EVENT

Tomorrow is Sunday. I look forward to Sunday. It's my favorite day of the Seven. I get to see friends I haven't seen for a week, sometimes longer. I get to see acquaintances who exchange smiles, hand shakes, hugs or chat, and then we go our separate directions until next weekend when we do that over again. I get to see strangers who seem excited to be where we both are. I also get to see people for whom that particular day might be the start-up to a whole new life, though they don't know it yet.

Twentieth-century churched Americans like me were taught to focus on instant salvation, a conversion that was an EVENT. Though this may seem normal to many of us, it is a relatively modern way of coming to faith. It has been more common throughout distant history to focus on the process of conversion, not only the event.

Just as the physiological birth event is the culmination of a longer process (and a painful, laborious one for half the population), and is the commencement of another long process called 'life' - so the conversion-to-faith process is seen as a flowing river, a critical episode in a larger, all-important process.

As a result, we don't rush people toward a decision. We see rushed decisions as potential abortions - harmful, dangerous, even criminal. We see this process and its ultimate event taking place under the careful, watchful, providential eye of a relational, dynamic God.

And to think, all that takes place tomorrow, on my favorite day of the week.

And be blessed.