Synergy

Synergy

Good Morning Friends,

Yesterday, a little before noon, at the supermarket checkout counter, I was next to a nun, so I asked her to tell me her favorite scripture. She said, “Let me think, that would be Romans 8:28”. And then she recited from memory. Later that evening at the Pearl of Hope fundraiser for Bayshore Education Center, Sinclaire with whom I work, mentioned the same scripture. And I said, “That is interesting, for that is the very same scripture a nun shared with me earlier in the day.”

He responded by saying, “Maybe it is a sign.” When asked to say a few words to those gathered, I decided to share the connection story about the scripture and how it had been placed on my heart to voice it a third time. Then I rationalized aloud, “If this is indeed a word from God, for us tonight I had better share it.”  I read from my I-phone the King James Version for that is the way I had first heard it: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Then after the reading, I said, to the gathering of about 100 people: “The amazing thing is that this scripture is a wonderful way of describing Jean Paul, the President of the Bayshore Education Center, for after the earthquake in Haiti, which was not a good thing and the homeless children started coming here to Southwest Florida, it was as if God had placed Jean Paul, a lover of God, (a good thing) here for such a time as this. His skills and relationships with those in the public schools and those of his family naturally forged relationships to accomplish a work God had envisioned. I recounted the story of one of the children who unpacked his experience of coming here in art by drawing a smiling Jesus walking on water, perhaps with a destination of Southwest Florida. I closed by saying that, “It is indeed a privilege for One by One Leadership Foundation to partner with someone who has partnered with God.” In reflection on that this morning, I think that when two or more things, unlikely though they may be, when combined into something that creates an effect which is greater than the sum of both separately we are seeing God at work even though the secular world calls it Synergy.

Scripture: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:26-28 (NIV)

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Romans 8:26-28 (MSG)

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

Message: Not all things really work together for good…at least not from our perspective. Consider people with illness. Consider children who die. Consider drug dealers killing policemen. These things are not good. Today’s scripture does not say they are. Like the story of Joseph in the Genesis scripture…God can and does use evil for good. Still the Roman’s scripture, beloved though it is, challenges us. We have trouble believing the promise that God will make something good for those who love Him and are called to His purpose, out of something that is bad. The passage is unfortunately interpreted by many as too definitive. Too many stop short of the fuller understanding of what Paul meant in it writing…and its connection to the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We think that some things should be left out of what God can use for good. Part of us would like for the scripture to say that some things work together for good. The problem is that we do not see as God sees. We need to read the scripture from God’s perspective not our own… and well we just cannot do it very well. The problem is that even though this scripture is not saying that tragedies are good… It is not saying that if we have enough faith, everything will work out… It is not even saying that we will understand what God is doing. Friends, we are going to always have a problem when we judge the end which we have not seen by the beginning we have. Things take time…sometimes a very long time.

Pray we start and end our understanding of scripture with a focus on God. Pray our earthly collaborations are forged together in our hearts with God’s own heart.  Pray we embrace the promise even though we have trouble believing. Pray we not parse scripture into phrases that were never meant to be separated. Pray we realize that God is always at work. Pray we resist cheap explanations of tragedies. Pray God is making us more like Christ. Pray we not try to explain the unexplainable.