Breaking The Law in More Ways Than One

So, I made it over to our new church building last Monday evening and swept up a bunch of drywall dust...Not sure I helped out much, but it was exciting to see the new building really coming together. We have our first service over there on October 4th, which is quickly approaching....I spent my time sweeping and it gave me some time to think about the previous days' sermon; about how we, as church members, believers, and Christians, have a responsibility to disciple to others...So, it's Monday night and I'm sweeping, no one's around, and I'm thinking about this message from the previous day, and I have to say that I am kind of freaked out by this one!!! I mean, seriously? I was just starting to feel good about this church...I like the people, my kids had FINALLY stopped screaming when we dropped them off @ children's church, I got Baptized for ummm...goodness sake!!! I thought life was goood!!!!



I'm over at my new church building sweeping up dust, doing God's WORK people!!! Sweating, getting dirty and guess what???? It AIN'T ENOUGH!!!! NOPE...it's only HALF of what I'm supposed to be doing!!!!!!! What in the world????? Are you KIDDING me? And GET THIS......My pastor wasn't kidding and it's not some rule that my church made up (I checked to make sure)...It's God's rule!!!!!!! AND I am IGNORING it. I am walking through life thinking the golden rule is going to serve me well. I'm going to church umm religiously...., teaching my kids about Jesus, taking notes during the sermons and IT'S NOT ENOUGH...You know why? Because I am not out there telling enough (ok, ok any) people about God! I am a Christian failure. And I don't think Doug, our pastor, was telling us that to hurt our feelings, or to come off sounding like some evangelical lunatic. He was only telling us because he's a pastor and that's his job and I just happened to pick the church where the pastor actually does his job! Lucky me, right? Right, but NOW I have a responsibility that I didn't even know I had. I was going through life thinking I was doing enough and truly believing that being a good person would serve me well. And now??? Well now, I have a lot to think about....So I've been praying hard about this one and I'm asking God to help me find a way to do this: disciple. Disciple without sounding like a lunatic, without pushing people away, without people thinking I have lost my mind, and the truth is: it's hard. It's a lot for my feeble brain to handle....



And that was just the start of last week.

Wednesday turned out to be quite the crazy day. We sold our camper on Tuesday night and I promised Stella if we sold the camper we could still go camping so, I took her to Wal-Mart Wednesday afternoon to buy a tent that the ENTIRE Doak Family 5 could fit in (no easy task, for sure)....Anyway, on the way to the store I got pulled over for running a red light on Battefield Blvd. I'm not going to go into details about whether or not I was guilty, but I will say this: I was scared because I knew my license had expired back in May. The officer asked for my license and registration and I handed them over. He went back to his car and Stella says to me, "Mommy, I have a feeling you are going to get a ticket." Gee, Stella, you think? Anyway, I am sweatin' it for sure...Then the cop comes back and says, "I'm sorry mam, but you do not have a licence in the State of Virginia" So I say, "Yes, I do--I just handed it to you." (It might have been expired, but TECHNICALLY I did HAVE a Virginia state license. I sat there looking at him. I really didn't have anything further to discuss with this guy. Just give me my (two?) tickets and let me be on my merry way. Well, he explained to me very kindly-yet firmly-that driving with an expired license could technically result in MY ARREST!!!! Seriously this guy was telling me I could be ARRESTED??????? For WHAT???? Being an OVERWORKED, UNDERPAID Mom who can barely find time in her day to take a shower, much less head to the DMV and renew her license(not even mentioning that I will never take such a cute license photo...ever)?????? Again, I stared blankly at this guy. It didn't seem like I had much say in this matter. He looked into the van and saw Stella buckled in the back seat and said, "Mam, I can see you have a little girl with you so I won't take you in." REALLY? I didn't realize cops really said things like "take you in," but I'm here to tell you folks, that Chespeake's finest really do say such phrases. I glanced down @ my cup holder not sure how to respond to the officer's kindness (?) at not hauling me off in front of my seven year old daughter, and I notice the stack of Real Life Church business cards advertising my churchs' grand opening..."No way, God!" I mutter to myself. "I'm not giving this cop an invite to my church...He's going to think I'm crazy and arrest me for sure." A divine intervention? A moment to disciple? Certainly NOT!!! And so, the moment passes and he let me go (with a ticket for running the red light, but not one for driving with an expired license). And so too did my opportunity to disciple, but I thought about it which counts for something, right? I know, probably not, but I'm going to think it's a step in the right direction.



But, I did learn something this week:



I learned that the Good News isn't getting a "get out of jail free" card...it's what you do with it.