Am I At The Right Place?

While I was teaching at Jacksonville State University, students many times would wait after class to ask questions. One day a young man approached me with quite a different question. "You are a Christian, aren't you?" he said. During the conversation that followed, I learned that he too was a believer in Jesus Christ and we formed a friendship. He had an elderly grandmother who lived in Gadsden, where I lived, and she was a member of Twelfth Street Baptist Church, where my membership was. She had been a shut-in for some time and I had never met her. 

A few years after John graduated, his grandmother died and I went to the funeral home hoping to see him and offer my condolences. I walked into the parlor where her family was receiving friends and did not see John. I had not so much as seen a picture of her or any other member of the family. I suddenly panicked and wondered if I had walked into the wrong place!

That's a little bit how I felt this morning when we went to church for the first time since March. Am I at the right place?

I certainly felt safe. All the doors were open, the pews that were acceptable to sit on had cardboard spacers and everyone in the congregation had on a mask. But those masks coupled with the the distance kept me from recognizing anyone there. The familiar feeling of the building bursting with the church family was missing. The familiar visual of hugs and smiles was missing, and the familiar sound of conversation and laughter was missing. I so wanted to be back at church but my heart was scattered.

I decided that I would make a concerted effort to settle into this one more, crazy, new reality and tried to focus. In a few minutes we began to sing (through masks...sigh) Phil Wickham's "Living Hope." These words brought me to tears and back to my real reality:

Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me

Praise God! Jesus Christ who died for me is alive! God used that song to touch my heart and bring it to Him in worship. He had waited patiently.

The most important element this morning was Jesus and He was not missing at all. The other important element was my heart and it was hovering at the door. I was so distracted by what wasn't there that I almost missed Jesus. 

Jesus is the same no matter what, no matter when, no matter where.  Lord God, during these unprecedented times, give us a heart for worship - no matter what, no matter when, no matter where...even with our socially distanced and masked church family.