January 10
DebDay 302: Before I Leave the House
I woke this early morning thinking I'd devote myself to quiet contemplation and prayerful preparation. As if I would spend the morning like a monk.
However, not my reality. I have forgotten almost everything necessary for today's worship gathering. Communion stuff doesn't miraculously show up, unless I bring it. And my printer is not in the mood for 2-sided printing today.
I just finished up reading in Exodus. How they (for once) did everything the Lord had told them to do, exactly the way He told them to do it. The mobile tabernacle was now ready. Every detail attended to. Everything in its place. Aaron and his sons consecrated and commissioned to serve as priests, all wearing their priestly stuff.
God's presence is present. A cloud by day. A cloud of fire at night. When the cloud moved, the tabernacle was to follow; the people also.
Pastors, this one included, sometimes wish our experience was more like that described in (the later chapters of) Exodus. But rarely is that the case. The details of modern existence do not lend well to quiet contemplation or worship without distraction.
And I'm not wearing priestly stuff. At this hour, I'm wearing a bathrobe. And there are too many clouds outside to tell which one is 'the' cloud.
Some Sunday mornings, the preparation hassles and other distractions really do challenge my heart. (And we don't even have little kids in our home, like so many in our church do.)
1 Corinthians 10:1-13 is a synopsis of the Book of Exodus. Verse 12 says, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Verse 13 tells us that we are tempted to think we 'stand.' The Exodus generation were fell victim to their temptations on a routine basis.
For some of us, genuine humility must come to us by force. Circumstances, forgetfulness, and failure certainly move us in that direction. Left to our own devices, we are tempted to think we are more together than we really are; and God loves us too much to let that go on for too long.
Maybe that's the point for me this morning. Maybe all of this is the Lord's way of preparing me for corporate worship. Forcing me to approach His throne of grace with humility, reminding me why I need Him so very much.
I'll like this idea even better, if I can also remember and accomplish everything that needs to be remembered and accomplished before I leave the house.
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau
