Odd

What a wonderful Sunday!

Yesterday I was so stressed about the message I had prepared to deliver this morning in church.  As I wrote it last week, it was certainly darker than I planned.  However, I went in the direction that I felt led.  I kept thinking, "This is not what I want to talk about.  I want to keep it light."  But I stuck with it.

Even as I preached it this morning, the sanctuary seemed dead quiet.   It was odd.  And I found it very difficult to read the congregation.  But I know that God worked through me today (maybe even despite me!) because the tears in people's eyes and the warm, encouraging comments reinforced my ministry.

(If you're interested, you can check it out here.)

One of the ladies in the congregation commented on my appearance.  I laughed and told her it was a side-benefit of a project that I'm working on and I pointed her to this blog.  Soon I will share the project with my entire congregation but I just haven't found the right timing yet.  I don't want them to see this as a project about me...but a project about hunger.  I strongly feel that God will lead me to this announcement in His timing.

I did experience something interesting and odd that I'm still trying to puzzle out.

After the service, a man came up to me whom I had never met.  In fact, I've never seen him in my life.  He complimented me on giving a good message and then handed me one of the tongue "suppressors" that we had handed out during the message.  And then he walked away.

On the stick he had written a word that is used in the King James translation from Proverbs 4:24--another verse dealing with the tongue.  The word was "froward".

That verse in the King James version says, "Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee."  Again...this was not the version that was used in the service.

 He wrote:  "froward = idiomatic expression = misinformation = HUMINT".

The only definition that I am able to find for HUMINT is "human intelligence".

I don't understand.  Who was this strange visitor?  What in the world was he trying to discreetly tell me?  It was like this man was looking at my message...looking at the world...through a different lens.

The concept of seeing the world through God's eyes also came up in a discussion in one of my seminary classes today.  There is just so much that we do not see.  One of my classmates gave the name of this artist and song in a post.  It seems perfect.  So I'm sharing with you.

I'm not sure what to think of this incident, but I get the distinct feeling that one day I will understand.  In the meantime, I will keep that little tongue depressor with the word "Controlled" on one side and this man's handwriting on the other side in a safe place for further contemplation.