3rd Day on Patmos

This morning was really cool, it was Sunday today and so we had church. I went to pick up Insoo down in Skala, the port, and he joined us for our services. Bill shared and then we had communion. There’s just something neat about being in Patmos and doing all these things, knowing that John was here. What am I talking about?! It’s just cool that we’re here in Greece where a lot of this began!!!!
Today was painful. The Lord convicted me of so many different things. The first thing was when it came time to start class, I had just finished my last drive down, everybody was in Insoo’s house and I had just parked the car when I realized “Where’s Helen?” Helen wasn’t there. So I asked Mrs. G if she had seen her, no she had not. So we called her and she said that she was walking! She didn’t inform anybody just took of - that was my thinking then. Later I found out that she was in her room and the “last” people didn’t know about it. So as I was on my way up to pick her up I was grumbling inside of me. As I was driving up I saw my dad walking down the hill and offered him a ride to wherever Helen would be, which at the time I thought was the Cave of the Apocalypse half way up the hill. I get to the cave and no Helen, meanwhile I had been complaining about this whole situation to my dad. We finally found Helen, right outside of the Chora, which is the main town where we’re staying. She had barely started to walk! I couldn’t believe it! I was so upset that I was made to drive all the way up to pick up one person who didn’t have the good sense of letting people know she was still around. So I pick her up and we start driving down, then came the first blow “Janet why are you so impatient with me?” POW “Well Helen because they have started the classes and everybody was meant to be down there, I had just parked the car and was getting ready to enjoy class” lame excuse. As I was driving down I started pondering of how I had and have become the worst version of myself. Usually I am a patient person, ready to help anybody and go out of my way for “anybody” “Are you really Janet?” “No” Am I really the servant that everybody pictures me out to be? A servant is a servant to anybody not just to a select few and the Lord showed me today that I have been a servant in my life, yes, but only to a select few - who is worthy of my time? OK I’ll serve them. But that is not what true servanthood is all about. Servants serve the unlovable also. That is one lesson I have learned today, the meaning of loving and serving the unlovable. My prayer now, is that I will be able to put that into practice.
Another blow was in class as Bill was teaching. He stared talking about spending time in prayer thanking the Lord and as the first person is praying the second one is going “oh man he took everything, now I’ve got nothing to thank the Lord about!” POW - nervous laughter. How many times do I sit and listen as people are praying and think to myself, oh man what can I pray about?! As Bill was making fun of that and I was laughing nervously along with the joke, the Lord was telling me “now Janet is that truly what you want in your spiritual walk?” “No” as I was driving back from taking one of the first groups up to the Chora, the same feeling as yesterday came over me, a desire to spend more time with God. Again that same thing, I am not spending enough time with God. I do, do, do, work, work, work to the point where two people have called me a workaholic recently. I resent that comment but then the Lord brought back a description that Johnathan recently said about me, “she works like 3 missionaries”, the question is now - can I cut anything out of my schedule and then what should I cut out of my schedule? There’s nothing, everything I do has a heartfelt commitment to it. The Love Meals, the Worship Events, the Morning Star, being Alex’s assistant, Operation Joshua - it’s a lot but can I give anything up? I don’t know , I truly don’t.
Another thing the Lord showed me today is my lack of patience. As I was frustrated with that whole thing with Helen, (it’s funny how little things can really get to you isn’t it), the Lord reminded me of my road rage that I never used to have. I am a lot more aggressive person than I used to be with a lot less patience and that is something that I need to be prayerfully working on.
I also had a couple of scares today as my laptop’s battery stopped working for a few hours. At one point, in the middle of the class if it was not plugged in it died. Then a few hours later, and as I am typing this, the computer works just fine on the battery. I have no idea what happened but it was not OK! At the same time my computer wasn’t working I was unable to take pictures on my camera! All of a sudden it would not snap a picture. Again I have no idea what happened but it all works fine now. It was really weird, like a demon got into it and then left.
Through all this that happened today and all the conviction I was placed under one major encouraging thing happened, as I was getting ready for the last session of the evening, a session on leadership, dad asks me if he can read my Bible! Peter Grant had told him on the last day of the conference in Glyfada to read Ecclesiastes and he asked me tonight if he could read it! Hem I was not about to say no, “Of course you can dad!” I have no idea where he got to or how long he read for because when I came in he was sleeping and is still snoring merrily next to me as I am typing. But what a blessings for me to hear my dad ask that question! Thank you Lord!
Another thing that was brought to my attention tonight is the importance of being yoked to a believer. The lady from whom we are renting these rooms is married to an unbeliever and just tonight she was telling us of her guilt and lack of willingness to keep on fighting. I think she is broken woman because she made the decision of marrying an unbeliever. It’s hard enough to stand up for your faith in everyday life situations outside of home but when even your home cannot be a safe haven where you fill up your batteries, the fight is close to lost. My friends, if there is one thing you take away from today’s blog let it be this: we are called to be in the world but not of it. When you marry somebody you become one with that person and if that person is not a believer he is in the world and so you become one with the world, and that is a very dangerous place to be.