I waited patiently for the Lord, hoping that the Lord heard my silent cries as I sat in a chair next to my daughter in the ER. She had slipped into the murky bog of her past mixed with present stresses and was found drowning in its sludge. As she cried in pain from her self-inflicted state, clutching her stomach, I looked up to God, hoping that the Lord’s ear was found open. Not sure of the outcome, I whispered into God’s ear a prayer that my daughter’s act of self-destruction not be the last word. “There is forgiveness with you Lord. There is new life in Jesus Christ. May this be true for her also.” Even with this prayer, I couldn’t help, but doubt and find myself being drug into the murky bog of despair myself.
A few days later, when I saw the smile on her face and a sense of joy in her eyes as she laughed with a new found friend in the hospital; the Lord “drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” I walked away from her room feeling like my feet were secure. I was not going to stumble from despair. In fact, the ground was firm enough that I felt like taking a skip, and humming a glorious song. I couldn’t help myself. Turning a corner so that those behind couldn’t see, I did exactly that. The unseen nurse I found around the corner just stared out of the corner of her eye. “My daughter is going to be fine,” I mentioned as she passed. Not only did I want to explain why a 32 year old man is acting like he is 6, I wanted her to know that the Lord is good. And, as I looked around the hospital during the rest of my trip, I saw something I had never seen before; I saw people with smiles. Assumptions are bad things. I had always assumed that a hospital is a place where bad things happen. I had always expected to see pain and sorrow on the faces in the hallways. Strangely, on this day I saw smiles. I realized that I was joining a whole community of people who had been pulled out of the murky bog and set onto solid, rock ground.
“I am so glad Chris is better, we can go to the dance together now,” I overheard one teenager say to her mother.
“This was for the best, he will no longer have to suffer,” I heard whispered from a relieved 50 year old woman.
“This is already feeling better,” I heard from yet another man flexing his arm.
“Do you have a cigarette?” I heard from yet another. Now, I don’t know if he was coming out of a bog of misery or not, but he had a smile on his face when he was handed a cigarette.
I realized, walking down that hall, that I had joined the community of the thankful. Songs of thanks were softly hummed from the lips of those around me, and at that moment I couldn’t help but think, “God is good.”
This wasn’t the first time that songs of thanks to God erupted from my lips. The day that I first kissed my wife, a song of thanks to God erupted from my lips. The day that our children first moved in with us, a song was sent sailing up to God. When someone whom I had hurt deeply looked into my eyes and said, “I don’t want to fight anymore, I accept your apology; I forgive you,” Christ, the author of all forgiveness was immediately thanked.
I once thought that the church was a gathering place for those who were hurt and broken. And though it is completely obvious that is the case, I now see that the church is more than that. It is much more than a gathering place where people’s hurts are heard and taken care of by a trained chaplain. The church is more rightly the gathering of those who have found grace and healing in Jesus Christ. It is a gathering of many individuals, drawn together in joy and song because they have been pulled out of the drowning waters of despair and death, and given new life by Jesus Christ who pulls us into the fresh air above.
Some people are convinced that the faith is about keeping historical family churches open, preserving the traditions inside. Some people are convinced that the faith is about being great people…about sacrificing a great deal in order to make God smile. Still others are convinced that the faith is about getting what you want, singing the songs you want, having people perform the way you want, and finding heaven filled with all of the things and people you want.
To those who have been humbled by the murky pits death and saved by the arms of Christ, all of these reasons for gathering are simply childish. If you look close at the small smiles on those around you in the pews (those who have felt the saving arms of Christ) you will discover that the real reason we gather and sing out is because God has been good, and we can’t help but share it with others. We are in a community of those who have found God’s grace. Now we walk together in life, unable to do anything but be thankful. We are in the same company as the writer who weaved together the beautiful words, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” The grace was so sweet that it could not be held in. Now its melody reverbs from the lips of millions of people and floats down the streets of our communities. The song hits the ears of all who need to hear a word of hope as they struggle to stay afloat within their own murky bogs. May God’s song not be stopped by church walls of wood and brick today. May, God’s song exit our places of worship and continue to ring out into our communities when we leave.
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