Humans may have good ideas. I may need to speak with someone. I may need even to contradict what they are saying. But if it's God, I'd better be doing more listening than speaking. And as I listen, I must listen with fear and trembling, faith and love, humility and trust. For God may have an assignment for me. In fact he does. His assignment for all of us is to love him first and most, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As his children, we are also sent - not to Egypt, but wherever we go - with the message of his grace and truth in Jesus. Let's listen well, fear, love, and trust him, and obey when he calls.
PS: I'm writing this at Camp Lone Star just outside of LaGrange, Texas. Twenty-two years ago I was here for this same conference when I saw the jets fly into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. It's a solemn memory that is vivid yet today. Lord have mercy and heal our world from this evil.
