PHOTO: CHRISTIANITY TODAY
"If one person is praying for you, buckle up. Things can happen."― Anne Lamott
There are weeks, even moments within any given day, when nothing else matters except needing to pray and yet feeling like there are no words: Lock-jawed, but a volcano bubbling inside. Like one of those dreams when you want to say something but nothing comes out. You don't need any "wow" factors to get you loving on and leaning hard into God. When the flame is turned up, you're thinking of only one thing even if you are at a momentary loss of words:
Just give me Jesus, in all His manifested power and presence. (Maybe the way it's supposed to be anyway?)
And people.
Wait, people? Yes. Not one without the other, but Jesus and people: Determined-to-follow-come-what-may friends and acquaintances, not just talk about it and nod, but live it out as best we know how people. It all flies in the face of doing this Journey as a solo act (or, at least, "me and Jesus"), even if that can seem very appealing, less complicated, and far less messy.
Maybe...but minus the power. The power of Jesus and, well yes get over it, working in and through ordinary people. It's an incredibly wonderful mystery, this idea of Church that God came up with...
Of doing Life together with great friends and total strangers, with people in your demographic sweet spot and with folks not even remotely close. Of not being confined to steepled or un-steepled buildings on just one day a week. Of agreeing and disagreeing but then agreeing again on Who really matters after all. Of being hurt unintentionally and healed through human hands supernaturally. Of good friends coming, staying for awhile and growing in Christ together, and then some suddenly going out the door for a whole host of reasons―the bittersweet of being family. Of endless desperate needs everywhere, and ready and willing hands quietly answering many of those needs behind the scenes. Of pastors and leaders teaching and loving and leading well, and also quietly carrying other people's burdens and their own, just like the rest of us―but perhaps a degree or two more intense than we can ever imagine.
Through it all, through every single scenario, it is Jesus at the center of it all, but helping people who will choose to follow and obey to do what no team, social club, or military band of brothers could ever do: Bring the Light of that which will never pass away to all the places in our lives that really need some.
It is not the way we would design it, but we mess with it at our own peril. And maybe that's why there are nearly 100 or so "one another" commands and encouragements throughout the New Testament.
The power of Jesus and people. The Church in action beyond a Sunday morning gathering. Things like:
Love one another (mentioned a gazillion times)
Serve one another in love
Carry one another's burdens
Encourage each other
Build each other up
Pray for each other...
About that last beautiful one another/each other...In a moment of sudden fear, worry, and anxiety this week, when it would have been easy to believe the lie that I am all alone in this struggle, I pulled out the "one another" card. So did other loved ones around me. Pray for each other...Pray for this situation... Pray for all of us...Pray for me, even...Pray. Please. Just pray. All you one anothers, even if I don't really know you.
And the Church said yes, and then did so. And all of a sudden, though the prayers were being lifted many miles away, the weight of heaviness mysteriously disappeared and peace rolled in like a progressive high tide. What was that? How does that happen? All I know is that I was reminded once more that when Jesus works through people of every different kind and personality to "pray for each other," unspeakably good things can and do happen. Darkness flees, hope rises, bodies heal, comfort floods sorrow, peace reigns over questions still waiting for answers, and so much more. Just the way He designed it.
It all gives new meaning to the social media posts from Christ-one friends today that will exclaim "Church was amazing!" In a way, no matter how great the gathering, they're/we're only half-right. Because the power of Jesus and people, beyond any given Sunday morning gathering, will make you want to forever change "was" to "is."
"To You, Lord, I give my whole heart, a heart filled with praise, for I am grateful;
Before the gods, my heart sings praises to You and You alone.
I bow before You, looking to Your holy temple,
And praise Your name, for Your unfailing love and Your truth;
For You have placed Your name and Your word over all things and all times.
On the day I needed You, I called, and You responded and infused my soul with strength."
(Psalm 138:1-3, The Voice)
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