Matthias 
May 12 is one of the days designated each year as a Festival Day of St. Matthias. While as United Methodist’s we do not pay tribute to such days, and I’m not certain Hallmark has caught wind of this either, the timing was too perfect to not enlighten or remind the few of you who read this blog about the story of how Matthias was selected.  
 
Matthias was the back-up guy … the second string …the understudy apostle. He was added to the Twelve after Jesus' resurrection, as a replacement for the dead Judas Iscariot. He had traveled among the followers of Jesus throughout the Lord's ministry. But what is amazing to me is how he was picked. According to the story, which you can read in Acts 1, the eleven left behind apostles picked out two qualified candidates, Joseph, called Barsabbas, aka Justus and the single-named Matthias. Since they knew nothing of Robert’s rules or United Methodist polity, and since they wanted God to make the decision, they sidled up to the table  ... and, wait for it ... they rolled the dice. Matthias won.
 
I wonder if God actually changed the fabric of the universe and the laws of gravity, reaching in for a split second to control the role of the dice. Or maybe, if both candidates were equally qualified (and probably equally flawed) God just simply let it happen according to chance. The parallel is amazing to me. The apostles were so sure of the influence and power of the Holy Spirit that they were willing to bring about two choices on a major decision—and then leave it all to the roll of the dice. It seems that we have a bit less trust in the Spirit and quite a bit more need for control over the decision-making process—I admit that I do. But I also trust that if God can work through first century dice, then he can also work through us and whatever crazy process we find ourselves in to move Asbury forward for his purposes.

--Leigh