Spiritual Heights and Ordinary Nights

In between the heights are ordinary nights
of traveling together as one.
Seek the Light, not the heights, and find joy in the life
of a body united in One.

In fellowship together, just as in worship or prayer, we can be tempted to come together seeking the next spiritual high.  But when our hope is to match or surpass the last-best-spiritual-moment we had with each other, our hope is in the wrong thing.  When our motivation is a feeling and not a person, not only is it likely to be met with disappointment, but it is also sinful.  Jesus was clear to point out that a desire for anything else above a desire for God alone is idolatry. And this includes worship & knowledge.  So, although we are sometimes elevated to new and exciting spiritual heights when we come together in worship, we must never forget that isn't the goal.  The goal is always Christ.

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. --Jer. 29:13 (see also Duet 4:29, 1 Chron 22:19, 28:9, Matt 7:7)
Two nights ago our church family gathered in my home as we often do on Friday nights. The 15-or-so of us there crammed in my tiny kitchen to prepare and share a meal together (breakfast for dinner...my favorite!). We then moved outdoors where we enjoyed a cool breeze and a delightful time catching up. Ultimately we settled in the garage where we spent the rest of the evening worshiping together through songs, poems, and prayers. In that shared space & time, we encountered the living God.

Well after midnight when cleanup was done and my friends had all left, I retreated to my favorite living room chair to ponder the evening and to give God thanks for it. As I sat and reflected on the time we had shared I realized that, in many ways, it had been a rather "ordinary" time together. And yet, my heart was overflowing with joy.

I wondered if I may have missed something, so I retraced the evening in my head. Nope. No amazing moments in worship tonight...at least not for me. None in testimony or in ministry to one another, either. None, that is, that we would likely all remember and talk about in months to come (and we have shared many of these in our 2 years together as a simple church). And yet, the Spirit's presence was never in question. I could feel it there with us: uniting us, uplifting us, leading us--as we laughed, cooked, hugged, shared, and laid quietly in the dim garage soaking in word & song.

So I asked God, "Why such joy tonight?"
He responded by reminding me that families are woven together as much by the ordinary moments they share as by the much-less-frequent extraordinary ones. In all of these, if God is present, so is joy. Just as our tri-une God enjoys fellowship with the other members of the trinity, we also experience the fullness of Christ in relationship to one another. As John Ortberg wrote in The Me I Want to Be, "Part of what it means to be made in God's image is our capacity for connectedness... we are rooted and our souls are nourished in the love of God and other people." Because of our design, therefore, even the most ordinary of times together have potential within them to connect us, and to fill us with joy.

Grateful for the answer, I sat back in my favorite chair and penned the poem above; then I continued to give God thanks in prayer--for Spirit-filled heights and "ordinary" nights, and for a family so richly blessed.

"Mind that which is eternal, which gathers your heart together up to the Lord, and lets you see that ye are written on one another's heart." - George Fox
"In life, there are no ordinary moments. Most of us never really recognize the most significant moments of our lives when they're happening." -Kathleen Magee