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
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 