Do you know Alice's Restaurant? It is an old song,by Arlo Guthrie, which tells a story. If you have not heard it, and you have about 20 minutes, you can find it on YouTube. It is a long song that tells a long story. In one of its parts the singer talks about trying to join the army. He is told to wait, and sit on the "Group W" bench. That is because he has a criminal record. His crime? Littering. Because he has that on his record, perhaps he is not suitable for the army, not moral enough to kill people. So he waits, along with all the other people who have criminal records. He feels out of place, especially when asked what his crime was. "Littering." People move away from him on the bench, until he adds "and creating a nuisance." Then they move back and all talk together about their lives of crime.
Wow. Where did that come from, and what does it have to do with anything?
I am still reading Acts these days. The story of Philip was in chapter 8. Chapter 16 tells about Paul and Silas and their criminal record. Their crime? Casting a demon out of a slave girl. It landed them in jail, along with other prisoners charged with all sorts of crimes. They were sitting on something like the "Group W" bench: they had their feet in stocks. At midnight, they were still there. They sang and praised God. Why? The text does not give reasons, but they were doing what they usually did. They praised God because that is the kind of people they were. They did it because they were the same wherever they were. They were where they were, because of what the world thought of what they had done. Waiting, on the "Group W" bench, not allowed to serve.
Then God showed up, in a big way, and everything changed. The time spent waiting created an opportunity to see God work, and to see people come to know Him. I don't like to wait. I don't like it when the world's opinion of me or what I am doing says that I am not good enough. But sometimes those things are the steps needed to create something I will love when it comes.
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