Apostle Paul once said, “Get thee behind me.”
The last couple of weeks of Mission Mississippi have been very eventful, to say the least. The most applicable Scripture for this experience comes from 2 Corinthians 4:18.
The writer in a very cryptic line of wisdom said, “So, we fix our eyes on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
I’d like to apply these pertinent words to my ears instead of my eyes. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, as Mission Mississippi gave me the honor of providing the message for the prayer breakfast at my church, Calvary Presbyterian, I though I heard somebody say that the next prayer breakfast would be at St. Joseph Catholic Church. At that point, I went about my day and showed up at St. Joseph in downtown Greenville on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Surely enough, there were cars parked outside around 7 a.m. There was activity around the church like any other location for prayer breakfast on a Tuesday morning. But, as I entered the doors of the sanctuary, there were no familiar faces. But, I decided to stay and listen anyway. The message was so fitting to Mission Mississippi even though I had stumbled into the wrong location. The priest, Father Aaron Williams, read from Luke 14, where the master of the house had become disgruntled because his servants failed to secure the VIP guests who had been invited to a great banquet.
Unable to secure the “important” guests, the master order the servants to gather all that could come including the poor. There were two important lessons learned from this brief interaction in this unplanned encounter.
First, when God has an assignment for us to do, we shouldn’t delay which was one of the issues the master had with the servants. Secondly and most important, there are no “important” people in the eyesight of God. The banquet is open, and all are invited.
After I walked out of the church and went to my vehicle, I called my church member, Eugene Parker, and inquired about the “real location” of prayer breakfast for the day. He said that they had just finished up at the YMCA. Sorry, I missed everyone, but somehow, I was where I was supposed to be.
The next Mission Mississippi Delta prayer breakfast will be at 7 a.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church, 1 John Calvin Circle.
