Feeling the Holy

“…we’re hushing the hurry and

feeling the holy and savoring the wonder.”

Ann Voscamp

I have been on a quest for holy lately.

There is something pushing up in me,

a desire to find this thing that's missing.

So when I read Ann Voscamp's post,

something stirred in me.

It's been hard to describe this feeling.

But the word that best describes the

feeling that I am searching for is "holy."

We live in the age of familiar and common.

Not much takes our breath away.

Not much flips our shoes off.

It’s not that God doesn’t have 

holy moments all around.

It’s just that they are hard to find.

Today’s churches have taken some  

awe and wonder and replaced them 

with comfortable and common.

Where there used to be holy water at the door,

there is now coffee and donuts.

We want to take some of the mystery away

so seekers can find connections.

That’s not a bad thing.

It's just that sometimes we trade away a thing

that will have to come another way.

I have this strange longing for cathedral ceilings

and incense filled air and candle lit altars.

I want to walk into a sanctuary and

sit in the holy silence

and breathe in the anointed air.

But this is just part of wanting to find holy

and those moments have to be everywhere.

A holy moment presents itself when

I am faced with two reports, and I decide

to turn from the report punctuated with fear

and look to the one stamped with peace.

It happens when I am all alone and 

my thoughts have free reign to go anywhere.

But “Joy to the World” plays on Spotify

and I’m struck by the 

repetitive declarations filling my home.

And wonders of His love


And wonders of His love


And wonders and wonders of His love.

And I realize that I can think anything I want,

but grace has stepped in and led me

to think about wonder.

The wonder of His love.

He uses a music app to remind me

that His wonder is as real in my home

as it is in any cathedral.

The next song declares that

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

And I choose His gospel--

which is always about good news--

over the report filled with fear and doubt.

 And maybe for a moment

I had my breath taken away

and I wanted to flip off my shoes.

I am grateful for wonder and love.

No other season more loudly proclaims

the wonders of His love.

There are people who have no understanding 

of Jesus singing about this great love.

And there are those, like me, who sing of it with

a measure of understanding but sometimes 

as if seeing the wonder of this great love

for the first time.

And if I close my eyes,

I can smell the incense and 

see the candles burning.

I think that I'm feeling the holy

and savoring the wonder.

In the midst of wonder,

hurry is easily hushed.