Holy Ground

So the message I preached on Sunday took a turn on Saturday morning. I was doing some last minute prayer and preparation, and I felt like the Spirit had something to say. I was planning on talking about Moses and Exodus and wrapping up our 2-month series on listening to God. I wasn't ready for what He actually had to say.

Here's how it ended:


God is not silent. He is not even quiet. God is screaming through the cries of 30,000 children dying every day as a result of poverty. He is screaming through the voices of countless women and children in Thailand and India who are being forced into slavery and prostitution. God is crying out through the cries of the hopeless teenagers and men and women who are addicted to pornography, who are addicted to alcohol, who are addicted to drugs. God is crying through the voices of the 15% of Americans who suffer from severe depression. God is calling out through the desperate prayers of the lonely, of the rejected, of the sexually abused, and of the billions of people worldwide who have yet to find hope in Jesus Christ.

"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives and God is with us if we are with them." -the prophet Bono

So the next time you encounter an overlooked homeless woman in Triangle Park or a forgotten Alzheimer's patient in the nursing home, it would be appropriate to take off your shoes, for in that moment you are on holy ground.