Doing Good

John Wesley, the accidental founder of the Christian belief system called "Methodism," has been quoted saying: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." No one can tell me this is not a tall order, nor can they tell me it is easy to accomplish. Sometimes to our chagrin, we discover that the good we planned on doing was not helpful after all. How do we figure out the "good" thing to do?

There is a lovely story from the Taoist tradition that teaches this challenge well. The story goes something like this: An old farmer had worked his crops faithfully for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "May be," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Maybe," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Maybe," said the farmer...

How do we recognize good things, even for ourselves and our own lives? Imagine how much more difficult it is then, to make decisions that affect the lives of others, assuming that we know the best outcome in all circumstances. In faith circles, we speak about "discerning" God's will about such issues and questions, but there is little doubt that everything is open for review and debate.

Last night First Church had our Church Conference. For those of you who are not certain what that is, it is our annual meeting with the District Superintendent. Part of that meeting is to look back over the previous year to see what was successful and where we were not quite as successful as we might have hoped. But we also spend time looking to the future, discerning as a community of faith where God might be calling us to become more engaged.

We had great conversation around two possible new ministries: Children's ministries with the children in our own neighborhood around Huntington Elementary...Dawes Middle School...North East High school; and looking East from the church, out beyond Nebraska Wesleyan connecting to the families who are only a couple of miles from us in that direction. Added to this second ministry field was conversation around other areas of the city where we may have 4-5 people (or more) living in the same general location, and how we might better interact with them through small groups, or...?

Needless to say, the conversation is just beginning. We intend to spend some time looking at issues and options, keeping an open heart and working to discern God's call for us at this time. I invite you to join in on the conversations and help us figure out how we can do the "all the good we can..."!