Sacred Space

I have ridden in vehicles before with anticipation...I remember so many big soccer games where my team was quiet, some listening to music, thinking about what they expected would happen on the field, each person anticipating the "big game." Each person would play their part, and hopefully, if everything went as planned, we would walk away successful, feeling good about our game. Today I learned why so many dedicated people are willing to give up their free time, and many of them their very lives...it is because they have experienced something sacred on a bus.

After making more than 70 gallons of soup, we loaded up the bus and headed out to the Southern Bronx. Our bus was made of all kinds of people...a girl from Finland, a high school graduate from L.A., 3 or 4 people serving community hours, our team of nine from Grace Community Church, and Steve, our bus driver and leader. On the way out, we started with a word form Steve, and then we talked amongst ourselved. But somewhere between Elizabeth and the Bronx, the atomsphere changed. We turned on some worship music, the conversation ceased, and prayer began. Suddenly time did not matter, our pasts did not matter, our differences did not matter, nothing seemed to matter. All that mattered was that we were gathered together for something important. Something sacred was beginning to happen in our midst.

At this time, we did not know the people we were to meet. We had no idea that Kevin and Steve would pray with Jesus (not Jesus, but Jesus...confusing...I can't put a tilda in), that Aaron, Teresa and Brad would witness Steve minister on the street to Damon Ford. We had no idea the countless children and adults that Teresa, Carol, Larry, and Barry would serve a warm cup of soup too. We had no idea the encouragement that would come from Johanna, Whitney, Miguel, and the others on our team. We had no idea what awaited us...we just know we needed to prepare. We were anticipating what was to come.

In that moment, driving through traffic, the music turned down and our prayers being expressed, we were enveloped in something so much bigger than ourselves. It was like the barrier between heaven and earth got a little bit thinner. The differences between us on the bus, and thos we would meet on the street, were erased. We were one in the Spirit, and one in purpose, and one in such a way that Jesus prayed for in John 17. And I began to understand something in a unique way. We had entered sacred space. God was with us.