Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Abish and Me
The story goes that Ammon, a super-hero missionary of sorts, came to preach the gospel to a somewhat misguided people called Lamanites. When he taught their king and queen about his God, they were overcome with the Spirit and "sank to the earth". Ammon immediately began a prayer of gratitude that caused him to do the same.
Enter Abish. She has been a believer her whole life, converted by her visionary father, but she has kept her faith to herself - maybe to stay alive, maybe to keep her job, maybe she's just shy. Whatever the case may be, she sees these three important people there on the floor, overpowered by the Spirit of her God and she just knows now is the time.
She rushes out to tell her people, sure that when they see the king and queen, they will understand and become believers as well. The perfect missionary opportunity. After much spreading the word, she returns only to find the people ready to execute Ammon for hurting the king and queen. Her one big chance has backfired. This was supposed to be a conversion story, not a murder mystery. It's enough to bring her to tears. For all the good intentions, she is failing. Surely her God must know what she was trying to do. Surely He could have intervened.
In one last-ditch effort, she takes the queen by the hand and lifts her up. The queen takes the king by the hand and lifts him up. The king immediately sets the record straight, and the story goes that "as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord."
We never hear of Abish again. She only gets 4 verses. For me, that's all she needs. She's my hero. I totally relate to her. So many times, I see the perfect opportunity to serve or help or teach and I dive in carrying my over-weighted good intentions and before I know it I'm at the bottom of the pool, wondering what happened.
Weighing the possibilities, surveying the situation, pre-leap looking; none of these things are in my reality and so I spend considerable time cleaning up messes that were going to be golden opportunities when I jumped in at the beginning.
So as I start this blog, I guess I want to preface all of this by saying that I have good intentions. I want to share my heart, and probably at some point in time you will all be wishing I'd left the king and queen lying on the floor and gone off to dust something. But then it would just be Abish instead of Abish and Me.
Enter Abish. She has been a believer her whole life, converted by her visionary father, but she has kept her faith to herself - maybe to stay alive, maybe to keep her job, maybe she's just shy. Whatever the case may be, she sees these three important people there on the floor, overpowered by the Spirit of her God and she just knows now is the time.
She rushes out to tell her people, sure that when they see the king and queen, they will understand and become believers as well. The perfect missionary opportunity. After much spreading the word, she returns only to find the people ready to execute Ammon for hurting the king and queen. Her one big chance has backfired. This was supposed to be a conversion story, not a murder mystery. It's enough to bring her to tears. For all the good intentions, she is failing. Surely her God must know what she was trying to do. Surely He could have intervened.
In one last-ditch effort, she takes the queen by the hand and lifts her up. The queen takes the king by the hand and lifts him up. The king immediately sets the record straight, and the story goes that "as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord."
We never hear of Abish again. She only gets 4 verses. For me, that's all she needs. She's my hero. I totally relate to her. So many times, I see the perfect opportunity to serve or help or teach and I dive in carrying my over-weighted good intentions and before I know it I'm at the bottom of the pool, wondering what happened.
Weighing the possibilities, surveying the situation, pre-leap looking; none of these things are in my reality and so I spend considerable time cleaning up messes that were going to be golden opportunities when I jumped in at the beginning.
So as I start this blog, I guess I want to preface all of this by saying that I have good intentions. I want to share my heart, and probably at some point in time you will all be wishing I'd left the king and queen lying on the floor and gone off to dust something. But then it would just be Abish instead of Abish and Me.
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