Our family has helped people through fires over the past year, literal and figurative. Opening our home to those we love and who needed love. Some stay an hour or two over tea. Some stay longer while parents work, travel or get healthy. Our home has been a meeting place of prayer and vision. As we abandon meeting in a church building this Sunday morning, the presence of God is full and alive in the room where I type.
When I think about all those "fires," I believe the spirit of God alive in me, is hearing those prayers for those I love. My worldview and churchview (is that a thing?) have taken dramatic turns over the past year. God is more real and alive to me than ever.
Paraphrased from Priscilla Shirer from a conference I went to, do you want His words for you or seconds from someone else? This blew me away. Here was a woman whose Bible studies I have purchased and thoroughly enjoyed, essentially telling me not to buy her Bible studies. While I still believe in learning from one another, the Christian market is still a market.
I read The Practice of the Presence of God by brother Lawrence and found even in the "church" world there is a lot of clutter. Learning from brother Lawrence helped me see that keeping God present in my life was more important (to me) than attending a bible study. As a pastor's wife, I am cautiously examining my motives. I have done a lot of things in life because of perceived expectations from other people rather than a conviction in myself. My non-Christian (gasp) therapist also helped me see this.
In Bob Goff's Love Does, he writes about saying yes when it means loving others and God living in that yes. The common ground to all of these messages, was that God lives more in my day-to-day than on Sunday. From the times when I was cooking dinner, and in gratitude for some part of my day, I would feel the presence the of God. To those moments of fear, like when I called 911 for Chris, who couldn't breathe, and I couldn't even utter a prayer. He was there.
While I love a worship service (or bible study) to honour God, Christian culture can't be a one-size-fits-all model. Church provides an atmosphere of focus on Him and reminds me who is above all in my life, but I am convicted to live with God in each moment, not just in the church events on a calendar.
I find great peace with the Jesus asleep on the boat in the storm (Mark 4:38) and the Jesus who deserts the crowds after helping others (Mark 6:31). It's the same Jesus who sits with me when I am overwhelmed or can't utter a prayer. He is there. He is the same Jesus who communes with us while we abandon church as we know it in order to slow the spread of a virus.
Psalm 4:8
In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, Lord,make me dwell in safety.
