Not Paying Attention in Church
So, Sunday I was sitting in church… just minding my own business. Ok, maybe not. I was minding other people’s business. A woman in my aisle needed to make a quick exit. I almost bumped her butt with my head as I tried to pick my coffee cup up. (I knocked it over when trying to move it out of her path, and didn’t know how well that little flap would hold all that coffee in. I certainly didn’t want to be the reason they stopped allowing coffee in the church, and I didn’t realize her urgency!)
She returned and her husband offered her a piece of gum. That’s a giveaway. She must’ve been nauseous So, does she have the flu maybe? Perhaps morning sickness? Oh, a baby… how exciting! Gee – look at all the seats empty in the middle of all the rows ahead of me. And beside me. Why do we all want the end seats? (I know I prefer them because I’m not very graceful. I fear stepping on people on my way in and out of the row.) What would happen if one week we all just filled in the middles? Maybe they could announce that and we could try it.
Then that poor lady with the little girl who came in late wouldn’t be standing in the aisle waiting for someone to let her get in to sit down. That’s so awkward – someone should let her in. I remember doing that when the girls were little. It isn’t so bad when it’s just me. Oh, that little girl is so cute!
Where is Danielle? I look around for her beautiful curly hair – I have that book she won on my blog last week and want to get it to her today.
BAM!
“Yet the hands that cradle the stars
Are the hands that bled for me
In a moment of glorious surrender
You were broken for all the world to see
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath”
WHAT!? (Church had carried on in my mental absence.) A spiritual tug from H.S. (Holy Spirit) spun me around and I looked up on the screen to see lyrics of a song I hadn’t heard before. “Aftermath” by Hillsong United
In that moment of glorious surrender
Was the moment You broke the chains in me
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath
And in that moment You opened up the heavens
To the broken the beggar and the thief
Lifted out of the wreckage
I find hope in the aftermath
I’ve been so broken. I’ve been in emotional chains. I’ve begged for God to make Himself real to me in the midst of a wreckage of my own efforts.
As I was paying no attention to the song whatsoever (don’t judge me, you know you’ve been here before) God gave me a little flick on the side of my soul’s noggin and said, “Pay attention! This is for you!!”
Up went my hands! Greedy to receive whatever blessing he’d drop into them, I exposed to him my empty hands. I wanted him to know, I’d let go of everything else and was ready for everything he had to give me that morning.
If I’d stayed home, as I was tempted to do, I’d have missed that. Every time I go to church, I’m expecting Him to show up. He never disappoints me. He always shows up.
I know other people probably loved that song too, but I’m glad I didn’t disappoint him by not showing up for His gift to me.




