By David Lee, BCM/D Executive Director
David Lee, BCM/D Executive Director
I have been privy to a lot of conversations lately. I am a professional talker. I like to think I am also a pretty good listener. I listen because I care. I listen because I want to learn.
The reality is that most of the conversations I have encountered recently contain a more than ample supply of the negative. Times are tough. Money is tight. People are troubled. Doing family is stressful. Satan is active. Life is hard.
I have come to the conclusion that it is time to change the conversation. And it is up to you and me to do it.
It is time for us to start looking more intently for the hand of God at work among us. He is at work. If we stop for a moment and really observe what is happening around us, we must conclude that God is all around us, and He is active. Even in the midst of the rubble of an earthquake or a tsunami, God is there.
In the pain of a difficult church transition, members can still see God. In the confusion of a financial downturn, believers can still see God’s hand at work.
Those of us who can see it need to tell those who are having trouble seeing it because they are so focused on the other stuff. So often the conversation changes when you and I point to the hand of God at work.
I heard once that it takes seven positive statements to undo the impact of one negative statement. So here we go. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. I see God at work among us. Was that seven? Let me throw in one more for good measure. I see God at work among us.
I see God answering prayer. I see Him changing lives. I see Him rescuing the perishing. I see Him at work among us.
Let’s change the conversation. Instead of talking about plateau and decline, let’s talk about hope and transformation. Instead of continuing to talk about how we can’t, let’s start talking about how God can. Instead of being so frustrated as we focus on all the things that are changing, let’s talk about the one who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Uh . . . oh . . . I just started preaching! But you get the point.
Now is the time for those who are serious about following Jesus to join hands and hearts and change the conversation. Paul under the leadership of the Holy Spirit had similar counsel for us. “Whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
But there I go preaching again! Paul’s sermon was a good one. Maryland/Delaware Baptists, let’s change the conversation.