A radical thing

Last night I was at a small gathering of folks who wanted to worship. There were eight of us who came together with just two guitars and our voices.

The Spirit of God was with us, to my delight. With us just as much as when I'm in a big gathering with a whole band and a whole congregation. There was something sweeter though.

I could pick out each persons unique voice and sense each persons particular delight in God. Though each of us agreed at some point in the evening that to delight in him is a paradox and a strange thing.

I spoke something aloud that I want to remember. It's a radical thing to be in the presence of God. He has done wonders and miracles to restore us to Him. God could have made a much tamer world, a much less dangerous or painful world, but he didn't. He is quite serious about rectifying what went off the rails, but even the going off the rails was not a surprise to him. He's not scrambling to get things fix. On the one hand that makes me feel very safe and secure on the other I wonder what else he will have to let happen in order to have us back in his Kingdom. But getting us back to the Kingdom is what I believe everything is about. It matters to be with God and it's radical. Just making it through this life is not enough, jobs and homes and families and all that stuff is not the point. Returning to living in the presence of God Most High is the point. And then from that all the other stuff flows and much better than with out him too.

"No eye has seen, no mind had conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."