When Celebration Becomes Brokenness

We were getting ready to watch our Children's Pastor, Kevin White, baptize a couple of kids this past Sunday when Schanon Caudle leaned over to me and said, "Wow, that was an Isaiah 6 moment!"

He was referring to the passage in Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah has a vision of God's throne room.  He sees the heavenly worship and realizes that he is in the presence of God himself.  Isaiah's reaction? Brokeness.  He cries out, "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips."  I think that many of us in leadership at North Park this past Sunday had the same kind of reaction.

In the midst of sincere and energetic praise, God made himself known to us.  His presence was felt and in evidence.  When that happens, well, we are humbled beyond expression.  I'm not sure what the modern day equivalent of "woe is me" might be.  But I think we were there this Sunday.  I'm sure that I saw more tears than at any other time here.

Are we broken enough yet?  Are we ready for God to use us in a bigger and more selfless way?  I don't know.  But I hope so.

⁵For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"^[a]made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 
2 Corinthians 4