Creating songs...

singing woman
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

I made the widow's heart sing...-Job (29:13)

God wants to make some music again and he is going to do it through the lips of those who are facing desperate situations.
So often we kind of think that only those who deserve a song, should get to sing one. But the beauty of grace is that God puts a song in the mouths of those who most often don't expect to ever sing again.

Singing in the church has too often become a mere formality or nice section of the service to warm us up for the rest of the religious program. We are in desperate need of the songs of deliverance to be sung in our churches. The tear streaming, mercy tasting kind of singing. Songs sung from stories that have unexpected and surprise endings.

Saturday I talked to a young mother outside our building, as she sat smoking on our benches. She had fled an abusive husband in Ohio and was living at her mothers in a small trailer with no heat. She needed to find a place to stay but because of previous problems with the state, she couldn't go through them...she looked desperate in a hollow kind of way.

Yesterday after the service, I had a older woman come into the church, frustrated and in need of someone to pray with her.
Her landlord treated her unfairly and evicted her and didn't give her the deposit she rightly should have gotten.

Later, a father and his young daughter came by to ask for a backpack and school supplies. He had recently just gotten out of jail and needed some help. We told him to come back in a few hours and we would have the supplies, just in case he was really just looking for drug money.
He came back and she was thrilled, smiles from ear to ear as she was handed the little girl backpack with schools supplies in it.

Even later, a single mother came by, she was overwhelmed with her health issues and cried as she shared how hopeless and hurt she was, that she couldn't give her son the things he needed...like school fees.

All this took place outside of church, not during a service...one of the blessings of being in a neighborhood and not just holding a service in one.

"From the city men groan and the souls of the wounded cry out..."-Job 24:12

God has called the church to be more than a sign that points to Jesus. She is called to carry His Spirit, speak His words, shed His tears, release His power and live in and among those she is called to love and serve.

We are constantly goaded by the gospel and the Spirit to embrace a community and sow the words and actions of a Spirit empowered life there. This won't happen until we start living the gospel and stop just talking and praying about the gospel. The gospel is to be preached not simply meditated on.

Our neighbors need Jesus...and He needs His church to arise and be who she is called to be. Let's go and make some widow's hearts sing!