When the Holy Spirit Breezes through

I don't know ... sometimes the stars really do align ... the sun shines directly upon you in just the right way or the Holy Spirit really does breeze through.

That was yesterday's Bar Church.

After it was over, I showered to wash off the smoke, swam twice in the water but the aroma of God's presence remains.

Honestly, I drug myself to the service, having driven from Fort Lauderdale the day before after a week away and I just wanted Sunday to myself.

But I didn't want to let anyone down.

I'd missed the previous week and, while I know things were great without me, something inside moved me to go.

It wasn't an elaborately planned service.

John the Conga player didn't show ... Bob Fulton's air conditioner broke and that kept him home ... others who wander in to share their gifts were led to other places.

None of it mattered ... I believe things happen the way they're supposed to ... if we're open to it.

Lona was there with her sound system and full of excitement of two weeks of new things to share.

Gordo and the lovely Jamie stumble in with harmonicas and Bloody Mary's.

And I brought my guitar.

Mrs. Bobbie, Mary, Sam Sahr, Steve, and others filled the Pool Table with a feast fit for a Queen.

Then the Spirit blew in a congregation from the four corners of the world, dressed in every imaginable way but sharing a readiness for something special.

"I fell down, down, down in a dark lonely hole," the service begins, "there was no one to care about me any more ..."

And every damn person in the room cares.

From that moment until we knocked on Heaven's Door, it were as if tongues of fire descended from above.

I've been in and out of Bar Church almost from the beginning ... outside of Sam Adams and Gordo who founded it, I was the first outside speaker ... then Sarah and I were in the Band ... then we were kicked out ... before I'm invited back to lead things after Sam Adams left.

In that time I've watched people come and go ... great musicians lead us to the Promised Land ... wonderful speakers ... touching moments ... and shared tears.

I've also seen anger over meaningless things ... hurt feelings when none were intended ... shitty attitudes ... idolatry of a past that's never coming back ... and apathy.

I've never experienced a collection of people so ready to share, give, sing, dance and celebrate. Everything we threw at them, they caught, internalized, loved and shot right back.

We come hoping against hope God would come too.

Yesterday God did.

Holy Shit! Bar Church has never been like that!

It was a Communion of the Saints without a plan.

Maybe God had it planned.

I don't know.

But today, I still tingle from Bar Church yesterday.