Part 2: Reflecting on a Sabbatical

Sunday morning worship, December 19, 2010, preparation for prayer

Shelly and I had the opportunity to see many different faith expressions during our time away. While visiting Gvantsa, our former exchange student who lives in the Republic of Georgia, we were taken to many churches and cathedrals. Here we witnessed a different type of faith.

It seems that in the west, we have settled on a belief system which depends upon what we can see and touch, or on what we can reason or prove with science or philosophy. We want cold hard facts. We aren't interested much in angels or miracles--unless we need one.

The Eastern Orthodox, see miracles around every corner. They believe in things that we might struggle to imagine. Yet, I love lighting candles in their churches, and thinking of them as prayers that linger long after I've left the room. In their glorious and mysterious houses of worship, they breath-in the thick, rich incense, believing--as our Old Testament teaches--that their prayers and praises go mystically into the presence of God in the wafting, rising smoke.

Today, as we stand on the verge of Christmas, the miracle of a virgin birth seems far away. The idea of an angel visiting us at home, or in a dream, never even crosses our minds. And this puts us in a tough spot. "Without faith," the Hebrew writer tells us, "it is impossible to please God."

As we pray this morning, I ask you to invite the Spirit of God to open the eyes of your soul to his miraculous ways. To quit insisting upon everything "making sense." Do you hear what that phrase means? Making "SENSE." In other words, provable to your senses...touch, smell, sight, sound or taste. But spiritual stuff does not always "make sense."

Are you willing to step outside the world of cold, concrete stuff; and experience God's life-giving presence this season? Let's tell him so.