Unexpected Places

Romans 5:1-5

How dare a scripture on endurance and suffering - one of being tempered in a pit of suffering and fire if you will - begin with words of peace and grace and conclude with love and hope? Yesterday, businesses and schools in my Texas hometown were a bit frantic and paranoid over a basic thunderstorm, and rightly so. The disasters of Oklahoma tornadoes earlier this week and the national disasters of the past few months have been more than enough to make anyone wonder where is God in all of this. But isn't that exactly where God is? In our wondering and searching and even shaking of our fists in anger. Isn't that where God is? Right beside us.

But that is so hard to see for the person who lost a loved one, the person who has nothing left, the person who is unemployed and has a family looking to them for support. How do I keep my faith through evil, disaster and the misfortunes of life? Where do I see God outside of my meditations and reading - real life? Where is God in the world?

Oh, I get it, I see God in the face of the teachers who despite their own suffering were willing to sacrifice for others, for the children. First responders live their lives giving this type response. They are the hands of God in our world. and, not to diminsh their bravery and service, but is that enough? When I am down in the muck and surrounded by fear? Where is God in the midst of this?

Do I have to retreat, go away to look for my thin place? A thin place to me is one of those 'whens' or 'wheres' in which we are drawn closer to God, a time or place where we don't have to search but the mystery and awe of faith seems to sparkle just a bit more clearly. The feeling of peace sneaks up on us and washes our souls. As I once read, Kierkegaard was cited as saying  he is drawn to places that beguile and inspire, sedate and stir, places where, for a few blissful moments he can loosen his death grip on life, and can breathe again. Unfortunately, there is not a Fodor's listing of those places. The more we try to manipulate or plan such an experience, the more we seem to fail.

And, often it is not in my retreats or planned relaxation that I most experience thinness. How do we get better at recognizing these thin places more quickly? Do we not see them until well after we have passed through the fire? Do we have to already have the new eyes to see the grace we were experiencing before we can truly appreciate the times when we are more closely in touch with the Holy Spirit?

I associate thin places not with the trial and tribulation but with a bit of Irish brogue and a touch of magic. My fall-back stance on faith is that so much of it is outside of our understanding. I find this comforting personally, but as a pastor I find that it often fails to comfort those who look to me for solace. Perhaps it is a thinness in and of itself that the first response I have is anger with God.  At least it is where I look first?!

In the moment, turning to God in sadness or fear and struggling with the 'why' is a moment of faith. A moment of growth toward a stregthen character. I much prefer the peace and love of a moment appreciating the glory of God in creation on a mountaintop or on the sandy beach of a coastal town. But for me those are places of vacations. Thin places can sometimes be found there. My personal challenge for this week is how to find, or maybe better how to recognize a thin place in the midst of disaster. God is here and in our midst, with us. We are not alone. Sometimes we have help seeing the thin place through the selfless acts of others. Sometimes it just may take a little longer to see how the Holy Spirit is with us now, working through our thickness in love.

Many moments of neighbor reaching out happen in times of disaster or in the aftermath that never would occur in normal circumstances. I don't believe that the disasters were arranged by God for that purpose, but this is the Holy Spirit with us to strengthen us and help to pull down our barriers. We can't create the thin spaces, but we have hope and through grace we know that in love those thin spaces are more abundant than we realize. Our God of wonder and mystery is ever present with us and constantly poking through our thickness to make Herself more known to us. Thanks be to God!