Phew, nearly tripped up right at the end of the project! Remembered to do this study right before bed. Sorry about that.
G – Gospel: Mark 2:23-28
This passage brings to mind a story from when I was still in college. I had already finished a 4-year degree in Biology at Pensacola Christian College and was finishing up a 2-year degree in Zoo Animal Technology. My heart was so fully set on becoming a zookeeper, but the task of applying for jobs in the field was becoming a job in itself. I ended up working at it for months, both before and after graduation. Finally, I was offered a job in Memphis, TN, and the way it came about made it obvious that this was where God was leading me.
I was telling a friend about my exciting news and she asked if I was going to be able to have Sundays off for church. I said that I had asked, but the choice of weekend days was given to employees with the most seniority, so the new hires usually ended up having their “weekend” in the middle of the week. This friend, a dear fellow Christian, felt uneasy about that and warned me that I might want to ask again and consider if this was the job for me if the answer was still no. I told her that it was so obvious that God was giving me this job that I knew He would figure out my church attendance.
The Bible makes it clear that gathering with fellow believers is necessary for a healthy Christian life, but I don’t remember any passage that says that we can only be nurtured and have meaningful fellowship on Sundays. I know my friend was just concerned for my spiritual wellbeing, but I knew I could trust God to take care of that. And He definitely did. Fairly close to the apartment I moved into in Memphis was a very large church that happened to have a young adult group that met on Thursday nights. The church was so large that the “young adult group” would have made up a full congregation at a medium sized church in most places. The meeting was run like a normal church service and Thursday happened to be one of my days off. Later, I found out that two girls I had been acquainted with at the Christian college moved into my apartment building, just one floor down and across the hall! I went to a few Bible studies with them. Then, when I moved out of my apartment and into a house, I found a church very near my house that held a full church service on Wednesday nights instead of just having a small prayer meeting. Wednesday was my day off, so it was easy to attend and even when my schedule changed, I could usually make it home after work just in time to change quickly and head to church. God provided. Certainly there is value in meeting on Sundays – that’s when the most people are at church for fellowship and the most programs are held. It is also the day used for Christian church worship because it was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. But it is not the only day that God can use to work in your life.
E – Encourage: I Corinthians 1:18-25
This is another passage that brings up a story. I used to be a member of an email list for zookeepers to be able to ask each other questions and share new ideas. One day, a bit of a debate started up regarding the origins of the earth. A zoo had gotten a lot of criticism because they started offering one of those tourist deals where you can get discounted admissions to local attractions if you bought them together. A lot of zoos do that, but this occasion saw the zoo offering savings on a package deal with the Creation Museum run by the organization Answers in Genesis. There were so many complaints from people who thought a “scientific organization” shouldn’t have anything to do with a religious one. Even though the zoo hadn’t meant anything by it (they simply thought it was a good deal for people who were going to buy tickets to both places anyway) and continued to offer other ticket deals to local attractions, they removed the deal with the museum.
You can probably imagine the conversation that went on among the zoo professionals on the email list. There was some genuine talk about considering the image of a zoo and making sure we don’t offend one party or another, but many of the messages scoffed at the idea that a place of scientific learning should be associated in any way with such fairytales as creationism. Being a firm creationist with a scientific background, I really wanted to say something but I knew it would probably be best to let things go. Then it got worse.
One day, I saw a message pop up on the list from a keeper I actually knew personally. When I read his email, I was saddened by how scathing he was in his criticism of creationists. I can still remember reading the words saying that anyone who believed in such garbage was “intellectually lazy.” He saw “God created everything” as the easy way out of trying to explain where the world came from. Knowing that this dear man was unlikely to have said those kinds of things in that way to my face, I felt I finally had to say something.
Without mentioning that I knew this man, I sat down and started to type. It took a long time to write the email with lots of revisions, adjustments, and deletions. The gist of what I ended up saying was that, as a Christian working in a largely secular field, I dealt with having the theory of evolution spread as fact all the time. I studied it in school right along side creation, since I had gone to Christian schools, and both held essentially the same standing when compared to the method for proving a theory as fact. Neither one is observable, repeatable, and measurable, so according to the scientific method, both are theories. As such, I was more than willing to have a knowledgeable discussion or debate on the subject, but would appreciate it if people didn’t bash me and my chosen theory since I don’t bash them and their chosen theory.
After that was posted, one of the moderators of the email list suggested we just cut the conversation off there on the list and take it to private emails if we wanted to continue so other emails didn’t get buried. I was totally fine with that. Everyone else seemed to be as well. In the next few days, I did get some private emails from other zoo professionals but none were scary as I had feared. In fact, most were from fellow Christians in the zoo world thanking me for saying what they did’t feel they could say without being upset. I have to say that it all came from God. And I’m not just saying that. It really did.
R – Reflect: What does this mean for me?
Looking back on those two incidents, it is so obvious how God has used circumstances in my life to teach me so much. I’m so thankful that He is a merciful God and would even think of using someone like me for anything. This morning in church, my pastor asked us if we would chose to be ready to act on opportunities that God gives us to be a blessing to someone else this week. I want to be, so I have to ask God to give me both the opportunity and the ability to take it.
M – Meet
This evening in the car, I heard a story on the radio about a charity that helps refugee teenagers who come to Canada without their families get a safe start here. It makes me want to pray for those who are giving their time as volunteers and their lives as staff for charities like that, making a difference for those who otherwise would have very few options and opportunities.
Passages for tomorrow: John 14:1-6 and Revelation 22:6-21