The Sound of the Love of God

Isn't it weird how different things excite different people? Tonight at our church we had our annual meeting of the committees. All the committees that were recently elected met together for "dinner & a meeting." After the meal, the crowd regrouped from its social configuration (spouses and friends together) to its functional arrangement: each committee or ministry gathered around its own table.

At this point, you're thinking: How incredibly, mind-numbingly, unspeakably boring.

But you're wrong!

I'm on the finance committee (now you're thinking: She's really lost her mind!) but hear me out. What I could hear going on around me was the sound of ministry. Okay, that's a church word. Let me translate. It was the sound of people who want to show the love of God to the world, planning how to do just that.

Here are some examples: We have a Mom's Day Out at our church. On Tuesdays and Thurdsays there are lots of little ones there: playing, learning, eating, napping. Most of the families represented by those little children are not members of our church. For quite a number of them, this is the only contact they have with any church. There is a group of people who gathered around one of those tables tonight whose main desire is to use this contact to put a face on the Love of God.

At another table was what we call the Staff & Personnel committee. Their goal is to enable our pastors to devote all their energy to the responsibility God has given them: to reach, to teach, to lead, to equip, to encourage, to counsel. This group understands how important these men and their families are to the goal of showing God's love to the world around us.

All around me I could hear the sound of the love of God at work. None of these people get paid for this, but they are storing up treasure in Heaven. (There's another of those church phrases.) All those present tonight were there because they know some things are important . . . eternally important.

I'm so glad I was there tonight. I've been to this event in years past, but tonight was the first time that I understood what God could do with it.