journey onWord with us

Traveling for me has become a great adventure. There are times when I feel so blessed by God’s grace, and others where frustration over events and my mistakes weigh me down. Gaining clients and encouraging someone on a plane has been fun. Leaving my cell phone in an airport was not. My most current trip has given me some new adventures. The opportunity to help others has once again been fun, but my cell phone dying and my glasses breaking have not. Try being away from home on a Saturday night with no cell phone and your wife can’t reach you (thanks to a Walgreen cell phone, all is well). Can you relate to the daily highs and lows?

Without a firm grasp on our spiritual moorings, the highs and lows will create spiritual scars for Christ followers. Romans 12:11 prompted my thoughts earlier this week.

“Never lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

It’s just my opinion, but I believe that for many sincere believers, spiritual fervor has been beaten down by the journey highs and lows. You may even know someone who feels like a “spiritual has-been”(still loves God, but the zeal is gone). It doesn’t have to be that way. If God says, “have spiritual fervor,” He will provide the way. Let me illustrate from my own life.

It was well over 20 years ago when I met a sweet elderly woman on a plane. Over the course of my life, I have been taught to share my faith. I didn’t share with her on our first flight, but as I was preparing to board another flight (I can’t remember if it was a month or a year later), that same woman shows up again. There was no question in my mind during that second encounter, what I must do. And can you believe she was seated in the row right behind my wife and I … with an empty seat beside her?!  Of course you can, this is God we’re talking about. I struggled with courage, but moved back and took the empty seat. After sharing Christ, I asked her if she wanted to accept Him. She said yes. It was just that easy. We have never crossed paths again, but Heaven awaits.

Along my adventuresome journey, on planes and otherwise, it has become easy to settle in and not show so much zeal. I still talk about business and try to be an encourager, but maybe it has become too easy to not offend. When I was young, I didn’t know any better. Have I really grown up?  Maybe God will put some “sweet elderly woman” in my path again. Maybe he already has.

Your journey is different, and you may not talk much on planes, but your opportunities will come. If you have lost some of the zeal, even some of your spiritual fervor, you can get it back.

Back in childhood I learned, “What we give God, God takes. What God takes, God cleanses. What God cleanses, God uses.” Renew your spiritual fervor, not tomorrow, but today. I will let you know what happens on the plane.