In your eyes...

Tonight I had one of those transcendent moments with my musical/prayer partners as we prepared for our October 26th worship celebration. We practiced our asses off - two hours of non-stop hard work and pure joy - getting the music right, sharing harmonies, trading riffs and finding the groove where 5 different people become one body by grace and commitment. (God, I hope if any of you are in the area you will join us at 3:00 pm on Sunday - it is so special and so sweet.)

I've already written about how I understand this prayer/song experience (see my earlier posts) and when it all comes together - with loving servants, talented musicians and people of spirit/soul/flesh - it always makes me weep tears of joy - and it happened!

It is just like this incredible song by Peter Gabriel - who may just be one of God's angels for this generation - who was singing this on the television when we got home:

Accepting all I've done and said
I want to stand and stare again
Til there's nothing left out,
It remains there in your eyes
Whatever comes and goes
I will hear your silent call
I will touch this tender wall
Til i know I'm home again

Ooh, In your eyes (in your eyes)
In your eyes (in your eyes)
In your eyes (in your eyes)
In your eyes

Love I get so lost, sometimes
Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
When I want to run away
I drive off in my car
But whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are
And all my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

In your eyes - the light the heat
In your eyes -I am complete
In your eyes - I see the doorway (in your eyes)
to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution (in your eyes) of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, i want to be that complete
I want to touch the light

When I least expect it... after lots of hard work and hard times... grace jumps us and blesses me with a gift that I could never have expected and certainly never deserve. Kathleen Norris writes that grace always takes us to where we don't want to go and shocks us with gifts we don't deserve. And it happened again tonight! Takes me back to the words of the prophet Isaiah:

I don't think the way you think.

The way you work isn't the way I work."

God's Decree.

"For as the sky soars high above earth,

so the way I work surpasses the way you work,

and the way I think is beyond the way you think.

Just as rain and snow descend from the skies

and don't go back until they've watered the earth,

Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,

producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,

So will the words that come out of my mouth

not come back empty-handed.

They'll do the work I sent them to do,

they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
So you'll go out in joy,

you'll be led into a whole and complete life.

The mountains and hills will lead the parade,

bursting with song.

All the trees of the forest will join the procession,

exuberant with applause.

No more thistles, but giant sequoias,

no more thornbushes, but stately pines—

Monuments to me, to God,

living and lasting evidence of God."