We were thirty minutes late to home church on Sunday.
Thankfully, we live and work with people who aren’t too unlike us in this area, and church started forty minutes late. We were just in time to say some hellos.
While we were singing, Stephen somehow managed to stick three fingers directly into his coffee. He looked up at me disgusted, because you see, he hates having gross|sticky|gooey things on his hands.
I leaned over and whispered that he could wipe his fingers on my jeans. They were dirty anyway; I had pulled them out of the dirty clothes to come to church.
He then leaned back over and said he could wipe them on his own jeans, because he had done the same.
This is us right now, for better or for worse. We are often late, and our lives are very messy in most every way.
Our friend, Greg, led the home church in looking at the list of blessings in Matthew 5 & Luke 6. It was wonderfully presented and thought provoking, challenging us to look at the heart attitude of how they were presented and who they were presented to. He ended with this list of additional blessings, which he partially gathered & partially wrote, for us to ponder:
Blessed are the unemployed.
Blessed are those who don’t have it all together.
Blessed are those with no place to call home.
Blessed are those who have run out of strength, ideas, will power, resolve, or energy.
Blessed are who who ache because of how severely out of whack the world is.
Blessed are those who stumble, trip, and fall in the same place again and again.
Blessed are those who on a regular basis have a dark day in which despair seems to be a step behind them wherever they go.
Blessed are you, for God is with you; God is on your side; God meets you in that place.
This is us right now, for better or for worse. We have nothing together, and we are struggling to figure out where home is. We are way out of ideas and energy and strength. We are really aching, and sometimes feeling followed by despair.
Our dearest friends are unemployed and don’t have it together. They have been kicked out of their home and are trying to make one here. They are often out of strength, resolve, and energy to keep trying so hard. They ache. They often stumble in the same place again and again. Sometimes it feels like despair is just a step behind them.
But God is with us; God is meeting us here. He is shaping us toward meekness, peace, and purity. He is turning our mourning into dancing. He is bringing the kingdom. And we are blessed.