It’s 11:15am :: Sunday Morning :: July 24th.
I’m lounging out back on the patio – journal, book, bible, the sun is out, a quiet and beautiful Sunday Socal morning.
I was debating in my thoughts if I should go to a church this morning. But I didn’t want to rush this peaceful morning time.
So I pick up my book, The Sacred Romance, by John Eldridge, highly recommend. I read the second to last chapter, and then start reading the final chapter ‘Coming Home,’ about Hope.
And then I hear a knock at the front door, “Shoot. Nope, don’t want to get it, I’m having too good of a time.”
10 seconds pass, a second hard knock. A little surprised they didn’t go away after the first knock.
“Okay, I’ll go peek through the window to see who it is.
Oh man, suits! Jehova’s Witness.”
It’s a pleasant looking man, about 40, with his son, about 10 years old.
They smile and the man starts to talk about terror, about the Famine in Somalia, about the shooting/massacre in Norway. He talks about a ‘kingdom’ that is different than what we live here on earth. He asks his son to read to me a verse about God’s kingdom. A harmless kid that I could imagine running after a baseball in center field on Saturday mornings, happy as can be.
I mention that I’ve been to Africa, near Somalia. He’s interested in the traveling missions work I told him I just finished. We now have a fluid conversation, not a one sided persuasion talk from his religion to mine. He says, “Don’t you want hope? I think we all do. There’s a greater hope than what we see.”
I say in excitement, “Oh totally, I know! In fact, the book I’m reading, the final chapter just happens to be on hope also. How nothing in this life will ever completely fulfill the longings of our hearts that we know is always inside of us. But hope provides an answer, the answer.”
I go on to share about two aspects of the book, how we’re all made for Adventure and Intimacy, and fulfilling these with God, the world, and with others is so amazing. A quick but very encouraging conversation. I just felt this wasn’t the time to pray with him, to renounce his views, change him.
As we finish, he gives me the infamous ‘Watchtower’ magazine. I take it, and then tell him to wait. I go out back, then return to the front door.
“Here you go. We’ll make an even exchange. Ah, I just about finished the book anyway, I can just go find it at Borders (noooo, don’t close!).”
He takes the book, asks what the title Sacred Romance means, and I get one last opportunity to speak truth into his life. We all shake hands, smile, and they leave.
I walk to the backyard, and pray for him in that moment, against the devil’s pursuit or lies that might attack him right now, that he would come to know the freedom God has for him and his boy.
And then this final thought comes to mind.
2 knocks on the door…That God is the I AM who brings this – something good to say and life that can show it.
This is not to boast in me, oh wow No! But to boast in God.
When I knock on God’s door, he’s there to offer me something SO SO GOOD how could I not like it, actually love it!
I’m glad He can give you, me, that same kind of life so we can offer it to others when our doors are knocked on too!
I guess for this morning I didn’t need to go to Church because God wanted to bring Church to me 🙂 Thanks God!
p.s. (this isn’t a commentary on not going to church. Church is great. I love church. I mean, who could forget the 25cent donuts afterwards when you were a kid. Glaze, sugar, and on a good day, donut holes! Oh the memories:)
