile payments, or to lose weight. Whatever he chooses to do, he commits to. But surrender is different. If someone holds a gun and asks you to lift your hands in the air as a token of surrender, you don’t tell that person what you are committed to. You simply surrender and do as you are told. . . . Americans love commitment because they are still in control. But the key word is surrender. We are to be slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Wow. This has really convicted me. Yes, I very much like to be in control. Surrender? That’s tough.

You can read the whole (really great) article that includes the story above at Bob Butler’s article “Why I’m Not a Committed Christian (And Why That’s a Good Thing” in Discipleship Journal’s archives.