Please Welcome Chuck Weber, a new guest blogger who is helping out this week and next. Chuck was Chaplain at both State School and part time Chaplain at Hendrick Medical Center. He has also participated in the Kairos Prison Ministry. Surprised by Light In the lightning flash across the sky His mighty power I see, And I know if He can reign on high His light can shine on me. Ch: I’ve seen it in the lightning, heard it in the thunder, and felt it in the rain... My Lord is near me all the time... My Lord is near me all the time. When the thunder shakes the mighty hills and trembles every tree, Then I know a God so great and strong can surely harbor me. (to Ch:) When refreshing showers cool the earth and sweep across the sea, Then His rainbow shines within my heart. His nearness comforts me. (to Ch.) – Barbara Gaultney, Broadman Press, c.1960. On sixth floor in a shared room lurked an angry patient. The four of us, interns for hospital chaplaincy, had by turn tried to cheer up this 22-year-old woman. Every effort to talk to her had failed spectacularly. Maybe it was the pain! After all, she had broken her femur and her shoulder tumbling from a motorcycle. Maybe the shame! After all, the wreck was caused by her clothing getting tangled in the chain and spokes of the beast, in itself understandable were it not for the fact that the bed sheet in the spokes was all she was wearing at the time. Three of us has been summarily dismissed amid curses and imprecations. Today I was determined to venture into the room, hoping for success. The others laughed and asked me whatever was I thinking. She was the middle daughter of a Methodist preacher. She knew what we were going to say before we said it. Her rage was her only solace. Why pronounce another? I felt like I was walking on air. Only the day before, I had performed my first baptism as pastor of a tiny country church. Only eight days before, I had received ordination as a preacher of the Gospel surrounded by faithful men and women of my church. God lived in my heart that day like a fire of liberation. What could possibly go wrong? The sixth floor door to her room was in the oldest part of the hospital. The huge gray thing stood 50 inches wide and heavy as granite. Now sixteen inches from the closed door, the possibility of strife gave me pause. With a gentle tap, I listened for an answer. Hearing none, I slowly opened the door and called her name, announcing my own. She was asleep. A feeling very much like gratitude swept over me. As I turned to leave, I heard a voice behind the door. “Son, you got the shine on you.” Mostly hidden by the open door, the other patient in the room smiled at me. She must have been well over 80 years old. I had not come to see her, but...there she was. “What do you mean by that?” I asked. She laughed gently, “You know what I mean.” Fishing for an explanation, I said, “I came to see this lady, but I had no idea anyone else was in here.” “The Lord done put you here.” She paused. “He done put me here, too.” “How did you know...?” “Like I said, you got the shine on you. The Lord has been ‘specially good to you, hasn’t he?” She smiled from her bed, looking up at me. “The Lord God, he works that way.” “Yesterday I did the first baptism service in my life, as pastor of a little church in the country. One nine year old girl, a retired husband and wife and a 66 year old man all baptized. God has certainly been with me.” “His blessing shines in you. Sho’ ‘nuff, it does.” She and I talked for a few minutes, quietly, in deference to her sleeping room mate. I ventured to pray for her before I left, but she would not have it. She prayed for me. She prayed for her room mate, and she closed with hope and blessing. I gently shut the door to that room on sixth floor and made my way back to the chaplain’s office. Clock-out time was 35 minutes away. Affirmation had happened. God’s light surprised me. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? – Psalm 27:1 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. – 1 John 1:5-10. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. – 2 Corinthians 4:6,7 I have heard it said “a Christian is a psycho-ceramic,” meaning that we are all clay pots and we are all cracked. Nevertheless, it is in this cracked pot that God invests his presence. For all we know of other religious faiths, the one assertion that is uniquely Christian is that God not only forgives us and draws us back to himself, but he also invests us with his own spirit, taking up residence in our very souls. His body is the church and parts of his body are each of us. We are his, yes, but we are also cracked vessels out of whom leaks the presence of God. How do others apprehend the love of God? Rarely by electronics or by dreams or by meditation. Most often God reveals himself through a regular person. An old lady once blessed me for nothing I had ever said or done that she knew about. The spirit of God led her to bless me. I did not deserve it nor did I expect it. Her broken pot helped fill up my own broken pot. Toward what end? Blessings surround my memory like incense. They keep me humble and they keep me expectant. This is how our social God operates. It was not accidentally he took upon himself the limitations of flesh. Doing so he enjoyed his own creation and showed us a stark and undeniable way to live a meaningful life. Perfect maturity is possible only with God alive in us, and that is his purpose. Father of Light, My life is a cracked pot. What I hold within me leaks out. Lots of things are in there and not all are seemly. My best self is yet cracked. Your spirit fills me still. I am amazed & brought low. Somehow you reach others through me, anyway. Sometimes I don’t even notice. That’s the way you are, I guess. Riches hidden in a common vessel, broken but still useful. Jesus was not beautiful to look upon, but was still completely you in this broken world. Grant my prayer that I notice you in action in me. AMEN