THIS BLOG SURPRISED ME
January 1, 2024
I didn’t know what to write for this blog. No inspiration, none. I thought of the usual topics to write for the first of the year, but nothing felt right. “Maybe I won’t have anything to share,” I mused. “I have had a good year, more ideas than I could even write about, but what’s up? I feel nothing.”
Little did I know that it was on a trip to Kansas City in traffic—the weekend of New Year’s--that I would get my inspiration. Writer’s block was reversed!
I made the trip to attend the funeral of Sarah Hays Morrow who was our pastor’s wife when I was a teenager in North Kansas City. She and her husband made an impact on my family’s life. Other family members were unable to come. I needed to go and express our gratitude for her remarkable life.
I had an uneventful trip to North Kansas City with one exception. I mistakenly got in the left turn lane and had to turn left. My GPS couldn’t keep up with me. I was going through residential areas, uphill and downhill. Ten minutes before the start of the service, I found the funeral home.
The minister shared Sarah’s life in a beautiful way with scriptures that were of comfort. On my way out of the chapel, I spoke to the family and had a wonderful exchange with the daughter. It was amazing to see someone from my teenage years--and we both recognized each other! We briefly spoke of our families’ love for each other. She was so appreciative of my being there.
I chose to head home rather than go to the cemetery so I could get ahead of the late afternoon traffic. As I made my last turn onto I-70, my inspiration came, but I didn’t realize it at the time.
My GPS announced the exit was coming up, but would it be in the left lane or right lane? I stayed in the middle lane, cars whizzing by. Immediately ahead appeared the turn to I-70 to the right, a very short exit. A large truck was making the exit beside me. With calm unlike me, I checked my rearview mirror and saw that no vehicles were behind the truck. I put on my signal, braked a little, and made the turn with only seconds to spare. I was safe and on the right road. I-70 was familiar territory and my next exit, 60 miles down the road, was to my home in Topeka.
Sometime that afternoon, after I returned home, the familiar words that Jesus spoke to His disciples—”watch and pray”—came to me. It seemed to me that as I watched, paid attention, and prayed—as I do when I drive, God made a way for me to turn safely and reach my destination. They were words I had read in the morning as I completed my daily reading goal to read through the New Testament. Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and asked His disciples to pray, then He went further on to agonize in prayer about what was coming. When He returned, they were asleep.
He asked His disciples: “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” He told Peter: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Watch means to be vigilant, to be alert.
Paul used this word at the end of his letters and when he said his tearful last goodbye to the elders of the church at Ephesus. He told them to look out for teachers that would come in and teach things not in the Scriptures and try to lead them astray. “Therefore watch and remember . . .”
Paul also used the term when he was teaching about the second coming of Christ:
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day [the day of the Lord] should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”
Paul concludes another letter with this thought— “Devote ourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
I am struck by Jesus’ promises for those who pray. He seems to be saying, there’s so much more. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the elder brother complained when the father welcomed the wayward son home. He told the father: “You never gave me a party!” The father said, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
In the evening, I began to sing a song I love from the 60’s, “Oh Happy Day.” It became a hit in 1969. I had forgotten these words were part of the song-- “You taught me how to watch . . . to watch and pray.”
This blog surprised me . . . with my words for the New Year.
Here is “Oh Happy Day” for you to enjoy.