Living Presence of Jesus

In the past few weeks, I have been swamped with work. Planning, organizing, implementing. I have had more meetings in one week than I have ever had in my lifetime. I cannot do this if this is what it is really all about. I cannot just walk through this experience without knowing what it is really all about.

Last night I had a very strong realization. It began yesterday morning when I started planning things to do for a campfire night with the college students. I had s'mores, but I HAD to fill the time with something more than s'mores. Because otherwise it would be a very awkward evening. My mindset was that you cannot do ministry without doing something more than being present. Boy were my eyes opened...

There is a movie that Rob Bell made called Everything is Spiritual, and towards the end of the movie he talks about the day of rest. And he talks about how the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt and they would work to make bricks. And their value as human was measured by how many bricks they made. He says that God rescued the Israelites out of that slavery to teach them about the day of rest. God wanted the Israelites to be human beings, not human doings. This is when it hit me...

Ministry is not about what you do, it is about how you be. Presence is everything. Rob also told a story about his little son. He would be playing legos with his son and his son would say "dad, dad, dad" over and over. And Rob thought that his son had a studder. But then it hit him too. He was there with his son playing but he wasn't really there... And his son had grown accustomed to saying "dad, dad, dad" because he knew that by the third time, his dad would finally be there.

There is good news, even though I do not understand that the greatest thing in any persons life is authentic presence, God gets it. When God told Moses to climb Mt Sinai, the word in Hebrew that is written is translated as "be." Basically, God was telling Moses to come up on top of the mountain, and when you get on top of the mountain, be on top of the mountain. God gets human nature.

As I am planning and organizing and implementing ministry events, I must realize that it is not about doing things, but its about being that living presence of Jesus.

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