Merging Into Traffic.....

Well we have entered an interesting time in our journey.  At our last meeting I left you on the “On Ramp”, your approach to the interstate of this incredible Journey.  Today we look at “Merging Into Traffic”.

When I was in Drivers Education in High School several years ago, the instructor, Coach Frye, was good at telling us what to do and how to be safe in the process.  I really enjoyed learning under him.  He was an excellent instructor.  But one thing I remember him reminding us how to do is to plan our “Entrance” when driving onto the interstate.  Look early and pick your spot to merge and accelerate to match the speed of the oncoming traffic.

In this particular situation I remember the Men around me at my home church and especially their “lack of interest” in Men’s Ministry.  I remember starting a Men’s small group knowing I would be inundated with guys interested in becoming “Men of God”.  So I set up our meeting room in one of our Sunday School Classrooms that most church members would pass on the way to the Sanctuary.  I then began to notice, no men, only wives and children.  I was trying to be modest and had about 6-7 chairs sitting in a circle.  Wow, nothing happened.  No one even asked why I was there.  So I closed the door to the class room leaving it cracked open about a foot.  I just knew my church would be ready for a Men’s Ministry but no one came that first night.  I had been attending a Men’s small group at a different church just to get acquainted with other men and how they did their small group.  I attended about 6 weeks and really felt encouraged and set out to start that same kind of group at my home church.  Well now at my home church, no one had any interest in this but me.  Over the next week I called a few guys and told them about what we were doing and they all expressed interest and said they’d give it a try if they could make time on meeting nights.  So the next week, I set up the same class and put a sign on the door and even had a small stereo playing some praise songs in the background.  I still had the notice in the Church bulletin reminding guys to come.  After six weeks and no one ever came, I stopped trying and went back to the other church.  They welcomed me with open arms and told me I could call this my Men’s Ministry Home, and I did.  Six more weeks went by and I sensed it was time to try again.  So I sent out notices and made phone calls and on Wednesday night I set up the room yet again.  About 10 minutes after we were supposed to start no one had come.  So I sat down and prayed and sought God and His direction for me in this calling.  Suddenly the door opened and in came one man, then about five minutes another , and then another.  We had about 4-5 guys there for that first meeting.  I was greatly encouraged.

What had happened was that I was so anxious to enter the interstate and match the speed of oncoming traffic that I overshot the traffic.  When I slowed down in my approach the traffic (our men) were able to catch up with me.  This Men’s small group met for several years and went from 4-7 men consistently.  The spiritual growth was unbelievable. We even branched out to other Men’s small groups within our church.

The key here is to not be so anxious in what God has called you to do that you over shoot you target running way ahead of everyone else.

So, I kept reading my devotionals and God kept building Himself into my life more and more each and every day.

Various Off-Ramps and Rest Areas can pose a problem in the form of ….  DISTRACTIONS!!!!  What has distracted you in your search for significance in Christ on you own personal journey?  Tomorrow we begin to build our list of DISTRACTIONS!  (This is a real list!)

Tomorrow: Highway Signs and “BILLBOARDS”!  See you tomorrow!