We all have our normal weekend routines...yard work Saturday, dinner out on Saturday night, Church, etc. This past weekend was a little out of the norm due to 14 inches of rain falling between Saturday and Sunday.
The rain was so bad that as we were getting ready to go to church, we received an email noting that our church services were cancelled due to flooding and loss of power. Although we weren't able to go to our church, we thought surely that we'd visit a church we had previously attended...well, guess what???? It seems that this flooding and loss of power thing was contagious.
OK, now we're still wanting to go to church and we see where a friend of ours has posted that his church was DEFINITELY meeting, so we decide to try. Now, as with most rapidly growing areas, church construction does not keep pace with population growth, meaning that new churches have to be creative about meeting space. The church we visited this weekend just happened to be attached to our youngest son's preschool (one that he enjoys attending, by the way) and rents it's space for Sunday School on the weekend. Needless to say, we were able to go into worship with clear minds knowing that we wouldn't be paged due to an unhappy toddler.
So now, we're settled in a nice new building with our youngest happily playing in familiar surroundings ready to worship...and then the rains came and then came some more...to the point that the service stopped momentarily for an announcement to reassure everyone that the weather was being monitored and that services would be stopped in the event of an emergency. Let's just say that it was a gully-washer of Biblical portions, but the music portion of worship continued uninterrupted.
Then came the flood....Only this wasn't a flood produced by any atmospheric conditions, but one of emotions that overwhelmed my soul as I heard the sermon. One of the things that I have been struggling with is being able to move on from an event in my past, specifically being able to fully forgive and move on. It was almost as if the speaker knew I was coming and directed his sermon at me as he explained the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. As I sat there and listed anew to his teaching, I realized that I was no better than this servant and that I deserved the same fate...who am I to think that I am better than God by not offering full forgiveness?
In the forty minutes or so that we were there, it was explained that we should go back to the point in our lives where we were hurt and no longer bear the pain, but turn it over to the Lord and let him take on that pain for us...it's what He wants us to do...it's what we NEED to do. I can't explain it but in the minutes of silence as I prayed at the end of the service, a flood of emotion came over me that literally washed away months of pain that I had been dealing with and opened the door to a better relationship with someone in my life.
I have never been a person who believes in things happening for a reason, but I cannot dismiss the events that led to a life change for me last Sunday. Thousands of years ago, God used a flood to make his point with Noah...Sunday morning he did the same with me.
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