The Banzai Chronicles

As servants of God, we must learn to make room for Him— to give God "elbow room." We plan and figure and predict that this or that will happen, but we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never expected Him to come? Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but do look for Him. The way to make room for Him is to expect Him to come, but not in a certain way. No matter how well we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that He may break in at any minute. We tend to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. Suddenly— God meets our life "...when it pleased God...." [Galatians 1:15]

—Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (25 January, "Leave Room for God")

Excited to see how God will show up today. In addition to our usual worship services, we have a special evening service to install John as our pastor. It's a big event, not because of John, but because we are looking back and forward, celebrating God's faithfulness and graciousness to us. He has loved us dearly and fought for us mightily. We don't celebrate that enough, I think; we don't raise our ebenezers, as the old hymn says. The ebenezer was the stone of help, a memorial stone set up by Samuel to commemorate their total and totally impossible victory over the Philistines at Aphek. We, too, have seen God overcome the impossible to provide for us.

And we look ahead. He's not done. We'd better make room.

So the fact that it's a long and potentially stressful workday really doesn't have me fazed. I can hardly wait to see how it all turns out, and it's my honor and joy to be part of worshipping Him. Sure, the dishes are stacked high on the countertop and I have no idea when I'll have the time to get to them, but that and other concerns are so very temporal. This, this is eternal, and I don't live in that enough.

Postscript: Reviewing my journal history, I found that I have one other entry entitled "Ebenezer"— that one a prelude to our church's organization service in 2001(with a liturgy almost identical to tonight's). Interesting to note it includes City Church of San Francisco, our sister church from which John came, as well as the tip of the scandalous iceberg which later threatened to sink us. Faithful and true indeed.