This week the ministers of Wilshire were on retreat in Beech Grove, Indiana, spending time deepening our relationships with each other, with God and with ourselves. It seems the overwhelming message of our time together challenged us to seek the uncovered places in our lives where God may still have unfinished work.
Even at a very young age, I have always felt a very strong connection to worship. Maybe that was because of my parents’ disciplined commitment to our weekly family worship or because I began playing for worship so young; I’m not sure. What I do know is, corporate worship has always been a unique opportunity for me to hear the voice of the Divine. To experience God gently but insistently speaking into the dark places of resistance and pain. To find strength and peace in the support of others in the community of faith.
In our worship, we each bring our individual experience, concerns, hopes, dreams, sorrows and joys. When we show up authentically (and even when we don’t), the Spirit works among us and in us in a powerful way.
This morning, I can’t help but be drawn to the texts in our anthem and congregational song, “Speak, O Lord” and “We Walk By Faith and Not By Sight.” Both are prayers in song that call on God to show up and breathe into the uncovered places in our lives — “Speak, O Lord … shape and fashion us … cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see … may our faith abound to call on you when you are near and seek where you are found.”
As we ponder living into a different kind of Lent, may these coming moments of worship lead us to a tangible acknowledgment of God’s working in our lives and God’s extravagant love and lavish care for us. May the Spirit illuminate and awaken the numb places of our hearts and draw us into more meaningful connection with God and each other.