I find that I write a lot of things by describing them as, "Words cannot describe...," but really, words cannot describe how amazing last night's This Night was. For me I can only say that I'm not really surprised. God kind of gave me a "head's up" on last night. He kept nudging me to pray, and kept reminding me He was going to do something big. I'm just super glad that it had nothing to do with us. I mean, if you only knew what was going on behind the scenes. We had a food crisis! Everything...OK, almost everything...that could go wrong with our meal just about went wrong. The caterers promised to bring ice, and there was no ice. They forgot the plates. They didn't put cheese on some sandwiches, but gave it to us to do. They didn't put the cheese on salads, gave it to us to do. Lemons had to be put in dishes! Ugh! The "us" was only two of us, and there was NO way we could get everything done in the amount of time we had. Thankfully, several sweet ladies showed up early with eager servant's hearts, or else...well, I just don't want to think about it. I get way frazzled over stuff like that, and quite honestly I had already been getting in a frenzy all day about the little things. Like I said, though, God always works it out. He reminds us - He reminds ME - a lot just who we are serving when we put together something like This Night. We do it for an audience of ONE. Whew! That takes a load off!
I kind of like to replay events over and over in my head after an event and hit the pause button. It is ALWAYS a good thing for me to do because I see just where things make a turn around from no longer being about me/us to being solely about HIM. It's like life. I mean, don't we always have to muddle through the trials (you know...no ice, no plates, no cheese on sandwiches) to realizing that this stuff has absolutely NOTHING to do with what was really about to come!
OK! Hit the pause button. Hit it about 7:20 pm. The meal is over (and let me just say, it was totally great! It all worked out). Turn your chair around and face the front. The music starts. Your heart settles and focuses. Right there you begin to see someone else has taken center stage. No, it's not the worship leader. It's not even the music. It's the Holy Spirit. He comes swooping in and meets with us. Hearts have come into the room that need to just "be still and know that He is God." Lots of ladies have had a really, really bad day. Some don't even know why they are there. God does. He knew it before they were even born. He knew He would draw them to a little something at LifeSong Church called This Night. Little did they, or anyone else know, why they were really there.
Fast forward a little to a woman taking the stage. She's soft spoken...humble...at peace...has a story to tell. She is completely REAL. As she begins to share her life with us - the good and the bad parts - there are ladies in the audience that suddenly see why they are there. "Here's someone that I relate to. She is telling my story." It's as though there are only three people in the room - the speaker, herself, and the Holy Spirit (although she may not realize that part just yet). Here's a lady standing in front telling about a time in her life where there seemed to be zero hope for having a life of joy. She had no hope of having a marriage that would last. Her dream was shattered by divorce. She sank to the depths where she could sink no further. She could only hope to find peace by beginning to go to church with a friend. She fought finding the peace. She REALLY fought finding the peace, but she FOUND the peace! She found the ONE who could give her the only true peace her heart longed for. Little did she know that the spouse from her broken marriage was on his on road to finding peace, but he eventually found it. Here's where the awesome part comes in - the reason for THIS NIGHT to begin with! They both found restoration. It couldn't happen until they both found restoration with God, the Father. Once that happened, they found restoration with each other. They were remarried! How often do you hear that? Try like NEVER! That's not something man-made. That is something God-made. It's the dream come true....the joy she had been searching for, but this time God is in the driver's seat.
We might not have that exact story. We may have had completely different circumstances cause us to lose joy, or to realize that we never had it to begin with! We all have something in our life that needs to be restored. Last night, we were reminded, or maybe even told for the first time, just WHO it is that can restore.
God brought healing last night. We saw a young woman meet Jesus for the first time. We saw another woman very new in her faith realize, once again, how much she needed Jesus. We saw women who walked in the door hurting and without hope realize they truly do have hope. We saw the only ONE who can bring that hope deliver it, yet, once again!
So, you see "words cannot describe" just what This Night was. You almost had to be there. I hope that my attempt to record it (TiVo it, if you will!) adequately portrays that when it is done for an audience of ONE - and mind you, it was tough starting off believing we were doing it for an audience of ONE with all of the distractions - but, when you finally hit that pause button you see that, indeed, God was there all along. You see that lives were changed, challenged and repaired. You see that yes, This Night was truly a night of RESTORATION.
