So, I'm sitting here, working on an assignment for one of my seminary classes - my last seminary class that I have to take before graduating. It's a preaching class in which I have to use all that I've learned to prepare 7 expository messages - messages which examine a passage of Scripture and explain what God is revealing by way of the author. I had worked on this particular message for almost two weeks; examining the original languages, studying the context of the passage which I had chosen, studied the history surrounding some of the statements which are made, people described and places visited. I spent a great deal of time working toward the point where I could state the synthesis of the passage and provide an exegetical proposition - a statement which explains to the one hearing the message the overall summary of the text under review. I went to the gym one evening to clear my mind and get some exercise (all that sitting around can really get a person out of shape, ya know). As I went in, just in case the Spirit of God revealed something during my workout, I took a small envelope and a red pen that I keep in the car into the gym with me. While on the treadmill I came up with the proposition: When God is the Lord of your house you will 1) Enjoy His Promises 2) Elminate All Idols 3) Embrace Your Identity and 4) Establish a Legacy; This proposition was based upon a study of Genesis chapter 35, verses 1-15. Without going into a lengthy explanation of the text (I may post it on my exegetical-blog - exegeticalblog.blogspot.com), the points seemed to flow in line with the narrative provided.
I placed the notes aside and continued my workout, still thinking upon the ways that the propositional statement explained what was revealed in the text. When I got home, I took the envelope, set it down, but forgot to record the comments into the Word document that I was working on. A few days went by and it was time for me to travel home to visit family for Christmas. I thought to myself, "Well, I'll just work on this and other messages while on the plane and as I have free time in Atlanta." I put the notes together in a folder, packed my laptop away, grabbed my winter jacket, stuffed a few extra notes in the pockets, and took off to catch my flight. The trip was fun. In my free time I actually had the opportunity to begin working on the next sermon; not spending much time on the first message since I felt it was mostly done - and hey, I had the proposition nicely written out in red pen on that envelope, right?
A week went by, my vacation ended, and I had to return to Tulsa - enter the altercation with Delta employee Russell B. (read the previous post for more info on that one). I returned to Tulsa, and after a few days sat down to finish working on the message from Genesis 35. Ha, all I need is that envelope to finish the message. I searched around, in my suitcase (the one that wasn't still in some airport or Delta terminal somewhere), in pockets, everywhere. The notes were nowhere to be found. Frustration began to set in. I remembered, "Dadblastit, I put the notes in my jacket pocket so that I would remember to finalize the sermon!" "Where's that jacket?", I thought to myself. Of course, it was in my golf bag - the golf bag that Russell had taken and did who knows what with. Now, not only am I missing my digital camera, my board games, my RC truck, and my jacket, but I'm missing those notes that I know, beyond doubt, God had given me in that gym while I was on that treadmill.
Now there was even more reason to be upset about my luggage gone missing. I sat down and prayed that God would give the notes back to me like He did for Moses when he, in anger, destroyed the tablets, or like He did for Jeremiah after some of the words of the prophecy were destroyed by king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36:28). I was shaking; "I need those notes!" I ran to the chair beside my bed where my cell phone was charging (it's a sort of nightstand for me), searched through my call list, and located the number for the Delta lost baggage department that I had called the night before. It was time to rip into 'em - tell them how important my stuff is and that they need to find the bag now! I waited on the line only to find that they were closed for the evening. "I need those notes". I sat there, put the phone down, took a deep breath and said to myself, "I'll just go to sleep and maybe as I sleep God will remind me of what I had written. Even if not, maybe I'll wake up and not be so upset about it." So I prepared for bed.
As I got up from the bed to turn off the light, I looked on the floor near my closet and there was this odd shaped piece of paper; it seemed to be something folded. I immediately thought to myself, "hmm, I wonder. could it be?" I reached over to grab the paper, the envelope, the folded envelope, the folded envelope with red handwriting, the folded envelope with red handwriting describing just how the person lives who desires the Lord to be the Lord of their house.
I was elated and reminded, yet once again, that God does care about us. (squid).
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