Recently I led worship on a Sunday afternoon on "6 West," the inpatient Psych ward at the hospital in town. Going in it is easy to wonder what good it will do. Does it change anything for those who come? How does this 45 minutes impact those who, with such deep needs, show up?
On this particular Sunday I began our time together with a verse from Psalm 17, "Guard me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings." Do you remember how hard it is to believe this when you are at the lowest of your lows? Really? God sees me as the apple of his eye?
Then I told the parable of the Mustard Seed. If we have only a tiny seed of the Kingdom of God planted inside us we will grow. There will be movement. That seed is a living, active thing. It pushes through the dirt, the asphalt, the rocks. It reaches up to the air, the sunshine, the rain, to God. Jesus didn't say plant a grain of sand. A grain of sand won't grow a beach, but a seed.is living. A seed of faith grows day by day. It doesn't turn into a great bush overnight. Sometimes we have trouble telling that it is growing, but it does. It is a process, and eventually we begin to perceive that God notices me...God is with me...God does guard me as the apple of his eye: and then sometimes we forget all over again. But God persists. He wants us to know in the depths of our being how precious we are in his eyes.
It was a good word for those who have trouble imagining that kind of love and acceptance. It seemed to make a difference. The Holy Spirit can do that, even in the most challenging situations. I'll never really know if there was lasting impact, but that afternoon I planted seeds. That's what I can do.
As I was signing out the staff told me that one of the guys had never been able to sit through anyof the previous session of counseling, group therapy, etc. But I believe that the quiet gentle way of telling the story, like we do in Children and Worship created fertile soil for the kingdom seed. And maybe faith grew a little bit, and we believed a little more that just maybe we are the apple of God's eye, even in our most distressed state. Maybe we can huddle in the shadow of God's wings until we can grow a little more faith and can face tomorrow.
On this particular Sunday I began our time together with a verse from Psalm 17, "Guard me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings." Do you remember how hard it is to believe this when you are at the lowest of your lows? Really? God sees me as the apple of his eye?
Then I told the parable of the Mustard Seed. If we have only a tiny seed of the Kingdom of God planted inside us we will grow. There will be movement. That seed is a living, active thing. It pushes through the dirt, the asphalt, the rocks. It reaches up to the air, the sunshine, the rain, to God. Jesus didn't say plant a grain of sand. A grain of sand won't grow a beach, but a seed.is living. A seed of faith grows day by day. It doesn't turn into a great bush overnight. Sometimes we have trouble telling that it is growing, but it does. It is a process, and eventually we begin to perceive that God notices me...God is with me...God does guard me as the apple of his eye: and then sometimes we forget all over again. But God persists. He wants us to know in the depths of our being how precious we are in his eyes.
It was a good word for those who have trouble imagining that kind of love and acceptance. It seemed to make a difference. The Holy Spirit can do that, even in the most challenging situations. I'll never really know if there was lasting impact, but that afternoon I planted seeds. That's what I can do.
As I was signing out the staff told me that one of the guys had never been able to sit through anyof the previous session of counseling, group therapy, etc. But I believe that the quiet gentle way of telling the story, like we do in Children and Worship created fertile soil for the kingdom seed. And maybe faith grew a little bit, and we believed a little more that just maybe we are the apple of God's eye, even in our most distressed state. Maybe we can huddle in the shadow of God's wings until we can grow a little more faith and can face tomorrow.
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