He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. -PSALM 18:19

New shoes. Fresh haircuts. Unblemished backpacks. Nervous anticipation. New hopes. Fresh starts. School is back. The world once again starts talking about “normal” life. Run down pool toys, broken goggles, and busted beach chairs are being thrown away. Our “normal” rhythm is on the horizon. I’m sure we’re only a few weeks away from Christmas ads and Black Friday promos — as if that were normal. But, even amid all the familiarity of returning to “the way things usually are” there is, beneath it all, a sense of low-grade dread.

Somehow we sense that the last vestiges of space and relaxation are gone. We wonder, looking back now on the summer: Did I really get enough rest to recharge myself for what’s ahead? Soon, we’ll be looking to that semi-mythical idea of a “spacious place” to which God can bring us. In the eighteenth psalm, the psalmist writes about being “rescued” into such a place. It’s as if the idea of space can only become real through the divine intervention of God’s own hands.

One writer once said that “Space is freedom.” When we talk about space, we’re talking about being unencumbered and unconfined. It’s what we all long for, but only rarely seem to find. In one sense, the season of “space” is winding down. But, that doesn’t undermine the necessity of it — particularly at the soul-level. I’m often surprised by how hungry, tired, lonely, and trapped we all are. In truth, yet, God does intend to give to us a freedom into space, that “spacious place.”

This Sunday, we’ll give people the opportunity to step into the great expanse of God’s love and freedom in a very specific way. We’ll give people the chance to say “I believe,” discovering and declaring that “God [in Jesus] is indeed a ‘spacious place.’” The wall, now down (The scaffolding will still remain for a few more weeks while the work is finalized), epitomizes the work God intends for us: to break down the things that divide and confine, the things that isolate and dehumanize. This Sunday will be one of great courage and great hope. Pray about who you’ll Invite: people who are longing for the wide, sweeping freedom only Jesus can give.

See you Sunday,

Jeff