God's Calling: Across a crowded room

We have come to one of “those moments” in the life of our parish here at All Saints’ Cathedral. The surface issue that has presented itself is a sizable deficit in our budget projection for 2005. We will be tackling this in a variety of ways and monitoring this problem month by month with an eye to what new directions may be needed to address this situation.
Financial issues are, however, only indicators of deeper issues and concerns, which we need to discern and come to grips with as we make decisions for our life together as a community and the future direction of our mission and ministry.
In light of that, we will be meeting in small groups in people’s homes to listen to what our members have to say about where we are as a church and to what we think God is calling us. If we are truly going to be listening for God’s leading however, we need to begin, not with talk, but with prayer and meditation; a necessary thing at any time, but a particularly appropriate thing as we journey through Lent to our celebration of Easter.
An image comes to mind of trying to communicate with someone across a crowded and noisy room. If you’ve ever tried it you know that just getting the other person’s attention is a task in itself as the other person attends to other people or things and sorts through the barrage of voices and visuals in the room.
Even after you have their attention it is difficult to get a message across as the other tries to hear your voice amongst the others, or tries to figure out your gestures or read your lips. The best solution is almost always to remove the distance, put your heads together, and even find a quiet corner apart from the noise.
Life can be a crowded room for many of us. The various demands on our time, our energy and our attention can keep us running, and often distracted from our ability to listen to God; the one who is the source, sustenance, purpose and end of our lives.
God is constantly calling us across that crowded room, trying to get our attention and communicate with us. Time for prayer, meditation and scripture reading are the ways we get our heads together with God so we can hear and attend to what is ultimately the most needful and important, and perhaps the only eternal aspect of our lives.
I encourage you this Lent to rededicate yourself to a daily time of prayer; a time to get your head together with God. Pray and listen to what God is saying to you about your own journey of faith and service; pray and listen to what God is saying about our parish family at All Saints’.
Above all, pray, and listen to God’s constant song of love for you as he seeks to draw you nearer by his Spirit, through our Saviour Jesus Christ.