"Aware of God"

Dear WRC,

As we continue to make our way through this Lenten season, one of the invitations is to find ways to pay attention to God or stay open to God and what God is doing around you. You probably know of the various options for Lenten Devotionals and the small groups that we’ve formed, but that idea of watching for God goes far beyond those practices. Much has been written about how our imaginations as human beings have become so closed off to notions of the transcendent (if you’re in for a real adventure, pick up a copy of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, it’s a brick but incredibly insightful), but I’m always struck by how many cracks are visible when we take a minute to actually look. It’s possible to go through your days with little sense of anything beyond what you can see and touch—which is a relatively new reality in human history—but we’re also surrounded by opportunities to encounter God.

All that to say, I’m someone who needs encouragement and examples if I’m going to live with an openness and awareness of God’s presence. Left to myself, I put my head down and plod on with what I need to get done. I’ve learned to surround myself with people who do a better job of pausing and looking up into the heavens, whose instincts lead them more readily back to God. So, I wanted to share two quick examples from the past week to maybe provide some encouragement for you, too!

This Monday I was at a gathering of pastors and was re-introduced to Rev. Joel Aguirre who is the new pastor of Peoples Park Reformed Church in Paterson. Rev. Joel has been there a few months and is doing great work healing that congregation and reaching out into their neighborhood. We exchanged numbers and later that day I texted him to share some resources and connect him with a couple people who may be able to help his congregation repair their facilities and connect with their neighborhood. Rev. Joel responded with a long text message. He said there were tears in his eyes as he read my message. He said this was a remarkable answer to his consistent prayers over the last few weeks. He has been asking the Lord to open doors for these kinds of connections and was overwhelmed by these new opportunities. I thought I was just networking. Rev. Joel saw God’s hand in our chance meeting and in the opportunities it may offer for significant Gospel ministry. God is always working.

Small groups are an important part of church life and discipleship, but as a pastor you also learn that they are a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to get them started—finding material, recruiting leaders, getting people signed up and into groups that fit in their schedule. It’s also a lot of work to keep them going. I often feel like Sisyphus trying to roll that boulder up the hill. This week my Lenten small group met and one of the discussion questions asked what it was we were hungry for. I was surprised to hear multiple members share that they had been hungry for a small group! Here I thought I was out recruiting and motivating and cajoling in this somewhat fruitless task, and all the while Jesus is drawing people to himself and I’m surrounded by people who are just hungry to be with him and have the opportunity to grow closer to him in community with others! God is working in people’s lives whether I have any awareness of it or not.

It's a pretty common occurrence, whenever I stop long enough to look around, that I find myself exclaiming with Jacob: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

In Christ,

Pastor Andy