Church Buddy Call :: Being Available

                                                      Church Buddy Call                     2024 March 25

     A good church buddy called at 6 or 7 this morning and we had a wonderful chat, or, as best as you can expect over the phone.

     In parting, he asked me how he could be praying for me.  I asked for prayers that I could rest transparently in Christ with fuller satisfaction so that I would not feel the urge to self-medicate with more food (typically corn chips).

But, I should have asked for something more dear to my heart. Hindsight is 20/20. 

Availability:
    Please pray that our church members make themselves more available for each other, that we can knock on doors and visit freely, hanging out indefinitely, face-to-face. In other words, may we pray that the Spirit of God would strengthen us to go against the grain of the world.
     Pray that we should move to smaller houses, live with fewer cars, boats, airplane trips, eating out, less investment in jewelry and other stuff you cannot take with you to the LORD.
    But enable us to have sufficient humility to use clothing until it is all worn out.  And become pleased to wear hand-me-downs, by the grace of our LORD. 

     Pare down possessions; get out of debt, to lower your monthly budget outlays in order that we may devote less time to work and have more time for each other.

     In sum, as believers in Christ, we need to live with a light footprint in this world, knowing that our true home is in Heaven, that we are but temporary sojourners here on this Earth.  Materialism runs through the warp and woof of American culture, and we need to be extra vigilant about the effects of that and astutely avoid over-indulgence in Stuff, not losing sense of, but rather preserving, our identities and our self-awareness as living members of the body of Christ.