welcome December 9, 2002 Issue

Do you hear grace calling?

Warren Bolon

I DIDN'T GROW UP in a "full gospel" church. But I've always longed to feel full of the gospel, the good news that God is real and His love is here to heal and save everyone. I'm slightly amazed that I can clap on a gospel song's off-beat and sing some of "Amazing Grace" from memory.

There have been times when I've come upon a church that's rocking with life and joy, and wanted to go in and sing along. But I thought I wouldn't be welcome. I didn't know their songs. But—really, I was just hesistant to go in and let go. After all, the only thing that would not have been welcomed was a resistance to being alive and joyful.

It's good to be moved by the Spirit. Emotion doesn't invalidate spiritual experience. It can open the heart's door to something much bigger and exalting. And loving the gospel spirit doesn't separate us from normal life—from, say, the cares of balancing a checkbook, or from the riches of great literature. Nor should commitment to the gospel sever our connections with other people. No, what the gospel separates us from is the darkness of the world. Through its influence we find ourselves loved, whole, as God's daughters and sons.

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