Devotion

She came in quietly
Sitting in a back pew in front of me.
She sat quietly as the wedding party exited.
Then she began her slow journey
By dropping to her knees and knee waking
To the saint who beckoned her.

St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless causes, awaited her at the front.
Tall, massive, holding a likeness of Christ over his heart, he drew her forward.
babies crying, a homily underway, people shuffling in the background -
None of it mattered to her.

Focused, she half crawled to the waiting statue.
When she arrived she offered her bouquet of red and white flowers
And knelt before him.

A friend told me once that her world religion class visited many worship centers one semester.
Of all of them
Hands down
No competition at all
The Presbyterians were the most boring.

We've put our entire emphasis on thinking
And hearing the word of God.
Can we even imagine the heartfelt devotion of walking on our knees to the God we worship?

I wonder what it would take for my devotion to increase.
What would cause me to walk on my knees publicly,
Begging God for an answer I could live with?

God is calling us to reformation again,
Maybe asking us to leave our Protestant reserve behind,
To loosen up a little,
Have more heart
And laughter
And fresh ways of expressing ourselves.

Hmmmm. What would this look like for a community?
It 's fun to ponder.