I've had a few recently... and they've been like that cool breeze on a hot summer night- restorative.
Moment 1- This last Sunday was good. I have felt for months now (at least 4 or 5) that I've been at about a 50% level in my communication. Both the preaching, the preparation, the prayer involved, everything.
Sunday, I felt like, through no virtue of my own, God allowed me to get back up in the high 80's :) I wouldn't say I hit it out of the park, but it was solid. I often pray before Sundays "God, please just let me preach." And this week... He did.
We were finishing out our series on the Psalms, and I was preaching the tiny little Psalm 131. I got the pleasure of preaching "Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me."
The manuscript (for those who are into things like that) is here. It turned out to be a good call to all of us, myself included, to think about the amount of pride in our lives, to strive to move past an infantile neurotic dependency on God and move towards a more mature trust and a hope that centers in God Himself rather than God meeting our every whim (I used the phrase "cosmic Breast... and yeah, it provoked some giggling). Interestingly enough, the pastor of a large church in town who's
currently on sabbatical showed up that morning. I'm fairly sure I
didn't look over in that direction the whole time...
The sermon itself was nothing special, but... the morning just worked. And to be honest, with how I've been feeling about things lately, I needed it to. It might be hard for people to understand, but it feels to me like a gift from God when these words/movements/reflections I've labored over, and sometimes feel good about and sometimes not, nevertheless connect, and I feel like I've finally gotten on the same page as the Holy Spirit. That what I'm saying on a particular morning somehow coincides with what God is doing in our community and the Word gets preached...
Like I say... a gift.
Moment 2- Last night I had a perfect moment. One of those bliss instances where you just know- all is well and all manner of things are well.
I was, oddly enough, at an alumni function for Western Seminary. There was nothing uniquely cool about it- your standard church-type event with sodas, food, puppet show for the kids... but it was out on the lawn of Western, a place I love, and though there were few few alums that I knew or had been to school with, I got to see and talk with a number of professors and other Seminary faculty that I enjoy... 
But mostly, it was just that my beautiful wife was there, my two beautiful kids were there, and we were sitting out on a lawn in perfect 70 or so degree weather on a late August night eating hot dogs, talking, just enjoying. I loved, loved, loved introducing my family to the men and women who had taught me at Seminary- I guess I am just so damn PROUD of them, this wife and two kids I get to live life with. Sometimes, I can't believe the way that God has blessed me.
And at one point, sitting there, breathing the cooling air deeply, I realized how much I was enjoying myself- how happy I was. It sounds weird, but I can't recall a more blissful moment in years. It was an absolute gift from God, that moment.
But, like all moments, it ends. This one, when it got on towards the kids' bedtime and they left (I was heading to guys night from there) and someone emailed me and I became aware that my last post had hit some folks wrong...
Moment 3- The discussion following this post kind of colored this morning and day for me. I realize we can always be MORE careful in what we say... I thought I had been, but probably not careful enough. Anyway, there was that, the kids (those beautiful kids!) were up super early this morning (they are significantly less beautiful at 5:15 in the am), I missed time alone, thinking and praying... was stupid enough to venture over to Team Pyro, forgetting that they don't actually want people to answer questions they ask (at least people who have made the mistake of mentioning John MacArthur once in their comments and so received a life-time ban... sheesh), had a couple of meetings where I was certainly not at the top of my pastoral game, was feeling grumpy and out-of-sorts when...
I came across this blog post. Paul Walker has been blogging through the Wikiklesia book project that I submitted a chapter for. To be honest, though I knew he was doing this, author by author, one chapter at a time, I hadn't really said anything or linked it... mainly, because I thought my chapter kind of sucked. I mean, I meant everything I said, but it was so late in coalescing in my head that I felt like it was poorly written, poorly structured... I honestly thought most people would think of it as a throw-away chapter in the midst of some really good stuff- and would say so.
Whether he was being diplomatically nice or genuinely liked it, I don't know. But I do know that when, tired and frustrated, I sat down to work here before our theology pub tonight and came across his post... it was what I needed to read.
I guess it was nice to just read that someone actually liked something I said, you know? We probably all need that every now and again, and it's particularly effective in helping to turn a bad day around, especially one when we've allowed silly things to get us down. So thanks Paul...
And thanks God for those little moments of grace- undeserved gifts from You that break into the frustration of this world and the grind of our lives like manna... just what we need, just when we need it.
