Advent Thought

I’d join the movement if there was one I could believe in, yeah I’d take the bread & wine, if there was a church I could receive in, cause I need it now…..Bono

As I meditated on this passage of Deuteronomy, I felt my own story in the words.  Finding Wilshire came after a period of mourning.  I thought we were losing everything, but as I laid down in green pastures- strangers came to me and guided me through the night.  Our mourning turned into dancing Psalms: 11-12

Years ago, a friend and I would sit in church and say, “There is a better story than this”.  Little did we know the Spirit was listening to us, because she sent us on the ride of our lives not long after we started having these conversations.  Our journeys are very different now, but they are alive and full of gospel.  It took suffering for both of us to break free from the chains.  We had no idea we were enslaved, but not in the sense we usually think of being enslaved.  We knew there was a better story, but life was too comfortable for us to do anything about it.  People who are comfortable rarely change willingly.  It usually takes pain to take us to new territory.

When I was crumbling, not many around me knew what to do about it.  They felt for me, and were kind and would listen- but they had no idea how to handle what was happening.  I was surprised to find pastors on Twitter who did know.  They heard my pain, and walked me through it.  I listened to so many different points of view (not just from the christian faith) I had never heard before.  These views did not wreck my faith, they made my faith stronger.  There is a whole story that needs to come together.  When we get too familiar -we lose the plot.  We need the “other” to guide us back home.

These pastors and authors led me to the Moxie Matters Tour.  When I heard Mark Wingfield speak about Wilshire, I felt something in my soul move.  Could this be deliverance? I had heard a story I desperately wanted to tell, and I wanted a church home so badly–but there wasn’t a movement I could join yet .  I needed this to be true.  Our family showed up a month later, and I rushed to Mark to find out if this is true. It is true! We are at the place we can rejoice before God at God’s chosen dwelling place for us.

I had no idea this would turn into more than finding a church home.  I have been invited to write remembering where I have been, and feasting with those who had been rejected previously.  This is a holy experience. I feel Bono’s words deep in my soul too.  I remember this feeling all too well.  I want to pour my life out joining the movement too many like Bono are still craving.