Surprised to Find You Here...

Sitting at my desk, early in the morning with the glow of my lamp illuminating a limited circle in the dark office.A steaming cup of tea in front of me.

Silence. Quiet. Distraction free.

I’m a contemplative person (meaning I’m likely to dwell and stew on things) and love solitude (which is weird because I’ll strike up conversations at oil change places that make total strangers uncomfortable) because I’m easily distracted.

By the way, Parkview folks can know their own personality types,etc. pretty easily by filling out a Monvee assessment here.

Either way, the scene I described above is a holy moment for me. A place where I know God is already there, working, waiting, and listening and all I need to do is engage it.

It would be a pretty worthless god, however, who could only be with us in our best case scenarios.

Only in solitude. Quiet. Tea. Etc.

The reality is that we can live in such a way that every moment is a holy moment. Every conversation, thought, action, reading, relationship, rest, play and pursuit can be brimming with the presence of God.

The key is this one very simple idea: God is always present and the moment becomes holy when we engage God as being there in every moment.

On the Metra.

On the expressways.

In the Jewel checkout.

In cleaning up the vomit of a sick child.

In the act of physical intimacy between spouses.

In resting from labors and taking a nap.

In a hard conversation with your teenager or a good friend.

In a moment of gut-blasting laughter.

To make every moment a holy moment isn’t just to whitewash life with a God-colored-primer but instead it intensifies the power of the moments tremendously. The simplest acts of our bodies working well become symphonies of worship – the skill of a craftsman studding a house becomes a “hallelujah” to the God who created joints, bones, tendons and sinew.

The act of forgiving and the feeling of being out on a ledge, unsure of what we're doing, makes the fall into the grace and care of God all the more beautiful and renewing.

What holy moments are you missing right now? What holy moments have lodged themselves in your memory permanently?