Moving Offices

It’s time that the West office finds a new home.

Between our visits by Mickey’s twentieth cousin once removed (Mickey Mouse) and the fact that the heat rarely gets above 65 unless it is summertime, we really need have to investigate some future office/missional space potential.

 

A few weeks ago we visited a new potential site in downtown Mooresville.

One criteria that I’ve asked for is that it have windows.

There is something about “sunlight” that I value.  .  .

 

The new office space potential turned into a joke, however, when we were standing there discussing whose office would be located where.

 

We were noting the office space while Daniel and Josh began joking that they could build a fort and enjoy some fun/games.

In the meantime I found myself in the side office looking at the windows.

 

Daniel commented on the size of the windows and how they would certainly be good for sunlight.

 

My response was apparently off-putting.

 

“Yes – these are great windows. They let in a TON of sun . . . I wonder if they open.”

 

“Why do you need them to open?” Daniel and Josh asked.

 

“Well, you never know when I am going to need to get out.”

 

Silence.

After I said it I realized how absurd it sounded . . . Daniel and Josh were planning some “fort time” while I am trying to find an escape plan.

 

We joked about it but there was some truth to it.

Not just truth for my “office hours” but also truth to it for each of  our lives.

 

Last week I felt absolutely overwhelmed. I knew I had to travel out of town a few days and was not ready for Ash Wednesday, Lent, etc. so the “pressures” were weighing a bit heavy.
Rather than confess them, I wanted to run away.

 

The problem that comes with running away, however, is that it never brings about a solution.

 

When we find we have a disconnect with Divine Love, we are the ones who have moved. God’s presence is never-ending.

 

In order to reconnect with The Divine/God, we must “come out of hiding.”

 

We have to “allow ourselves to be found.”[1]

 

For it is when we allow ourselves to be found and we acknowledge our mutual “here-ness” that we engage in mutual “near-ness.”

We have a mutual presentation that becomes a prelude for our nearness with God. Our soul and God open the way for deep connection.

 

Thoughts to Ponder:

• Today – try stating, “I am here” and then wait to feel, hear, or experience something. It is in the quietness of the waiting that the presence of the Spirit often speaks.
• What do you hear?
• What do you feel?
• Are there perhaps some things we need to “wake up to” so that we can experience the nearness of God?

 

“Being here: often brings about the feeling of Love being near.

 

Psalm 73 (MSG)

73 ^1-5 No doubt about it! God is good-
good to good people, good to the good-hearted.
But I nearly missed it,
missed seeing his goodness.
I was looking the other way,
looking up to the people
At the top,
envying the wicked who have it made,
Who have nothing to worry about,
not a care in the whole wide world.

^6-10 Pretentious with arrogance,
they wear the latest fashions in violence,
Pampered and overfed,
decked out in silk bows of silliness.
They jeer, using words to kill;
they bully their way with words.
They’re full of hot air,
loudmouths disturbing the peace.
People actually listen to them-can you believe it?
Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their words.

^11-14 What’s going on here? Is God out to lunch?
Nobody’s tending the store.
The wicked get by with everything;
they have it made, piling up riches.
I’ve been stupid to play by the rules;
what has it gotten me?
A long run of bad luck, that’s what-
a slap in the face every time I walk out the door.

^15-20 If I’d have given in and talked like this,
I would have betrayed your dear children.
Still, when I tried to figure it out,
all I got was a splitting headache . . .
Until I entered the sanctuary of God.
Then I saw the whole picture:
The slippery road you’ve put them on,
with a final crash in a ditch of delusions.
In the blink of an eye, disaster!
A blind curve in the dark, and-nightmare!
We wake up and rub our eyes. . . . Nothing.
There’s nothing to them. And there never was.

^21-24 When I was beleaguered and bitter,
totally consumed by envy,
I was totally ignorant, a dumb ox
in your very presence.
I’m still in your presence,
but you’ve taken my hand.
You wisely and tenderly lead me,
and then you bless me.

^25-28 You’re all I want in heaven!
You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God-
oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
God, I’m telling the world what you do!