dissipating fog

hours of words fill my head. rheumatoid, nodular, autoimmune, neoplasm, hirsutism. words swimming through two fatigued hemispheres. a cellphone call dissipates the haze within my head. "have you left your house yet?" I struggle to recall why I would be leaving my house. oh yeah, community group! crap, I'm almost late. I welcome the interruption and rush to Paquin Tower, doing my best to balance twelve forks, cups and plates all the while. this is a new setting for us all. A little strange, yet fresh and exciting.

we decided to move our weekly gathering from the comforts and convenience of a private residence into a public housing complex in order to reach out to an underserved and underestimated group of wonderful people. This has proved to be both challenging and beautiful.

our stories are being woven together, combining a few awkward moments drowned out by the radiant glow of new friends moved to laughter. I look around, an infant is held by a young couple, to my left a quaker eating spaghetti, to my right a man in a wheelchair talks about eating turtle soup. across from me, a woman invites us to pray for her employment opportunity, being as she finds it difficult to make each month's rent. a few college students. a man asks us to pray for him as he struggles through the effects of a mental condition. this man shines with an everlasting light. he speaks genuinely of his walk with Jesus and how He is the sustaining force in his life. I am humbled. praise God, I am humbled. have you ever experienced moments where you feel like the veil has been removed just long enough for you to see community as God intended? we each still have plenty of walls still standing in the way, but there are glimpses into God's Kingdom come on earth.

the phrase "everlasting light" is uttered by my friend with the mental condition. I pull out my phone and I share a very rough cut of a song a few friends and I wrote and recorded last month in mississippi with a lyric including the same words. we sit next to each other leaning in to hear through the small speaker. after the song is finished, he says that he wants us to perform it on the tonight show. I laugh and think of how silly that would be, but I promise to burn him a copy of the cd. "I would love that. I'll buy a cd player so I can listen to it." I am humbled again.

this move has been a good change. I see a glimpse of heaven on earth. physical needs. spiritual needs. each important. Lord, move us into action.