a peace that passes all understanding

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
then when we've first begun.

So I've sung this verse of Amazing Grace countless numbers of times. It's one of the many songs that you've sung so much, that you mentally check out after the first few words and go into autopilot praise drone mode. We sang that tonight at church.

The past week here in Seattle there has been a ton of heavy things go down. A young woman who is a new believer had her child die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A woman in my community group has been trying to conceive with her husband for 7 years now... she announced on tuesday at group that they were 12 weeks pregnant, and we found out yesterday that she miscarried. Another woman in my community group's brother ran away from the treatment program he was in and has been missing for more than 2 weeks now. I was driving through downtown Seattle tonight seeing people fighting in the middle of an intersection outside of a club. Back home in Memphis, there was a school administrator found murdered in a classroom this week. It seems like everywhere I turn there is darkness. Sin, tragedy, and pain are all very potent realities in this world.

Revelation 21:4 talks about the new creation that is to come. It says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

Tonight at church I served on the production team. Cam (the worship director at Mars Hill Church Downtown) was not feeling well, his throat hurt and he seemed kind of physically drained during practice. Other than that, there seem to be a weird tension before the service started. Everyone was hurting or knew someone that is hurting in one way or another.

GOD showed up. Once the service started I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Even standing in the back of the room, the congregation sounded amazing. Feeling everyone pouring their whole hearts into worshipping Jesus Christ is so immensely powerful that I couldn't help but smile and dance while running the powerpoint for the songs. One of the last songs we sang was Come thou fount of every blessing, and we ended it with the first and last verse of Amazing Grace. The last verse was acapella. The Holy Spirit breathed new life into those words for me.

In Heaven, we won't ever run out of days to worship God. We will be with him forever. We can't even imagine forever. Continual community in constant, fervent, genuine worship and praise of God the Almighty Creator King of the Universe. That is what is waiting for us who believe that Jesus Christ championed Satan, sin, and death on our behalf. What greater prize exists? What greater price has been paid? no. more. suffering. of any sort. There won't even be sunburns! (Rev. 21:23)

Only through the cross of Jesus Christ do we find access to, and delight in the peace that passes all understanding.

amen.