September 28, 2008

I'm sitting outside this evening listening to the crickets. I've done this many nights over the Summer. Deep into the night I've sat out here studying until the wee hours of the morning. It's different tonight. There is a chill in the air. The smell of deep Summer is still in the air but the promise of cold has arrived. I had to put on a jacket to keep warm.

I am feeling quite somber. I've concluded that what I am feeling is gravity. What we've talked about all year is starting to happen. The WindFarm Prayer Initiative came unexpectedly and has struck a chord deep inside this community. I've watched it take shape rapidly and we tested how to do "virtual prayer" this week successfully. Gravity.

With Autumn comes the surety of Winter and the end of the year. 2009 brings with it the launch of the DAB in several different languages and more. Every year has been a transition further and further for me into this ministry and all that God is doing here. I've embraced it but I'm about to step in so far that I can't get back out. Isn't that a funny thought? Here I encourage us every day to swim in the deep or take the leap and TRUST GOD! But then there's the gravity of what that means. It means certain change. It means being released from what once was familiar and comfortable. It means the realization that what you thought you knew was only scratching the surface of what is underneath.

Is this a bad thing? No. It's just a goodbye. Goodbye to who I was forever. I've been doing that for years. You have too. It's right. It's good but trust carries with it reflection and doubt and then the conscious decision to believe and embrace. Imagine what that must have been like for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane one chilly evening with the crickets creaking and the rescue of mankind about to be paid for second by second as His life's blood drained away in suffering. Whew.

I guess Seal was right when he wrote, "We;re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy." And I sense the time has come. I've realized that it's not us waiting for God to show up, it's Him waiting for us to show up. Show up we must or the Kingdom must wait for a future generation to awaken.

I could write all night about valor and righteousness. I don't have time or space. I guess what I have to say is IT'S TIME. 2 3/4 years of constant reading the Bible have brought us to this place. We know enough to know we can't sit still anymore. We have to act. It starts with prayer. Earnest and fervent prayer. Make no mistake though, That's where it starts not where it ends. As much as we've grown over these years we will realize we had only begun to understand what we're about to see in the coming years. Buckle up. It's about to get very interesting.

Onward Comrades,

Brian


Brian Hardin, 9/28/2008