I once had a parishonier who would describe those "odd" moments in life as "God moments".
I thought that was pretty cool. A simple way to explain something without having to get into a long, drawn out explaination of one's faith or anything.
Last week, I was asked to do a graveside funeral service. Now for me, just those words alone can mean many things... just the commital services, a short service for the local friends and family due to the deceased person lived and once had a history here, or a complate funeral service? What also made it somewhat unusual for me was that the call was coming in from a family member, as opposed to the funeral home who was taking care of the arrangements (which in many cases would mean something in itself).
But as I did some checking in, I found out that a cousin to the deceased was a member of my church, and so in talking to them, I realized that it was expected for me to do complete funeral service at the graveside.
OK... I can do that, so I made contact with the person making the request to get the information and such, as I want to do the best job I can in paying respect for the deceased. I was then told "I'll just give you her information when I see you at the cemetary."
Huh?
So then the "investgating" part of the 'job' had to kick in. I found out which funeral home in the city an hour or so out was handling the arrangements, got the obituary from them, tried to find out what I could from the family and what Scripture or special words they would like said ("whatever is appropriate" was the answer to that -- thank goodness I was able to find out more from the cousin!).
So come Saturday, I went up and preached a Message with a thought in mind... An instructor of mine has said many times (in regards to preaching Sermons in church) that you're not necessarily preaching to please the people. You're to preach to please God.
So that was my goal.
After the Service, I stepped away so that I could start for the place for the lunch (the cousin and family had done the arrangements for the lunch and had asked that I be there to do the Blessings and such). Then, the cousin (my parishioner) came up and told me how I really did a nice of a job (which I hear often, but somehow something rang different), and then his sister walked up and said that I "preached Christ".
DING! God moment!
Sometimes when we feel low or stressed, it's amazing how those "God moments" sneak up on us... maybe subtle, maybe right there and "in your face".
If you ever find yourself having a God moment, don't blow it off... Take advantage of it. There is a reason that it is a God moment.
Maybe God is trying to tell you something.
