An Early Morning Lesson

I got up at 2:30 early this morning and started the 200 mile journey from Marion where my family is to Nashville for work. I am now trying to say where my family is and not say home because it is not home anymore, even with my house, my stuff and more importantly my family being there. It is an amazing thing when God changes your reason for being there He also changes your desire to be there too...but that's another story. Well on my way to work, once the first cup of coffee wore off, I began to then get hungry. I looked for that all to familiar establishment that calls out to me in the mornings but there was no Bob Evans in sight. (If I did find one they wouldn't have been open at 3:30am anyways). Because of the dilemma I was now facing with no Bob Evans and hunger pains, I decided to pull into an old time favorite...Waffle House.

At Waffle House you have the benefits of not only watching them prepare your food and making sure that they use clean hands or don't scratch places they shouldn't be scratching then touch your food but you just might be waited on by a toothless waitress named Emer! Yes she does exist or at least she did at the Waffle House in Arlington, Texas on Hwy 360. One other benefit of eating at a Waffle House which bye the way is one that they take pride in is stating that they are Always Open. I made note of that as I walked in, took a seat, grabbed a menu and watched not a toothless lady but a heavily tattooed man make my breakfast. I watched as he cooked over an open gas flame. The burner, once black now was white with age and I thought to myself, if this place is open every day, then that fire has been lit and burning since the first customer entered in however many years ago. Because it has never closed, that fire has remained on so that it could do what it was intended to do, cook food. If that fire ever went out, the people could not get fed! It was at that time that I then did what any other person who has been in the full time ministry for 16+ years and walked away from it to do something that they had no experience in nor longtime aspirations...I thought about my fire.

I began to cry, not an outward one but one of those inner cries like you use to do when you got a spanking and you kept it in so that the spankee (mom or dad) didn't see you and get the best of you. I cried because I thought about the fire that God himself placed inside of me 35 years ago. I wondered about how many times I had let my fire go out over the years. I thought how many times I didn't let the fire of God stay lit for others. I then wondered if this could be one of those times. Am I on fire for God? Have I been? You see it is our responsibility as Christians, as Christ followers to as Matthew 5:16 states "to let our light or "fire" to shine before all men". Why? So that "others will see your good works" then "God will get the glory". God wants us to reflect Him to carry His light, His fire to a darkened, cold world.

In plain, Waffle House terms...if we let the fire go out, then people can't get fed! Those Waffle House employees had no idea I was needing them and what they had to offer this morning. I am so glad they had the fire lit waiting to meet my need.

With that, I have chosen today to be "open all day" to those that just might walk into my life in search for some spiritual food. Have you?

See You At The River...John