Retracing Old Steps

Sunday morning retuning: Do you remember when Jesus rescued you?  As we closed the service Sunday, did you have someone in mind who needs the same rescue you now enjoy?  Jesus invites us to join His rescue team.  Are you willing to stay one step behind Him?

Sometimes there is great value in retracing old steps…

Our choir is repeating a musical that we did a few years ago. My initial thought on this as I listened to the Lord's leading was frustration. I like to do new things. I want to keep the Easter message fresh for me personally and our musicians. But I think God had a different plan.

As I saw the choir respond favorably to repeating an old work, I was encouraged.  When I heard several of them say it would give us an opportunity to do it even better this time than we had in the last, a few new thoughts occurred to me.  I drew some inspiration from their response.

First of all, you can do it better on your second go around.  Hopefully, if you learned from that first experience, you can improve on it. Second, you can discover things you missed before.  Your eyes can be wide-open because not everything is brand-new.  That familiarity can help you see even better.  Finally, you can wade even deeper into the truth you are learning/communicating.  You're knowing can create a safe scenario for you experience more.

In short, retracing old steps can create an environment that makes hearing Jesus a little easier.  Hearing Jesus enables our creativity and profound ways, even in the simple things.  This place of rest in Hm gives you the opportunity and space to think creatively if you're willing.

Here's another way I learned this recently.  I went to an old place with old things which the Lord used to challenge me to think in a new way.  Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to visit the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown with my third-grader.  We saw a variety of different mediums used to communicate some very beautiful scenes.  

There were portraits and landscapes and seascapes, there was technology and sculpture so much more.  I think the most captivating was the image below done in acrylic.  It was stunning!

In Flanders Field-Where Soldiers Sleep and Poppies Grow, 1890

ROBERT VONNOH 1858-1933

I was so inspired by the creativity of the artists that I had to consider my own contribution to the bigger picture, pun unintended.  Even going back and doing something I had done before still provided great opportunities to be creative.  We will use three different soloists, none of which I have worked with in this capacity before.  I can put our LED lights to use to enhance the message of the musical.  Mike Kelly is directing the orchestra, which allows my energies to be focused in other areas.  I'm so excited!

So I want to ask you a question again this week.  Even if you're retracing old steps, doing some of the same things you've done for awhile or at least sometime before, how can you breathe new life into them or it?

Jesus help us to go wherever You want us to go, whether old or new, knowing all the while we never walk alone.  Give us the faith to follow.  We need it!  In Jesus name.  Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy