There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. ~~ John 14:2 (TEV)
I’m in a meeting … Zoom, of course … and one of the other attendees agrees to open the meeting with prayer. I always enjoy hearing others pray … there are a myriad of ways to acknowledge God’s presence in our gatherings, and I enjoy most of them. This was a good prayer … but one phrase took hold of me and hung on … “This is Your House.” We weren’t gathered together in a house … certainly not a house of God … we were each in our own homes. And maybe it was because of that truth, that the phrase grabbed me. I don’t remember the rest of the prayer. I remember feeling lifting into God’s presence … but the only words I can recall are “This is your house.” And for the hour or so that the few of us spent together, it was God’s house.
While I have been diligent in trying to establish a disciplined and consistent work rhythm from home, it is not coming easily for me. I deeply miss the rhythm of the church office, the structure of a schedule that takes me different places each day of the week, and the variety of people that regularly pass through the building, and thus my life. I feel orphaned in my own home. It is a comfortable place for personal and family activities … but not for church ones. And I find myself as often as not, feeling “out of sorts.” I’m not the most efficient worker, truth be told. But I have always been a hard worker, and that has been my salvation in getting most things done, most days. So, this is an unusual time for me. I feel disconnected.
I know I will find resolution to my current malaise. I certainly know that the problem is not God, but me. And I know God will use my best character trait … stubbornness … to keep me together until things fall in place.
I also know that God spoke directly to me last week with a lifeline for the time being … This is Your House. A heavenly message offered through a human voice. I know that no matter where I am … no matter how I feel in a given moment … I am always in the house and presence of God. It is enough for now … because even a little bit of God’s presence goes a long way. May your house be God’s house this coming week … and always.
“I am always in the house and presence of God.”
I was in correspondence with a friend the past week. I was kvetching to her that I missed the “place” of church, and that I had certain connections to certain parts of the building that worked towards building a better me. She responded (and accurately) that “church is the people, not the building”. And she’s right, as much as I hate to admit that…she’s right.
Your line that I quoted above admirably expresses that same thought about “when two are gathered together”.
Above all other aspects of your teaching, Craig Ross, I will always remember that you taught me and us to find God in the small places and small interactions, for He is in everything around us.
We may not have a house for St. Peter’s right now, but we will always have a home.
Thanks for a very grounded and uplifting devotional. (And there wasn’t even a chorus of “We shall overcome…”)
Bless you Brendan … now if only I can believe my words when I want to just drive up the church and sit in the empty pews. 🙂 Your friends is right, of course. But physical space does prompt memories of times spent with others in that place. Ahhhh … a great Lutheran dialectic again.