Spacious Place

Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of God's praise be heard,
who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
you laid burdens on our backs;
you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
--Psalm 66:8-12

We have been tested, yes, and been through fire. Not just in the wider world, not just in society, but in our very church. In our very own faith communities. We are not free to answer God's call to ordained ministry, not free to be joined in holy union with our partners, not free to bring our whole selves into the Body of Christ. Yes, we have been tested. People have, indeed, ridden over our heads.

But the psalmist promises us "a spacious place." There is a spacious place that God will bring us into, a place with plenty of breathing room, a place spacious enough to share our whole selves. God IS making that place ready for us.

I pray that it is in the church I love. I pray that it is in the community that raised me and taught me to believe. But if it is not, and these days it is easy to believe that it is not, I pray that God leads us to the prepared place anyway. I am tired of knocking on the door, begging for entrance into a place that is too small for me. God's place will be spacious enough for all.