...You're Up to Something Bigger Than Me...

So, what do you get when you sit two friends down at a table over lunch who start talking about their day...week...etc...and just keep talking? You get new ideas being birthed that wouldn't happen otherwise. You get dreams coming out, ideas being realized, coincidences that don't seem like coincidences anymore, and an understanding that some of what seemed like random or insignificant thoughts really had a purpose far greater than what you might have originally imagined.

Purpose. Purpose is what makes us act, makes us do things that might seem a bit out of our reach. Not so much purpose for ourselves either, but a greater purpose, something that goes beyond who we are and what we have set out to do. It is listening to the voice of others reiterate what we have been thinking and haven't realized, noticing themes that seemed like nothing more than scattered ideas up until that moment.

I and a couple friends have been talking off and on over the course of the last couple months about how badly we want to get back into regular Bible study again, in conversation with other folks, keeping us accountable. We've been talking about it...but it hasn't happened. We were considering doing a specific series with specific topics...but...we haven't gotten around to it. So...we waited. And then, we got tired of waiting...and thought, well, what if we just started 'studying the Bible?' A crazy concept, I know. We got farther with this idea, and even got so far as to possibly have picked a book to start in together. But we haven't started yet.

Last night I was talking to a friend of mine who was asking what offerings there were in my church as far as adult Bible study or classes. I had to answer the cold hard truth...not much. We have our between services gathering, but honestly...most of that group is over sixty. So, swing and a miss. Then I was thinking about how she should just join our little group once we get off the ground. It's something, after all.

Then, I was talking to another friend today who brought up near the end of lunch about how she wants to get back into a Bible study, and I about started laughing. It's not a coincidence...it's a repeating theme. So, I told her that we had been talking about the same thing...and that's where the madness began. She told me about wanting to do something a bit bigger than that, wanting to be open to a larger group. She talked about a gathering she used to be a part of during college, with music, someone to speak...discussion time, etc. So...my mind wanders to our band...to Nexus, an older gathering of young adults that used to exist, to a discussion I had with my new pastor about wanting to be intentional about getting young adult males into the church... do you see the theme here?

Things have been tried. They worked, in different ways. They attracted different groups of people at different times...but, what if all of those things took notes from each other...combined strengths, helped with weaknesses...what could happen?

Then, as we were walking out the door, we were talking about how other folks had brought up the same sort of idea, and I expressed one of my frustrations with meetings here with the ministry folk - we spend so much time focusing on what we're there for that we stifle ourselves from what could be happening! I've never been a fan of needlessly long meetings, but it seems like the ones that are long aren't long for that reason.

I think this happens more often that I'd even like to consider...how often people in the same area, the same place, even, have ideas they want to get off the ground, but don't think they have the means or the support to do so. And there they stay, grounded, because no one else ever got to hear the idea, the same idea that they've been wanting get going... sigh.

On the way home, the song "Something Heavenly" by Sanctus Real came on the air...and I got chills...it's quite a convicting thing to hear something that sounds like it came out of your own head on the radio...calling you to get up and move...

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)
Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...
To...

(Chorus)

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly
Something Heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out...

So...now what...what's next?