I am a little dumbfounded with the view. OK, more than a little. What God is doing seems a little overwhelming. It is outside of where I have ever been, yet strangely familiar. Certainly not what I had ever dreamed, but somehow . . . right. Maybe it is that things have really been stirring behind the scenes and are now starting to surface. Maybe they were always there, however small or invisible. As they come to the surface it is like watching an artist bring a canvas from white to life. Exchange. This crazy thing has a life of its own, or maybe better put – a life that is not our own. We are being seized.
Shawn shoved the book across the table, “You have to read this, The Ragamuffin Gospel.” People send books my way sometimes. Sometimes I read them. So I start reading thru this book and notice that Shawn has highlighted some stuff. The book is his personal copy. What? Not a fresh copy for your pal? I owe you a new book Shawn. I couldn’t keep my pen off the pages. Circles here, underlines there, writing in the margin. I even underlined some of the stuff Shawn had highlighted. Last night I am finishing up the book and I was captivated. Seems that a hundred years ago in the Deep South, people rarely used the term “born again.” So, back in the day, they would say: “I have been seized by the power of a great affection.” Oh . . . . yea.
That’s where I feel we are on this journey. We have been seized by the affection of a God whose love for us is so crazy that it defies logic, reason, and time. We are captured by this insane response of great affection to the origin of this crazy love. So captured that we can’t help but pass it around. It’s like a circle that won’t give up; and shouldn’t.
Last Sunday (Jan 15), the band busted out the opening song and then up comes our pal Jack the Fox to open up the night and set the stage for the ride to the thin place. I took off my guitar and went to sit on a stool near the back of the stage. My friend Jeff was there, just tweaking some knobs on one of the mixers. I sat next to him. Jeff: “Wow.” I looked at him; he was staring at the room. I looked at the room. “Wow.” Not only was the placed filling up with about 700 people, but it was electric. Some nights you can feel it. Jack talked to us all and made mention of the Crash team that just returned from hurricane relief in Mississippi. Most of the team jumped to their feet with arms in the air like they just won the World Series. Why were they so charged up? They just returned from pouring out their affections. That’s what crash people do. Whether across the nation, across the world, or across the street, we pour out affection. So back to Jeff. I looked at him and said “Dude, the best part is that we get to see the room fill up as time goes by.” Jeff shook his head, “Nope, the best part is that it has nothing to do with us.” True, my friend, so true. I like being part of something that is bigger than me. So big in fact, that if I made an exit, it would still go on. I am just happy to be on the ride. Immersed in the great affection. Joining several hundred friends in crashing that affection into every avenue possible. Life is electric; the seizure is riveting, and the view . . . breathtaking.