Sunday, October 3, 2010

Jesús, amigo de los pecadores

My new church had a special cross-cultural service today, the third of the sumer (I know, summer is now over).

It was a good event not only by hearing service in Spanish, but to see the entire church in one place at one time.

Maybe it was my state of mind but I was really touched by a song that we sung. I've never heard it before. It was a different tempo than the Petra song by the same name so I don't think it was the same.

We sung it in English and then Spanish. When I heard those words, "Jesus, AMIGO de los pecadores," I felt something deep. I don't speak Spanish but everyone is familiar with Amigo. Jesus is really the worthless sinners', messed up person's amigo? Wow. That's fantastic!

It was a day when depression is trying to seep in around the corners. Yesterday I went down to Seattle and had lunch with three of my children (all in college). Today, I am alone, save my Saint Bernard who is now too old to keep up with me.

I watched at the greet time at church. This is a normal thing to watch others embrace and talk. You can tell that many are old friends.

I didn't realize how many of my friends were at my old church. Maybe I did know but I didn't feel it until now.

I know it is my responsibility to reach out and to make friends at my new church. I came home and ran five miles . . . which is a huge amount for me. I've never been a good runner and have never found that runner's high on endorphins. I was hoping for a little today. I do think the distraction helped.

2 comments:

Sixwing said...

One of my favorite hymns ever is "Tu has venido a la orilla," or "Lord, you have come to the lakeshore." In English, it is a very sad, sweet hymn. In Spanish, it is heartrending.

Multicultural services == the awesome, ime. I'm glad you got to go to one.

Anonymous said...

Your new church sounds wonderful,engaging in lots of things a person could be passionate about. I'd imagine though that there would still be a huge amount of sadness and anxiety about the loss of connections and friendships from your last church, particularly given the traumatic way you were forced to leave, despite your best intentions. I wonder if there is a way that you could go about grieving that? Lx