Reconciled (Part 2)

It was Sunday evening and I had spend the last 7 seven hours with my nose in a book reading about oh so exciting things such as research methods and curriculum mapping. I had spent the entire day before that asleep, entire day meaning 20 hours. I was desperate to break the monotony and about to go nuts.
I decided to make social rounds and call friends whom I hadn't spoken with a while. As I went down the list all I got was voicemail. Finally, a few hours later, I got a call back. Katrina! I hadn't spoken to Katrina since she had come home from Sacramento.
Of course my first question to her was when do I get to meet Simon. Simon is the boy responsible for luring her to Sacramento in the first place. He moved to Washington when she came home and I think it's only a matter of time before we'll hear wedding bells.
We chatted for a few minutes about her summer adventures and then I opened my big mouth and said the unthinkable... "Can I visit your church tonight and then I'll get to meet Simon?" Oh dear, what was I thinking? I just volunteered to go to church!
I arrived at the building just a few minutes late and hesitated for a moment at the door before I went inside. I had remembered Lindsey telling me about at somewhat mysterious but harmless one armed man who lives in the church and assumes the position of "greeter" at Sunday services. I knew that he would be there waiting for me on the other side of that door.
"If I don't make eye contact, maybe he can't see me," I thought to myself. But alas as soon as I opened that door, there he was; the one armed man known as Brother George and he was talking to me. I practically ran down the hallway and into the bathroom just before reaching the stairwell. I could hear the one armed man behind me saying "keep going to the end of the hall."
I stood there for a moment, looking at myself in the bathroom mirror; I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to cry. After catching my breath, I finally decided to make a go of it and headed down the stairs into the sanctuary. I tried to make my entry as inconspicuous as possible and took a seat next to Katrina. By this time I was in a cold sweat and all I could do was pray that I would make it through the service. As I stood there praying the Lord said this to me: "I told you I would reconcile you to the church, my people. I meant that to include the not only the community of believers at your own congregation, but those around you in other congregations as well and even globally."

Reconciled (Part 1)

The Lord has most recently been teaching me about what it means to be reconciled. September 21st was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I sat huddled on the floor in the corner of an overfilled sanctuary praying that no one would try to talk to me until I could sneak out during the Torah procession. Unfortunately the corner where I sat was also inhabited to several others of the BT 20s crowd so some type of greeting was pretty much unavoidable.
Feeling very insecure in the situation, I finally did something right and began to pray. I'm not even sure exactly what I was praying about, but the funny thing is that things like that never seem to matter to God. He had something He wanted to say to me and now was the perfect time.
"It's been 20 years, it is time... I want to reconcile you to the church, to my body and to my people. I have more for you than you can see now. Come with Me, trust me, and I will reconcile you to the church."
"God, I know this must be you speaking to me because my own mind would never say this. But what does this reconciliation look like?"
"Trust me and hold on tight because I'm about to show you."
I continued to pray and somehow made it to the end of service. Because it was the closing of Yom Kippur it was also the end of a fast. I was planning on bailing early while the rest of the congregation broke the fast together with a huge potluck. As I dashed for the door I hear a familiar voice say "Grab her." It was Israel, a guy I went to school with more than a decade ago. He was saying this to my friend Virginia as she captured me dragging me to the dreaded fellowship hall.
I must admit however, that I didn't put up much of a fight as I was thinking that perhaps this might be a taste of reconciliation to the church. So... I went to the potluck and ate at a table with other people and had a relatively normal conversation with them as well. I was quite proud of myself for this. "Ok God, I fellowshipped with the church. How did I do, wasn't that great?"
"That's not enough. I have more for you."
More? What could that be?