Tonight I called my Daddy. I needed to hear his voice. I miss him so much. We talked for a short while and while we were talking the conversations I had earlier in the day played through my mind and my head and my heart sank. I needed to talk to my earthly father but what about my heavenly father? I hadn't picked up a bible in weeks. God time had been God hitting me over the head with some new important piece of information and then that was it. No conversation, no reading the book he wrote for me. I hung up with my Dad and pulled out a bible. I opened up to 2 Corinthians 6 in the message version. I was surprised at what I saw.
"Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God."
No words. There is was. Right there in black and white. I had been wasting precious time and I hadn't been very diligent in spending time the way I should and it was catching up to me. But thankfully my God is a God of forgiveness and second chances (unlimited second chances). I curled up to pray and all I could say was "Daddy, just want to spend some time with you. I need my Daddy time. It's been so long." Its been too long. I need to be close to my Daddy. Not just the occasional prayer for a friend, worship on Sunday morning or bible verse to hold myself together. No. I needed something so much deeper than that. I need a relationship and that takes time and work which I am more than willing to give.
