Quiet time in a dark place

The breakfast I've eaten is not very healthy.

But I loved it.

A full English at 8am.

You really cannot beat it.

I'm sitting in a well known night club, bar, eatery.

I've started coming in here early morning.

It's really quiet.

But you can feel, smell and almost the touch the night before.

It's in the atmosphere.

There is literally no-one in here.

But last night?

Probably a thousand or so clubbers thronged this joint.

It's a really dark place.

Some people may think that it's not the best place for a quiet time.

But lately I've found that I engage with God at a deeper level in the dark places than anywhere else.

And here is the daddy of them all.

As dark as it is, it is a thin place, a place where I can engage with God in a seemingly transparent form of communication.

I guess it could be something to do with the fact that God was amongst the crowd last night, probably weeping over a lost nation.

And he's still here this morning.

As I write this today from table number 42, right next to a brightly lit fruit machine, the table a bit sticky from spilt beer. The padded leatherette seats worn and split from constant wear and tear, I feel especially close to God.

So my iPad is out and the flow has started.

My mind skips back a week to an encounter I had which really shifted something in my heart.

There is a girl called Cheryl who comes into my church Sanctuary 21, at least three times a week.

Cheryl is 27.

Cheryl is autistic.

Cheryl is so amazing I can't put it into words.

She walks into the room and I'm blessed before she even says anything.

Cheryl is open about her autism. She walks the streets of our city just telling people that Jesus loves them.

Day in, day out.

She also brings me lots of information that she collects about things that are happening in our city that require us to pray.

She is so incredible.

Last week she brought me some of the said information, so that our team could pray for some stuff.

Everytime she comes in she is eating dried bananas from a big plastic packet.

I hate dried fruit.

Every time she comes in she offers me a piece of dried banana.

I don't like to say no.

Last week as I tentatively took a piece from the big plastic bag, I said to. Cheryl, "do you really like these dried bananas?

She looked at me as if I'd just asked a stupid question!

She said to me, "of course I like them, God made them."

Then she quoted a scripture, from Psalm 113, "from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, the name of The Lord is to be praised."

The thing is Cheryl looks for the good in everyone and everything. She sees God in everything, even in the darkness she still sees the light of Christ and keeps focussed on that.

She demonstrates a life of praise.

From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same.

On our streets, Cheryl walks in amongst the darkness.

She sees the good, it's simple for her, if God made it, he's there.

I was telling Dawn this story in the car last week, as I was telling her something major shifted within me.

I felt a tangible humility fall on my life.

Like a flash.

The grace of God fell on me like a bolt of lightening.

And something shifted.

I feel like I've stepped up a glory level in my walk of holiness.

So here I am this morning in a very dark place having a quiet time.

Before work.

And I feel it is a good place to be.

And more than ever I realised this truth.

It's absolutely no good hiding behind the closed door of our citadels.

Yeah God's there because he is everywhere.

But.

In the darkness.

The dark places.

He is waiting to teach us stuff. To show us the world as it is.

And he wants us to feel and see the hope that his light brings to this world.

Cheryl takes the light of Jesus into the darkness.

She looks for the hope.

Everyday.

I really pray that we will rise to the challenge the world brings to the church.

That from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, we will praise the name of The Lord.

Learn to see the good in what God has made.

Take that praise to a dark world who need to encounter God.