We had a dear family member staying with us for the past 4 or 5 days.  She is a saint.  Amazing woman to say the least.  She loves God.  She has incredible insight.  She has a very sharp mind.  She gets ministry.  She is wise.

These are all things that make for fun conversations and especially when she throws out statements like, “You know, I remember when we first got electricity at the house and…”  This is when you know you’re engaged in a fun conversation!  But over the course of the weekend she said 3 things that really stuck with me.  Here they are:

1. We were talking about all the different ways leaders are leading churches.  She understands the approaches and acknowledges the need for different approaches.  But she looked at me and simply said, “Just do what God wants.”  I wasn’t complaining about anything, I wasn’t even explaining things I have been thinking/praying through.  She just gets what it means to be called to something and issued that little nugget for me to chew on.  Just do what God wants.  It really is that simple.

2. She was telling me of how she used to lead choir.  She said she never told anyone they couldn’t sing or that they couldn’t be involved.  She said she viewed it as her responsibility to help people be used and to make sure they were encouraged to continue serving the body of Christ in whatever capacity they could.  She said this is the role of a leader in her mind.  She spoke of leaders that go into churches and inherit a staff.  She understands that sometimes staff’s need to change, but she also had another insight that I thought was profound.  She said a lot of times the new leader says things about their staff like, “They just wouldn’t be my first choice” and therefore make a change.  A leader actually said that to her recently and she responded by saying, “Well, the same could be said about you.  I’m sure you weren’t every persons first choice either, but they are giving you a chance to succeed.”

3. Right before I left her at the airport she looked at me and said, “Chuck, I have a new urgency for prayer.  I will be praying because God answers prayer.  Prayer really works.”  I said thank you, we hugged, and she walked away…probably praying.