AMEN....

     If you were to attend Hill City Assembly of God this weekend, you would see a new addition to the interior decoration. Above our main doors is a cut slab of wood engraved with the word "amen". This piece of wood came from a sawmill one of my parishioners frequented and it hung in his home for many, many years. For the 10 years I knew Wayne, I never noticed it in the house.
    Wayne passed away a couple years ago and my memories of him are fond. There is a significance to the "amen", which we added to the wood. Wayne was afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome and was diagnosed when he was nine. He lived to the age of 70.
    One of the characteristics of Tourette's is the vocal outbursts that take place. Usually they are vulgar and filled with profanity, but not with Wayne. When he had an outburst the words "That's right!" or "Praise the Lord!" or "Amen" would be expressed. It was quite encouraging to a young picture to be "amen-ed" so vociferously.
    Amen is an interesting word. Many of us think of it as a word that connotes the end, or a finish because we relate it to the end of our prayers. But I would say that Amen is more a beginning than an end.
    Amen means "So be it." It is a word of affirmation that what has been said is true.  This is why Amen is shouted out as encouragement to preachers. It is saying "That is good!" or "That is right!"
    Amen is also a word of faith. When we pray and finish with Amen, we are stating that what has been prayed to God has been heard by God and God will answer. We pray "Thy will be done" and finish with "So be it."
    I like to relate amen to Jean-Luc Picard's catch-phrase. For those of you who do not know, Picard is the captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is the best of all the captains run out during the franchise. (FYI: Picard, Kirk, Janeway make the top three)
    After Picard would gather information and assess the situation he would ask opinions of Ryker, Worf, Data or Laforge and when he came upon a solution he would bark this command: "Make it so." The crew had to take some responsibility in "making it so."
    So it is with prayer. If we were to pray for the poor we must take some responsibility for the poor. If I am to pray to become more devout in study, I must take some responsibility in becoming more devout. Pray to be a better husband? I must take some responsibility for that improvement.
    Obviously, there are some prayers that only God can make so. But even as we pray for the healing of a small child, can't we do our part to encourage and affirm the child and the family that not only have we prayed but we care?
    Amen does not end the discussion, it is the beginning of God's action and our responsibility.
    So when the people of my church see the piece of wood with Amen on it, I hope they will remember Wayne. I also hope they will take what they heard from God that day and take responsibility for it and apply it to their hearts and lives.
    When we say "Amen" we are partnering with God to "make it so."