derekmaul

“Let me show you a way of life that is best of all!”

– Feel-Good Friday at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church!

But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all! – 1 Corinthians 12:31

It is another beautiful hot, sultry, steamy summer’s day here in Wake Forest, where the weather patterns are feeling both familiar and tropical to those of us who identify as former Floridians.

– picnicking at WFPC

One symptom of this less than subtle shift in climate was evidenced through Friday evening’s series of thunderstorms, disrupting our “Feel-Good Friday” event at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church.

We arrived well before 6:00, picked up the wonderful dinner provided by WFPC’s Food Ministry team, and secured a nice swarth of church lawn for the concert. Associate Pastor John Fawcett and his band, Sir Walter, were finalizing their setup when Rebekah offered the blessing. We visited with the growing crowd with a tingle of anticipation in the air.

The air was tingling for other reasons too!

The air was also tingling for other reasons, it turned out, and within moments several mighty cracks of thunder split open the sky and the rains poured out.

The radar on my phone predicted a near miss followed by a pleasant evening. Reality, however, dictated a deluge, a drizzly pause, more deluges and then steady rain.

My window of opportunity to be away from my parents, unfortunately, snapped closed before Sir Walter was finally able to take the stage, and all I could do was enjoy a few of the songs via spectators’ FaceBook Live feeds.

Regardless, probably a third of the crowd managed to hang in there and enjoy the show.

And this is our church…

And this is our church right now in this “not quite post-COVID” season:

  • trying so hard to be together whenever we can;
  • alternately showing up and having to watch on-line;
  • eating bbq in the rain;
  • desperate for one-another’s company even when it means huddling under a leaky Sunbrella;
  • loving each other up close… and also from the far end of a ZOOM connection;
  • committed to fellowship… and at the same time sensitive to the health and wellbeing of our brothers and sisters;
  • soaked to the skin as we are reminded of our baptism, and so very grateful for “The communion of the saints.”

The Sir Walter concert, it turns out, was most excellent. The idea of being together is excellent and beautiful too. The ongoing reality of life as a community, rooted in love and committed to following Jesus, is more excellent still – both our experience and the promise of our future.

(Thanks to Amanda McCabe for her two photos from the concert.)

In love, and because love is “a more excellent way” – DEREK

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