Unexpected Blessings

I have just gotten back home from the National Association of Free Will Baptists, which met this year in Tampa Florida.  Joy and I drove down on Sunday afternoon, finishing up the trip on Monday morning.  If I were to characterize the mood of that trip, I would say it was a lot like the weather.  We had storms off and on and even though we hit Atlanta on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was still thick and fast.  Now, lest some misinterpret what I said about the mood of things, the black cloud in the car had nothing to do with the other occupant of the vehicle.  No, I have to say that I was down.  I'm always a bit emotionally spent after Sunday morning, which typically leads to a Sunday afternoon nap, but today I was trading that for the traffic of Atlanta!  This day however seemed to be a peculiar combination of things.  Over the past few months we have lost some families from the church.  On top of that we did not have a good attendance Sunday and then when the service was over a couple wanted to explain to me why they would be leaving.

So with all of that weighing me down I got in the car to drive to the National.  I don't suppose I was very good company.  Thank the Lord that we had some good things to listen to on the trip.  When we finally got to our destination, it seemed like things were looking up.  We had a very nice room which was a short walk to the Convention Center.  There was no controversy to snarl up the business session and I heard some good preaching, especially from a man named Oral Macafee, that I had never even heard of before.

The kicker to all of this was when we got to the business session.  The Commission for Theological Integrity was giving its report.  They got to the election of new members.  It turns out they had one more opening on that commission than they knew they were going to have.  The result was that the nominating committee submitted my name!  I turned to a friend sitting next to me and said, "This has to be a sign of the apocalypse!"  I actually got elected.

Now, that election did not change things back at Bethlehem.  I still have a real uphill battle to make the church that I love everything that God wants it to be.  Still, this was an unexpected blessing, one that the Lord knew I needed.  Thank you, Lord.