No Podcast This Week
Posted By: Zach Hoag
Ya know, it's funny how the Lord works.
I am beginning to realize that he has been teaching me something over the last few weeks, and that "something" is how there is a limit to my own ability - there is a thick concrete ceiling above my head when it comes to fixing things and making things right and pulling things off in my own strength.
Which I tend to try to do.
A lot.
Take this past Sunday for instance. I arrived early at the church, as usual, to get everything set up just so and to make sure the technology was all dialed in. As we set up the projector we realized that the power cord for the laptop was missing - it was on a couch watching football, no doubt, about 45 minutes away in Bolton. Nick, the hero of the evening, raced deep into the boondocks to retrieve the cord (going only the speed limit of course, as you would expect from a leader at Dwell).
We began our music time without projection and lyrics, and it was...wonderful. Incredibly, people poured into the space and seemed to melt right into the worship in progress, and voices were as loud as ever. You might even say that when the cord arrived with Nick 15 minutes later, and lyrics lit up the screen, there might have even been a decline in the atmosphere and mood. It was oddly less...special.
However, with the big white square lit with images, all seemed right with the world. Techbuggery would not foil our plans for the rest of the evening.
Or so I thought.
Until I went to edit the recording tonight.
Alas, sound/recording system snafoos abounded in the very sad excuse for audio from Sunday's gathering. And now I am blogging.
I wonder if my frustration at the editing controls (i.e., my macbook) tonight are any indication of a complete misplacement of all perspective and focus, if but for a moment; and alas, I hear a little voice whispering, "Yes." Look back, look back now, two days ago - what happened?
Well, I'll tell you. A miracle happened. 50 people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and subcultures and families and tribes gathered in a little old Methodist church because the Holy Spirit is doing a work in our day, a work that he began during a Pentecost feast some years ago, a work that continues against all odds, in 2009, in Burlington, VT. And what is that work, you ask?
Well, I'll tell you. It is the gospel work that began when Jesus split time in two by conquering that enemy called death and inaugurated a new era in which men's hearts would be brought near to God like never before and into his program for reconciling the world to himself. It is the work, the miraculous work, of the Spirit called the kingdom of God - the church.
There is no miracle on earth more beautiful than the church. Jesus died to save her after all, and he will bring his kingdom in its full glory someday to accompany his eternal union with her.
And so a podcast suddenly seems not so big-deal-ish.
And neither do my petty attempts at controlling outcomes and ordering events and generally pulling things off. Because the point is that I learn my weakness in lieu of his strength. The point is that I learn, as we read on Sunday, to approach his throne boldly for help in time of need, and to realize that there is such sublime blessing in the approaching.
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Reply #3 on : Wed September 30, 2009, 08:40:49
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Reply #2 on : Wed September 30, 2009, 12:24:08
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Reply #1 on : Sun October 04, 2009, 09:04:49
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