I received this email from a member of our church family who had not been in worship the previous Sunday. Amy MacDonald is a school teacher in a local middle school. Reading it blessed me and so I share it now with you:

Dear Pastor Amy:

I want to share this story because it was a blessing to me, and I think you will agree:

I was driving down Bridge Street in Elkton this morning on my way to the Town Point service when I saw a man with a broken foot on crutches making his way down the sidewalk in front of Jake's Burgers.

As I drove past, I felt that gentle nudge that I should go back and offer him a ride. So (for once!) I immediately obeyed and turned around. He said yes, he would like a ride; he was going to crutch out to Route 40 and hitchhike to Rising Sun. I asked him where he wanted to go, and he told me Route 276 across from the Nazarene Church to his mother's house.

As we were driving, he asked me where I had been going. I told him that I was headed to church, but felt that God wanted me to help him instead. He then offered that for the first time in a very long time, he had attended a praise performance nearby in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago. When I asked him how he broke his foot, he said he had fallen off a ladder at work and had no insurance. He said he didn't have a car but he did have a scooter. However, he was riding his scooter without a license and got a ticket. We then talked about our children and realized that his youngest son goes to my school!

We drove in silence for a bit, then he said he had said a prayer that someone would give him a ride but he didn't really think it would happen. I told him that now that it had, I hope it would add to his faith that his prayers will be answered if he really believes that God loves him.
When we got to his mother's house, he thanked me profusely. I felt that gentle nudge again, so I gave him my weekly tithe to help while he is not working.

It is true ... it is SO way cooler (as my students say) to give than to receive :)

The other Amy

Plan B

No matter how much I work on my sermon during the week, I always finish it near the last minute. As I am finishing my sermon on Saturday night, I have come to some conclusions.

1. On Friday, as I was choosing to do other tasks instead of finishing my sermon, I became aware of one of my subconscious thoughts. "I know if I put off my sermon, it will still get done." So I think that my putting off finishing until the last minute is something of a warped attempt to put hours into the week!

2. I have decided to try, try, try to accept the reality that this seems to be part of my creative process. As I let it percolate all week, its brewing. It would seem that I need the time to let it simmer until it is forced out of me by a deadline. I am trying very hard to love this side of my creative process, but truth be told, I loathe it. Why, O why, is this process so impervious to my attempts to finish sooner?

3. I am so grateful to work with folks who are as comfortable as I am with last minute preparations. I am surrounded by such folks. Thanks be to God. As I was going over tech details with the tech lead for Jacob's Well tomorrow (that would be about 13 hours from now) she asked me about plan B if plan A for getting her the file via a two person delivery process doesn't flow. I told her I have a back up file here at the house, and my husband will bring it in the morning. Then she pointed out that plan B is usually me filling in, in some completely unplanned way, and we had a good laugh. I thought about the Sunday several months ago where I arrived to Jacob's Well to find the power in all of the Chesapeake City area was out. God took care of things just fine. I even received a note from someone who said how blessed they had been by that service in the dark with acoustic music and no visuals. God has such a sense of humor.

So here's to plan B. As I preach on Trinity Sunday, I do with the deep suspicion that the Holy Spirit is more about plan B than plan A anyway.