08 June, 2008

"Pray First"

I'm back from Synod Assembly. There was much inspiration and thoughtful, prayer-filled deliberation, too. On Saturday morning there were tributes to Pastors who have retired since the last Assembly a year ago. When his name was called one of these recent retirees took the stage, stood at the microphone, and shared this story; I have a feeling that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

" There once was a man who had nothing for his family to eat. He had an old rifle and three bullets. So, he decided that he would go out hunting and kill some wild game for dinner. As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit. He shot at the rabbit and missed it. The rabbit ran away.

Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel and missed it. The squirrel disappeared into a hole in a cottonwood tree. As he went further, he saw a large wild "Tom" turkey in the tree, but he had only one bullet remaining. A voice spoke to him and said, "Pray first, aim high and stay focused." However, at the same time, he saw a deer which was a better kill. He brought the gun down and aimed at the deer. But, then he saw a rattlesnake between his legs about to bite him, so he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattlesnake.

Still, the voice said again to him, "I said 'Pray, Aim high and Stay focused." So, the man decided to listen to God's voice. He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the wild turkey. The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the gun and hit the snake in the head and killed it. And, when the gun had gone off, it knocked him into a pond.

When he stood up to look around, he had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and a turkey to eat for his family. The snake (Satan) was dead simply because the man listened to God."

Life is Good!
... it's even better when we obey that still, small voice...

7 comments:

*karendianne. said...

Woah.

I'm going to have to share this.

In Spirit Love, *karendianne.

Andi (RrlScrapGal) said...

Karen sent me!
This is beautiful!

Quilting Memories said...

WOW, Makes you think!!

House of Mouse said...

The power of God is often underestimated. Listen and ye shall receive...........

Anett...Karen sent me.

MARCIE said...

Great story! I have to pass this around. Look how many people will be touched because you went to your meeting!

Alice Grace said...

Great post! Karen sent me to read your post. Thank you for sharing!

Val said...

Thanks to Karen Dianne Lee at Leehaven, I found this posts. This is awesome. Thanks for sharing.