Being on the same page

Posted by Dawn Richmond, CTR Writers & Storytellers Team

This past weekend Pastor Bill began to lay the vision for 2009, Reaching Farther. I’ve been anticipating this since first reading about it on the CTR website and I was already very excited before even hearing the message.

I spent the Saturday beforehand pondering about what I’d blog about what we were going to do to help others as part of this vision and how this might really change us.

I started to lose my enthusiasm when I told my husband, because I sensed that I had failed to generate the same passion for this project in him. In disappointment and frustration, I conceded that we were not on the same page and gave up trying to go any further with it.

The next morning was very quiet between the two of us, even as we walked into church. I just did not understand why he wouldn’t have a heart for this.
Imagine my shock when Pastor Bill began to talk about how the enemy will try to divide and conquer, and how we can become ineffective if we allow him to break our unity. He even used the words, “be on the same page.”

I put my hand on my husband as a signal to let him know that this is what was happening to us. Satan had deftly divided us and if we stayed divided, it was a guarantee we would do nothing to contribute to the Reaching Farther campaign. I clearly saw the enemy was not my husband!

Afterward we discussed this again with a fresh perspective. I discovered that my enthusiasm had freaked out my husband. He feared I was proposing a drastic lifestyle change, which prompted him put up the protective barriers. I shared that I had no set plan but only the desire to dream big with him about what we could do together as a family.

Our focus this week is to pray for unity. For the Holy Spirit to move us in the same direction, as we are more aware of the plans of Satan to foil the “new” that God wants to do through us. How wise of Pastor Bill and the elders to prepare our hearts and minds before expecting us to move.

Before we can jump to action, we must first pray that God will put us both on the same page, His page! May the same be true for you!