Above All Else

A week ago our church (COSA) held its last Sunday service. If you know me at all, you know that for the last four years, I have poured my energy and heart into this endeavor and even writing that last sentence was painful for me.

It is a difficult sentence to write and yet, I write it with a lot of love in my heart and gratitude for the people that made our beautiful community possible. I can’t say enough good things about them.

I mention this because for the first time, in I don’t know how long, I didn’t go to a church service on Sunday. That was a weird feeling. You have to know that I have been a pastor for the last twenty years. If Google did its math right, that is over one thousand weeks. That is over one thousand church services that I either attended or helped create on some level.

Instead of going to a church building, I decided to hit a hiking trail. It was pretty amazing! By the way, if you are in vocational ministry and you are wondering where all the people are on Sunday mornings, they are all (every last one of them) on hiking trails. I mean, I had trouble finding a parking space there and no, they didn’t have a parking lot team.

Since I live close to the Texas Hill Country, the terrain at this place was amazing! I started on the paved trails but I kept going until I found more rustic winding trails. To be honest, I haven’t been getting enough cardio in my workouts, and I’m in my 50’s, so I had to stop every now and then for a water break. Each time I sat down, I thought about backtracking and leaving the park. I mean, my Apple Watch was already super proud of me for reaching my step goal, a task that is pretty easy to achieve, and I could have gone home happy. Instead, I was super curious as to where the trail was going. I had to keep pressing forward. As I moved forward, the crowd began to thin out.

Full confession. Part of my motivation for going on the hike was physical activity, the other part was that I wanted to see if I could quiet my soul from the noise and distractions of my current situation, so that I might hear from God. Just in case you are wondering, I’ve never heard God’s actual voice, like Morgan Freeman or Liam Neeson, but He does prompt me or give me direction from time to time. You could call it a spiritual nudge.

Sometimes He’ll do that when I am reading Scripture, when I am mowing the lawn, in the middle of a conversation, and yes on a hiking trail. I forgot to mention, right before I went on the hike, I read a devotional. There was a paragraph in the devo that stood out to me. It is written by Jennifer Benson Schuldt and the devotional is “Our Daily Bread”. She writes:

“Praising God in the midst of a challenge may mean overriding our natural instincts. We tend toward self-protection, strategizing, and worry. However worshipping can guard our hearts against troubling thoughts and self-reliance. It reminds us of the lesson the Israelites learned: “The battle is not (ours), but God’s” (2 Chron 20:15).

So, as I headed out the door to go on my hike, I guess I was also wanting to worship as I walked; to hear as I hiked. As I moved forward in my hike, battling both my body and the terrain, I was open and hoping to hear something. It was quiet for most of the hike. There was the occasional stranger that I said “Hi” to and some responded. Others either had headphones in or were going on a trail so that they didn’t have to say “hi” to someone. Other than those encounters, I wasn’t hearing anything from God.

Sure, I prayed silently and took a few breaks on a rock to give space for that to happen but other than a few thoughts about my week, there wasn’t much.

I kept pressing forward, wondering if I had made a mistake by continuing down a more difficult path. Time and again, I was faced with the opportunity to take a less difficult one but I was curious where all of this was headed. I came to this space where it was just me and God. The trees above me formed sort of a tunnel to walk through and the trail itself was partially lit but also obscured by shadows.

There was something beautiful about it. It was peaceful and serene. Filled with darkness and light simultaneously. It gave me pause. My soul felt calm. My mind and heart felt open. I stood in the moment, taking it all in.

I had an earbud in my right ear that I was listening to music through. About that time, a song came on entitled “Come Thou Fount” by Shane and Shane. I don’t always listen to worship music but when I do, it’s Shane and Shane (to be said in the “most interesting man in the world’s” voice.) This version of the song, there is a break in the hymn that you could name “Above all else” in fact, it is in the title. It goes like this:

Above all else, I adore Your name
Above all else, tune my heart to sing Your praise,
Above all else, I adore Your name
Above all else, tune my heart to sing Your praise

No instruction. No aha moment. God was not offering me a solution to my problem or a quick fix to my current reality. He was giving me a chance to experience awe, wonder, and a quiet soul. That experience felt like worship to me.

What’s my point? Worship happens anywhere and everywhere. This was the first time I had experienced worship this powerful in awhile. That is less of an indictment on the Church and more of a criticism on how busy I have kept myself, how cluttered my mind has been, and how conflicted I have felt about my future.

As the lyrics to this song kept playing, what I heard God saying to me was “Wherever you go, there I am.”

In this season of life, this is all that I need. “Above all else”, I need to know that God is with me and has not forgotten me. I offer this to you as well. God is with you wherever you go.

The Psalmist writes: “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.” Psalm 139:7-8

The last words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Matthew are… “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

The best promise that Jesus makes is His presence.

And if Jesus is present, I am at peace.

So, for the next few weeks, I will not be in a church service, but I will be worshipping somewhere. It may be a month or more before I even think about walking through the doors of a church building but I will be in church. I will also be in community with a group of people that I love and that loves God and others as an expression of faith.

I have had the privilege of leading a community of people where I always felt the presence of God even if my cluttered soul was worried or preoccupied. I am thankful to COSA for how I have grown over the past few years and grateful for their friendship and the impact that they made on our surrounding community. Having a front-row seat to see God at work in the lives of these fine people has healed me and it has been a balm to my soul. A soul that was riddled with anger and bitterness for what church had become for many.

Because of them, and the presence of God in them, I was able to see what the Church could be. A humble gathering of compassionate people, that want to see the love of Jesus expressed in good works to people who need to see good in this world.

I encourage you to find spaces where you can experience the deep abiding presence of Jesus. Spaces that exemplify His love and teach about His life and compassion.

Find a community that loves God and loves others well. Let your curiosity drive you forward in search of a group of Jesus followers who know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings. Who not only talk about grace but have obviously experienced it for themselves.

Love God and love others my friends.

Matt

“May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26