Is praising God only relegated to the church alone and no where else? Can one feel that joyous tsunami in their heart 24/7 even if the celebratory rush is not wrapped in a religious covering? I truly believe so, I believe our spirituality and connection to God goes so far beyond the narrow limitations of what our man made religions can comprehend!
These days when driving and a vehicle might abruptly cut me off in traffic, I just might mumble a “word” under my breath as a reactionary thing but not as an indication of what is in my heart as far as the joy of being connected to my God is concerned. Many will state that this is a contradiction but I don’t believe it is. Now I am not attempting to justify any offensive foul mouthed means of expressing oneself but I believe the light of God can shine down upon all of us and it is up to us to KEEP ourselves bathed in that light in order to reflect it to others to benefit all around us as well as ourselves.
It’s like going to the beach to lay out in the sun, would you choose the spot under the shade of the palm tree to get the best tan? NO! You would find the spot where nothing comes between you and the direct rays of the sun so that you can maximize you absorption of its life giving rays! So in saying this, a person can merely go for a walk on the beach without the intention of laying out in the sun for its tanning benefits yet come home bronzed because of their time under its rays. I believe the joy and love of God is the same way, I have been in situations where church and religion were the furthest thing in the minds of those who were in my midst but the Holy Spirit came down on us and brought us into a righteous zone of love and praise over and above anything I have witnessed IN a church!
This is not a put down on the church but we have to remember that God moves where HE wants to move! How dare we limit where God moves His mysterious hand and who he chooses to motivate for HIS purpose! Too many of my card carrying religious Sisters and Brothers shun the spirit of God coming to them to give them a strong direct message because of the packaging that the chosen messenger came in. That messenger may have been an alcoholic on the corner who is half way out of his mind but came into his senses momentarily to speak a direction changing truth into your life but you may have been so caught up in the fact that he was a “wino” and you were so much better than him because you weren’t out there transgressing against God’s preferred way of living so therefore “he ain’t got NOTHIN’ to say to you with his wino ass!”
But if you took the time to listen to the slurred words of the drunken man he you might not be laying up in the hospital now paralyzed from the neck down for life because he was trying to tell you that he heard that there was a dangerous sheet of ice on the ground just before a mountainside road that had no barricade to stop one from plunging fifty feet down into the frozen lake below. You survived, but oh what a lesson you had to learn the hard way. God can speak through anyone. Keep your ears open, keep your heart untainted and move about the earth with your spiritual eyes open and never allow your physical vision to blur what you see in the spirit world around you. It’s two different things and if you have a habit of confusing the two your life will be infested with bad choices, mistakes and regrets.
Too many of us may be full of praise in the church house and full of hell in the street because we fail to see each other as spiritual beings and creations of our same Father God. Many times if we cross paths we someone who chooses to worship in another church (Or God forbid that they are a Muslim or Buddhist!) many of us automatically see them as “the other” and do not look to bridge any man made gaps that have come between us as human beings and children of God.
Why are we so pompous?
Why do we feel that our connection and relationship to God is something that no one else can have as though we have a patent or copyright on His joy and grace? I see and experience it personally all of the time! There are those who are my biggest fans on Facebook or my blog yet when they see me in person they give me the side-eye while half way greeting me because they may have read something that I wrote that kicked them in the spiritual balls and now they are angry because I didn’t come the “Thus sayeth the Lord” way or I didn’t wrap my words in the accepted standard religious sounding Old English language of the day when the Bible was translated.
How narrow minded!
Truth is truth no matter WHO speaks it!
Just because my unique life has taken many directions and been exposed to so many different stimuli (More than you could possibly imagine my friend!) doesn’t mean that I have to have all of that reduced and discarded merely to sound like a talking head cookie cutter religious voice that you deem holy and the world is not even listening to! No! I am not blaspheming the true dedicated men and women of God but know that I am like that drunk man on the corner who was put here in a special way to reach someone who either won’t hear you or maybe can’t get a good word out of you because your pompous churchified ASS is up on its shoulder too high to even consider speaking to someone “below” you in the Lord!
Those are the people who are flooding my website and relating to me in ways that you could never reach them because I keep myself humble as a servant of the people who need me.
And if you can’t swallow that then “F” you! And I say that righteously!
Last night while on the my layover/break after driving my bus to the end of the route. I had the most wonderful feeling of bliss and the overwhelming feeling of God’s love as four complete strangers descended down on that bus stop only to find themselves laughing, joking and having fellowship in a conversation of truth as though they knew each other for an entire lifetime!
It was beautiful and I didn’t want it to end! I realized that God will bless you with more and more of these unexpected moments if you remain dutiful to His word and walk the path of what is right even when you think no one else is watching because HE is always watching!
Remember that and never forget it!
None of us are too “holy” that we can’t be a servant to the so called lowest of low and none of us are too “high” that we can’t receive a crucial word from someone who the world deems an idiot. To do so will block those unexpected blessings of joy and bliss that can only be rained down on you from God Himself. How many of us have missed out on a blessing because of our own exclusivity and V.I.P. membership to a hell-bound order of a man made carnal church?
And while I am not perfect by a long shot, judging from the ever increasing frequency of those unexpected moments of joy that I’ve been receiving, I think I must be doing something right!
…….if you are walking down through what others may have deemed the worst neighborhood at night always keep your eyes open but remember that God might have put you there to shine His light out into that part of the world to bring the church directly to someone who needed it. Walk fearlessly to reflect HIS light in the darkened corners of the world and you will always be under His divine protection regardless!
…….can I get an amen?
