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I sat on the floor,
alone. It was early morning and the church was
empty and quiet. I sat on the front row and
looked around the darkened room. It was
peaceful there, quiet. As I looked at my
surroundings, my mind reflected back about how we'd
came about being in this building. It was
nothing fancy, just an old truck stop that a small
group of Christians had used for a church building
when they had no other apparent place to go.
So we "settled?" for this one. Oh perhaps a
little grudgingly at first, after all, to look at
the place, it was nothing special. No one
would be drawn to the place by the appearance,
that's for sure. Old truck stop, and it
looked it. There was a few disappointed looks
at first. But just at first. There was
turmoil and strife in the church, but people were
searching for God and honestly trying to find Him
and worship Him. And find Him, they did!
A change came over the building. Suddenly it
didn't seem quite the dump it had seemed before.
I think we began to realize the temporary church for
what it was, a gift from God. A blessing
to us, and to the family that had donated it's use
to the group. After a while, that church
became A House Of Worship, A Holy Place.
I went through some
hard times, spiritually. After a very rough
time, I stopped attending. I still worshipped
God, but there were Issues, and I was wading through
them alone (The Worst thing you can try to do).
Then after awhile, I realized how much I missed that
Church. But I thought about how awkward it
would be to go back. My wife came to me and
mentioned how she was longing to be in Shepherds
Fold. We went back, and sure enough that truck
stop felt like a mansion once we stepped in the
door. We were in Church, a Holy place.
It felt like it, it was. No 30,000 square foot
palace could compare.
Rough spiritual times
still continued to besiege me. I withdrew
within myself again to try and battle. I
prayed, I cried. But for some reason, because
of my shame perhaps at not being perfect, I stayed
away. My life was rough, I was on a
rollercoaster. Spiritual attacks like I've
never been through before. At times I thought
I would snap, would even die. But I still
talked with a good friend from that church and he
helped me keep my sanity. My friend told me
they had to vacate the building very soon, that it
was going to be used for something else. God
had supplied another building, some might say, a
more appropriate building - an old, unused church
building.
I went back to
Shepherds Fold, to that old truck stop. From
the moment I entered the door, I knew I was in a
Holy Place. Then I heard the
announcement, that this service was the last one to
be held in the building. Part of me wanted to
cry out, to ask, "How can you leave this building?
Can't you FEEL it?" I felt God in that
building that morning, as I had every other time I'd
ever set foot in the place. The service ended,
as always, too soon. I left feeling Blessed.
So this morning, I
came back to the old truck stop. I sit here
alone, in the dark, looking around. Today is
the first day of services being held in the "New"
church building. But I came here first, to see
how I would feel, to see What I would feel, what I
would see. I felt and saw an empty room, just
an old truck stop, that had served a very good
purpose. I saw a shell, the butterfly had
outgrown it. I felt OK, but I didn't feel any
especially Holy feeling about the place. I had
lost my home.
I left the old truck
stop and made my way to the new place. I eyed
the building, it looked more like a church I guess,
more traditional. Either way, I knew that it
was another gift from God and I was grateful for it.
I didn't feel anything special really, one way or
another. I walked inside the door, a little
late, and I looked around and I say my Church - it
was beautiful! Why, compared to the place I
had just came from, this was Heavenly! I had
found my Church again, along with that feeling of
God's presence. My God, wasn't the Church
lovely! Why, there was Jerry and there was
Rose! There sat Pat and Al There was
Mike and Norma! Hi Ruth! There were
others, whose! names I didn't' know, there were
little children sneaking glances at the latecomer!
I was amazed at the beauty and of the feeling of
God's presence I felt when I looked upon those
radiant faces. And then I realized, as I had
known before, but had forgotten. It was the
glow from those faces that made that truck stop into
a Church. It was God in those hearts, the love
of Jesus in those faces that was lighting up the
whole place. That light had transformed an old
truck stop into a place of beauty to me. And
now I know why the old truck stop felt like an old
truck stop this morning. The beauty, the Love,
God's love, through his children, his worshippers,
had outgrown that shell and moved to another, better
place. It was never the building, it never
will be. It's the way you light a place that
makes it beautiful and holy, I think. It must
be that. Because the light shining from those
worshippers faces somehow made that building, that
new church building with the peeling paint, that had
seemed so ordinary before, that light made that
building the most Holy place I'd ever been, and the
most beautiful place I'd ever seen. So it's
all in just how you light a place, I guess.
And the Light, The Son was shining in that building
this morning. And I knew I was home.
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