some thoughts

Have kind of turned going up to Calton Hill into a tradition every sunday. It's my time to get away, reflect, talk to God, read and just detox from the week and anticipate the next.
Every sunday I go up there and am uplifted and refreshed. It's a reminder of where Kate and I really are because oh how easily we forget.

Decided to go out for a walk and talk with God up The Mile late at night. I sat down for a moment and was approached by a guy in his late 20s, wearing a suit but clearly exhausted. He kindly asked if I knew where this one hostel was and for a moment, I had no idea, so I sent him on his way. It then clicked and ran to catch him. Came to find out he had been looking for hours apparently and nobody knew where this place was. I remembered seeing a sign for it a while back and thought it was a terrible location at the time. I walked him all the way there and he ended up sharing that he was an accountant from Glasgow, but he just wasn't satisfied and decided to move to Japan and teach english for a few years.

We got to the hostel and he asked why I would be kind enough to walk him all the way to the hostel. I told him that what I was doing at the moment he walked up to me was praying for our Church to have opportunities to serve this community, an area that we really hope to develop over the coming months.

"Well, you saved me tonight, thanks a lot." Those were his words and it just got me thinking about how we approach evangelism at Eikon.

Eikon is and continues to instill a culture creation that allows dialogue and that itself, requires immense trust in God. It requires letting go of the need to fix, change, or control others' beliefs or actions. It requres trusting that God's Spirit can work behind the scenes in people's hearts as we create a culture where they are free to question, doubt, and explore faith at their own pace. This shifts the burden to change people back where it belongs - with God alone.

There are times for harvesting and we always believe in those possibilites, but a lot of what is required in this culture is planting seeds. It's not necessarily glamerous, or doesn't always look good on the stat sheet, but that's what people need.

We are in a constant rub: rushing things and doing what we can to get those "stats" looking better and entirely miss the process, or exercising patience and trusting the Lord in His timing and direction.

The momentum is building for this ministry. God we're excited.