Amy and ‘What draws you to God?’

What draws you to God?

What brings people to God? What brings you to God?

When I think of those moments when I have been drawn into deeper relationship with God, those moments were made possible by other people. It has been my relationship with other people that has brought me to God. The hard thing about that is that the reverse has also been true in my life. When I have been mad at God, mad at the church - when I have given up on God’s work in my life, it’s because I have been hurt by other people. Is this true for you?

It's a mystery, isn't it, how other people can both draw us to and push us away from relationship with God.

One of the mysteries of ministry in my experience has been this: the thing we do as a ministry is not the thing we do as a ministry. Does that sound like a riddle? The thing we do as a ministry is not the thing we do as a ministry. You and I are called first and foremost into relationship - relationship with God and with one another. There is nothing - no thing, no action, no activity - that is more important than relationship. Jesus does all the things he does in the Gospels - preaching, proclaiming, teaching, healing, comforting, leading, speaking truth to power - not for themselves only. He does them all out of relationship - deep fidelity to God and deep love of God's people.

The thing that we do as ministry is not the thing we do as ministry. If what we are doing - feeding people, housing people, leading worship, giving our resources, our money - puts a stumbling block between ourselves and God, between ourselves and other people, between other people and God - it doesn't matter how "good" the ministry is. We violate God's love commandment.

I wonder how you hear this today.