Psalm
71:12 “Do not be far from me, my God; come quickly, God, to help me.”
In similar fashion to my personal blog Scarred Joy located on WordPress,
I make every effort to be genuine, authentic and transparent etc. in our
InScribe blog. I have no reason to stray from this direction of my writing.
In using this month’s prompt as direction I am going to write
about a time when I experienced a great obstacle and God opened a new
opportunity for me through it. In this post I am giving readers
a glimpse into my spiritual life as a Christian including a recent obstacle
preventing me from moving forward.
At times I have experienced wandering through a dry and weary land, so
to speak, in reference to life. There have been times where God seemed distant.
A typical response from my Christian circle of believers is, “Well, God hasn’t
moved, so you must have.” Regardless of who moved if anyone, I am being real
about such a time in my life. I am not a new kid on
the block when it comes to church life. I know being part of a church is an
amazing part of life. As I once heard a speaker say, church can also be hazardous
to one’s health.
Before I go any further I am being up front with you by saying I am the
obstacle in the context of this blog post. As an obstacle I also infringed on
my own spiritual growth. I became frustrated as a leader by having to review our
church vision, or mission, or reason for being. I expressed this to my church
elder partners. I’m not sure they heard me. Perhaps they didn’t care. More than
likely they had a different perspective than me. I have no problem with
difference of opinion.
I came to a point in life where I sensed something was missing in my
life as a Christian. Things in church, of course, were busy; there was always
ministry to do. To me, there still remained a missing piece. Being busy wasn’t
and isn’t enough. Busy does not always mean fruitful ministry. At least that is
how I see it.
After my third term on the church board I took a sabbatical. I needed a
break, a rest from involvement that had become drudgery. A thought in my mind
at the time, my obstacle, was “I don’t need this constant hamster wheel
experience” of church life. It was a challenging time. It was a grueling period
in my life. Like the psalmist my cry was, “Do not
be far from me, my God; come quickly, God, to help me.” It is what loneliness
feels like.
God was still there. He was present. He stood and walked beside my wife
and I even when I thought He had left. The best way I know to describe it is,
God gave us a spiritual makeover.
I don’t know how to explain it in the confines of this post. I can say we
are now with a body of believers who are a well-defined community of
Christians. We are learning an ancient contemplative liturgical way of worship
so meaningful and beneficial to our souls.
I am no longer an obstacle to anyone, or myself as far as I know. Church
is no longer drudgery and stressful. I now look forward to being with my church
family. I can see light ahead with a church still on track with its original
vision of family, community, worship and care for each other.
