PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Feeling Insufficient for the day?”
By: Ron Woodrum
One of my favorite quotes of Abraham Lincoln is when he said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day”. If you try to locate the source for that quote you will be hard pressed to locate the speech in which our President admitted that confession. But in checking deeper I was able to discover that it was something the President had said to close confidinants more that once. Noah Brooks, scribe for the Sacramento Union, writing in Harper’s Weekly for July 1865, three months after his death, said he had heard the President say that, though he did not specify the occasion or the date. Knowing the overwhelming circumstances and decisions that our Commander in Chief faced daily during the trying days that divided our country, We can rest assured that our great leader likely told many that heaven’s guidance was the only thing that gave him direction in our nation’s darkest hour. Our troubled days challenge us with the same insufficient wisdom. How do you and I minister to our culture and community in these turbulent last days. All my years of experience in ministry does not provide me sufficient answers for this challenge. Pastor freinds seem void of such wisdom as well. Denominational leaders all always coming up with programs to try but they too seem to fall exasperatingly short. We need our Lord’s direction and drive and that can only be found one place-on our knees crying out to Him for that very thing that we are void of. That is why I am so encouraged by the current emphasis on prayer that Brother Bill has been pointing us to. At times I feel like John Wesley…on one occasion he said, “When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me!” We could all identify with Wesley’s growth in understanding the evolution of his own wisdom. We too know how age has a way of clearing up any misperceptions about how well pat-answers work on real life issues. We are bankrupt of answers to satisfy and reach our generation. We need a blueprint and a Word from God. All other activity is the equivalent of a gerbil on his treadmill!
The only way we will minister to our generation is to be able to confront the evil that has it in its grip, and demonstrate how God have provided a way to overcome it. E.H. Chapin (1814-1880) said, “A man can no more be a Christian without facing evil and conquering it, than he can be a soldier going into battle, facing the cannon’s mouth, and encountering the enemy in the field.” Pastor Joe Wright, of the Central Christian Church of Wichita, Kansas tried to do just that when invited to give the invocation for the Kansas State Legislature. This is what he prayed, “Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know that your Word says, ‘woe to those who call evil good’, but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that: We have ridiculed the Absolute Truth of your Word, and called it pluralism; worshipped other gods, and called it multi-culturalism; endorsed perversion and called it alternate lifestyle; expoited the poor and called it lottery; rewarded laziness and called it welfare; killed our unborn and called it choice; shot abortionists and called it justified; neglected to discipline our children and called it self-esteem; abused political power and called it savvy…we have ridiculed time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment…Search us, O God and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin; Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas,a nd who have been ordained by you to govern this great state. Grant them wisdom to rule…in the center of your will. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen!” He was never invited back! Door closed! Back to the drawing board. That didn’t work. Back to our knees…bombarding heaven for answers and direction. How do we speak to our generation? How do we reach them? What strategy will work?
Perhaps we could learn a lesson from Elisha. When Elijah was on the verge of being raptured to heaven Elisha prayed for the gift of two things-One Elijah’s mantle for ministry. It was that very mantle, rolled up, and used to strike the waters keeping them from moving forward, and making them to part and clear the way for moving forward. The second thing was to pray for a double-portion of Elijah’s power. God answered that prayer for Elisha and his challenging day. When all was said and done Elisha found himself in possession of both, and we read the narrative of him picking up where Elijah left of-not missing a beat. We need to seek two things too: First the mantle our Jesus left to us after being translated to heaven. We have a staggering commission to carry His good news to a generation “rushing helter-skelton to destruction with its fingers in its ears!” Then we need the double-portion of His Holy Spirit’s Power to impact them for Him. That and that alone is the only “sufficient ministry for our day”. How does it become a reality? It has something to do with “our knees!”. Been driven there lately?