A Most Beautiful Example

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-3

"Jesus showed up for worship today," I wrote in my journal. Now, I'm well aware, Jesus shows up any time worship is happening (Psalm 22:3 says God inhabits the praises of His people), but this was quite different. One Sunday morning, not long after our congregation had begun to sing, a man-- very large, with wild hair, toting bags and an umbrella --lumbered down the center aisle of our church and fell on his face at the altar rail. After a few moments, he made his way to the back where he sang his heart out for a bit and disappeared. That's not the type of event that causes a stir at our church-- in fact, I never heard anyone even comment on it-- but it struck me, however, as most beautiful. 

I'd never seen this man before. He's not a "regular," as they say, during worship; but in that sanctuary, in the middle of a group of strangers, this man had nothing on his mind but reaching the place where he could fall on his face before the Living God. Imagine! He didn't stop to place his bags or his burdens on a nearby chair; he took everything he had straight to the place he knew God was present and awaiting him. To me, his hair looked unkempt and his clothing seemed haphazard, but he didn't care what I saw. The thud he made when he hit the floor made me wonder if he'd hurt himself, but he didn't care what was going through my head. His singing was angelic, but he wasn't interested in auditioning --except for an audience of One. Single-mindedness. Commitment to purpose. Lack of pretense. Unsophistication. Authenticity. Travail. All of these words come to mind when I think of those few moments that Sunday, of one man's desire to meet with the Savior, the Friend of sinners. 

Hebrews says we need to get rid of anything that would keep us from racing toward Jesus. Fear, self-consciousness, the right clothes or the right haircut, strangers, the bags that tend to weigh us down, the threat of a little rain-- anything! The witnesses that surround us are those who have gone before, those who have done exactly what God, through the author of Hebrews tells us to do. The greatest witness of them all? Jesus! And though He has not yet returned to this world in body, He set the example for us two-thousand years ago. He is still setting it today.