A haze of smoke blankets the dimly lit room of this
unsuspecting basement. On one side of it
sits the church, gathered around one of its own who’s desperate for release
from bondage, who’s hungering for something more than slavery that they long to
be freed from. So the church wraps its
arms around them doing what it knows best in showing compassion and
kindness. Prayer fills the room. Redemption takes over. The haze of smoke merely becomes symbolic of
the Lord’s presence in this pub that’s been caught off guard by something holy,
something pure, by something that it’s probably never experienced. And as the body begins to surround each
member in encouragement, love, and warm embrace, God’s name is quietly exalted until
it finally manifests itself into a song that travels up the stairs and into the
dark corners of the bar. His name fills
more than voids of darkness, but also the empty chasm within hearts parched to
know more, which include our own. 
This is merely my shallow attempt to describe our evening
last night. What was intended to be a
fun dinner followed by praise and worship turned into a night where much more
happened. And it occurred in the most
unlikely of places: in the basement of a pub in La Paz, Bolivia.
The Kingdom bloomed in darkness. How cool.
The body of Christ that I am a part of here is truly becoming
family. I love every single one of these
brothers and sisters of mine with a passion that’s beyond words, with a love
that I’ve never felt before. I desire to
learn more of this love that God’s placed in my heart. But I’ve yet to really know how to control it
because it tends to control me.
And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I can already hear the refutations about how bad it is to
let something like love rage within us. Argue
away if you desire, pray for my salvation from it if you wish, but I think you’d
merely be beating your own head against a wall and wasting your own time of
which you probably consider ‘valuable.’
I’ve become so sold out for what the Lord has done in my life. Who He’s becoming to me no one can strip
away. Who I’m growing into within Him is
beyond description. There’s been a
radical change in my life in encountering this unfathomable and undeniably true
love of Christ.
You better believe that I’ll let it control me.
My desire is that if you split me open, all you would see is
a heart that is beating and raging passionately with and for the love of
God. And more than that, I pray that it
would be infectious and carry into your very own soul. I feel this each time I’m with my brothers and sisters,
even as I sit in the midst of many of them now.
I look at them and I only beam with joy, with love, with carrying deeply
for them. Is this what “longing after
them with the affection of Christ” is like?
Because they’re inches from me and I long for them with such affection.
All this from the church spending a few hours in a pub. It’s amazing where the Kingdom can manifest
itself in our hearts and presence if we just let it.
