Spirit's Pavilion 8

The young man's dad arrived where his son and the leader friend had been sitting talking. The father had a decision to make. There was not a typical, "hey bud, we need to get going". The father sat down and joined them. The dad slowed to be with his son and their friend. The young man had a decision to make. Would he try to take the shift into his own hands and try to close down what had been happening with him? Or would he stay in it and invite his dad into what was happening inside of him?

"Something has happened to me tonight Pop."

The matrix crumbled some more.

Time slowed. The normal routines blurred out. There is a normal routine. There just is. Meals, homework, Netflix, practice. Parents and students. What's notable is that over time the routine can become so set that anything new or unusual or not expected can be more interruptive than welcoming. The busyness of life only allows for what's normal, what we've made normal. And that may seem to be what is most desirable for us as time goes by. Just the routine. Safer. Safer?

"What happened son?"

Matrix fracturing into pieces.

Two people slowing to relate in perhaps an unusual way for them. A parent and student slowing to relate in a different way. A father and son slowing to relate in a holy way. A detonation of glory. It's not that we intend to shift into predictable patterns of relating with one another, but over time it becomes what is comfortable and expected, at times our mindless autopilot and what we prefer. And then..... it's been 20 years.

The son began to slowly tell his dad about what had happened during the night at the Pavilion. He described how unexpectedly the normal night became different. He shared it all. His sudden realizing of an awareness and feeling that something was happening inside of him that he couldn't really describe and that he knew God was doing it. He just knew. His surprising tears as the meeting was ending. The sense that his friends were with him in the unusual moment, not rejecting him.

While the three of them sat there on the concrete floor, other real life conversations kept springing up in the Pavilion. The father looked into the face of his son and began to weep. Tears multiplied. Tears tend to weaken the matrix. The father sat there quietly for a couple of minutes. This whole thing could have been one big awkward moment, but the sons earlier tears prepared him to peacefully wait as his dad did something he hadn't really seen him do before. They just waited together, the three of them. The leader friend told the dad and son how thankful he was for them and how honored he had been to just simply get to be near them in such a special time. He then quietly stood up and told them that he would give them some space to keep talking together. And they talked.

The father and son talked and talked and talked. It was like a cork had been popped. There was new ground. There were new words. There were new tears. Something was different. It was holy. His wife texted wondering where they were. "We're ok. Still at the Pavilion. Things are good. Really good. God is working. We may be here a while. Don't worry. Stories to tell. Or why don't you come to the Pavilion. Yeah. Come find us at the Pavilion. It'll be worth it. Hurry! You want to be here! We'll explain."

People didn't want to leave. They wanted to stay. They were drawn to stay. Parents were now streaming into the Pavilion with curiosity, aware that something was happening. The night stretched on. They just wanted to be there lingering in the presence of the unexpected movement of God's Spirit.

And that is what it was. Nobody made it up. God brought it.

WHATEVER HE CHOOSES.

WHOMEVER HE CHOOSES.

WHENEVER HE CHOOSES.

WHYEVER HE CHOOSES.

WHEREVER HE CHOOSES.

HOWEVER HE CHOOSES.

I wonder what might be?

____________________

Thank you for reading and wondering for these past 8 weeks as I have created space in myself to imagine, hope and pray about the work of God's Spirit. I am not an expert. I am longing.

Martin Lloyd Jones.

"Perhaps it will help us to grasp this if we put it like this. The same thing is true, of course, of all the great revivals in the history of the church. They are most important in this matter. The difference between the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and a revival is simply one of the the number of people affected. I would define revival as a large number, a group of people being baptized by the Holy Spirit at the same time. The Holy Spirit falling upon, coming upon a number of people assembled together. It can happen in a chapel, in a church. It can happen in a district. It can happen in a country."

It can happen in a Pavilion.

There's more.