Close calls

I know I am old-fashioned with some things in my life. Although I use my laptop and mobile phone so much, I still keep a paper diary for my day-to-day commitments, including speaking engagements. With the latter, I always record them on my laptop as well where I include the time, date, place, topic, length of input and the name and phone number of my contact person. Yet recently, I discovered even this system is not foolproof!

I have often joked how I fear that, one day, I will turn up to speak somewhere on the wrong day or at the wrong time – although hopefully earlier rather than later! I am thankful that the speaker convenor from most of the community groups where I go usually checks with me at least a week beforehand to see if I am still available to come. So far, I have not missed any speaking engagements – and I have had many over the years. But recently, I experienced two close calls that have certainly alerted me to be more on my guard.

The first involved an event at our own church.

‘You don’t need one of these invitations, but take it anyway,’ the lady who runs our seniors’ ministry said one recent Sunday as she handed me a piece of paper, ‘You’d better turn up because you’re the speaker!’

I laughed – but I did not laugh when I read the invitation at home later and saw the date on it. I had thought this meeting was on a Thursday, not Wednesday, as the invitation said! Oops – and in our own church too!

Then one recent evening as I began getting things together to speak at a community group the next day, I felt I should check the address again – and I am sure this was the result of a gentle prompt from God. In my mind, I had an image of another larger club owned by the same people – yes, surely that was where I needed to be? To my horror, however, I discovered I was wrong. Instead, I actually needed to head to a different, smaller venue a little further away. I breathed a sigh of relief that I had discovered this the previous night and not when I arrived the next morning. Phew!

Yes, these experiences caused me to stop, take stock and vow to be more careful in the future. I had been a little too overwhelmed with everything else happening around me and had lost my usual alertness to such things. But … had I become less alert in other aspects of my life as well? Had I become far too preoccupied all round? Was I as open to those prompts from God as I needed to be? And was I still alert to and ready for that day when I will meet Jesus, whenever that may be and however it might happen?

It is so important to be wide awake and alert to Jesus’ voice each day. Yet, beyond that even, how vital it is for us all to be watchful and prepared for the day of his return! May there be no ‘close calls’ then but, instead, great rejoicing for us all.

So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Matthew 24:42 NLT

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What’s your message?

I had driven some distance across Sydney to speak to a community group and wondered what this particular experience would turn out to be like. As I chatted with the person who had invited me to speak, he posed what I later realised was a very good question.

‘So … what’s the main message you want to get across to us today?’

Initially, I was taken aback. I am used to answering this question when speaking in a church context but had never really thought about my input at community groups in that way. I was aware my main reason for speaking at such groups is to mention something at least about faith in God in a non-threatening way, whatever my general topic may be, and without overstepping the mark concerning what is acceptable to such groups. I want to mirror God’s amazing love and grace through my general input and any individual conversations I may have. In fact, I have a wonderful team of ten women who pray I will be able to do exactly that. However, I knew it would be unwise to share all this with the lovely gentleman waiting for my response

Then it dawned on me that I have two other key aims when addressing such groups, depending on my topic. First, I want to encourage those present in a similar general age bracket to me to think about what they still want to do and perhaps even always longed to do in life and also what truly represents who they are at the core of their being. I suggest they go home and resurrect any projects or activities they have found truly fulfilling in the past but may have put aside, for some reason. I tell them my own story of how my first novel was published when I was fifty-nine and that, during my sixties and seventies, I have had the most wonderful writing and speaking journey, with ten books published so far. In short, I want to inspire them to use their remaining years well and be all they were created to be.

Second, I want to encourage them to think about the words they say or write to others as the ‘word legacy’ they will leave behind when they are no longer here. I talk about how important it is in our everyday lives to share words that build up rather than tear down, but I also encourage them to consider leaving some sort of record of their own lives and thoughts for their families and future generations – because, one day, it will be too late and the opportunity will be gone.

I briefly explained these two general reasons to this gentleman then and he nodded, seemingly happy with my responses. But as the meeting began, I quietly prayed, ‘Lord, please don’t let me forget the main reason I’m here today. May my words touch someone’s heart with your amazing love and grace and cause them to draw closer to you!’

Whatever other important messages we may share with others, may we not forget the greatest message of all and lovingly deliver it however we can.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

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