Our community and church family have been impacted recently by difficulties: death, cancer, sickness almost to the point of death, personal and relational struggles, among other things. These things are weighty. Every time we hear situations like this we are given choices: things like make a phone call, send a note, stop by, stop and pray, go out for coffee; or we can shake our head, dismiss it as "too much," move on to the next things, go on like nothing ever happened, say we don't have the time (although those latter responses are choices not given to the people going through the situation). Basically, we can run to or run away...

Humans are "people of eternity stranded in time" (a line from an old Michael Card song). Eternity touches eternity is when a human being engages with God or with another human being. This is what makes human relationships so powerful on so many levels. The struggle is, that the areas where we spend our time/waste our time are often fleeting, temporal, time-bound. When we enter into another person's tragedy or difficulty or joy, we are stepping outside of time and making a lasting, eternal impact. 

So, in our community and 'spheres of influence', when we see that post, get that phone call, hear that story, we are given a choice: run to it and enter the fray, though it will be painful as we engage with the broken repercussions of sin; or run away and allow the brokenness to be unscathed (and us therefore unscathed by it as well). What will we do? The bottom line is this: PRESENCE MATTERS. And even though we may not know what to say, what to do, how to interact, when we show up in those tough and broken and hard areas of people's lives, it matters. It makes a difference. It ministers grace and help and encouragement and healing; it brings hope. A listening heart and faithful presence says more than words on a page. "The Word became flesh, took up residence among us..." Presence matters.

I know what the Father did in my brokenness and difficulty...when I was at the end of my rope without hope and joy, He came running to me. THIS is the heartbeat of God that He desires us to feel. His presence matters in our lives, we need His presence. Our presence matters in other lives, they need His presence in and through us. They need our presence. 

So today...this week...will I "run to" or "run away?" 

"I have set the Lord, always before me, because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Psalm 16:8