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FOR TODAY Please listen to this song from Tim Timmons entitled "It starts With Me":
As you hear in the lyrics of the song, Tim Timmons describes how he came to meet God in prayer while on his knees. This is a prayer posture familiar to many, but especially to many Episcopalians who show reverence for Holy Communion by kneeling at a rail. Due to the COVID challenges of this year, many of us have missed this moment of reverence and especially the sense of unity it creates. How delightful it is to look around at the rail and see good people, shoulder to shoulder, hands extended, while wearing their rivaling sports attire: Auburn and Alabama for instance. In that moment, such divisions disappear as we focus on Jesus and what unites us in faith. Some historians attribute early revivals and the "altar call" to Charles Finney. By the mid-1800s, Finney designed the altar call as the final ritual of his revival so that when he stopped talking there would be something for the people to do. Finney didn't originally design the altar call as a public demonstration of faith or to entice conversions. He came up with the altar call so he could sign up people to help with his anti-slavery campaign. Finney believed a revival wasn't a revival unless it really changed the world in which it occurred. Our revival aims to bring us to a similar sort of action and connection with God, our sisters and brothers in this diocese, and people across the nation. Our goal, as mentioned in Timmons' song, is that each one of us would be moved to sing "God's song" and that such inspiration would lead us to want to change our world for the better. Interesting enough, songwriter Timmons describes how he had a revival season in his life which led him to write songs like the one we heard: Twelve years ago, I found out that I have an incurable cancer and I still walk with that today. Doctors gave me five years to live. But I’m here today and I’m so grateful. God is still at work in and through my journey with cancer...It had [also] become pretty clear that I’d been trying to run my life and get my music career going on my own, and it never worked, so I gave up. Then I prayed about surrendering; I realized it’s not about me or my kingdom, it’s about God’s kingdom...Looking back, that time was filled with incredible joys and pains; it was a glorious struggle. But I wouldn’t change it. I gave up trying to have things happen on my own agenda, and when I gave up, things happened and I signed a record deal. I realized my role is to point people to Jesus. We look forward to our revival inspiring all of us to point to Jesus in our words and deeds. Without a doubt, revival will start and continue with us and we pray that God will always be our revival song!
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION This is our last devotion for our series. Take a moment to reflect on all that you've read and heard and ponder ways to carry your findings forward.
Join us for our virtual 50th Jubilee Celebration. We kick off our three events with Evening Prayer Service tonight, December 3, at 6pm. Friday will be our long awaited Just Mercy, Just Jesus Revival. And finally, we would love for you to be a part of our follow-up conversation Saturday morning where we will talk about how we can Go Forward. All events take place online. Details and links for watching/joining can be found here: www.diocgc.org/just-mercy-just-jesus.
ABOUT THE 50 DAYS DEVOTIONALS
Thank you for participating in our 50 Days to Jubilee daily devotionals. It was our intent to weave together all that we've focused on as a collective diocese throughout the year of 2020 with our upcoming Jubilee Revival and to carry what we've learned, prayed and hoped for into next year, a new year. We hope you found the devotionals to be helpful in recognizing how God is working in and moving through your life. Find all daily devotionals here