I AM The River

Today, I had the opportunity to worship at La Casa del Alfarero (The Potter's House) which is in Asheville, NC. This is the second time that I have attended this church. The first time I attended it was as an assignment for the intercultural training I have been attending for the past month.The entire service is in Spanish. All of the church goers are of Latino descent, they pray in Spanish, they sing in Spanish, and the sermon....you guessed it.... is in Spanish. During my first visit, I was overwhelmed by the love, the kindness, and the openness with which I was received. The pastor even mentioned that I was a special guest and I was a missionary to Guatemala who was joining them so that I could practice my Spanish. At least a dozen people hugged and prayed for me during that first visit.  If you have never had the opportunity to worship God in another language.. I highly recommend it. It is an AWESOME experience. It's also a chance to brush up on your language skills which is also one of my motivations for attending La Casa de Alfarero. Apparently my Spanish language ability is lacking in the vocabulary of spiritual matters. I guess somewhere between learning Spanish in high school and practicing it in law enforcement these words escaped me :) For some reason learning how to pray in Spanish is not something I practiced regularly while giving instructions to standardized field sobriety tests in Spanish... go figure :)

So, I decided to attend La Casa de Alfarero once again today. I was once again met with enthusiasm, love, and acceptance. In fact, after speaking with one of the ladies for a few minutes, she informed me that when I return on furlough from Guatemala I am welcome to come stay with her because I am now considered family. This is only one small part of why I have fallen in love with this culture.

Today, as we were singing one of the worship songs, the phrase "El Gran Yo Soy" was repeated multiple times in the chorus.  The way the words were separated on the screen confused me and I was interpreting it in my head as I am belonging to The Great One... I kept pondering what this meant as I had never heard of God referred to in this matter, and then it dawned on me.. when I looked at the phrase as a single phrase it read "The Great I AM". I began to think of the fact that I AM is the present tense. It's interesting how you notice tenses more when you're reading in other languages. Think about that for a moment... God is not referred to as  The Great I WAS... or The Great I WILL BE.. but The Great I AM. He is in the present tense. He is whatever we need in THIS MOMENT. I AM your peace. I AM your joy. I AM your strength. I AM your shield. I AM your protector. I AM your provider. I AM.

I began to think about this on another level. Am I letting Him be I AM in my life? Have I tried to be.. or fill.. or create whatever it is I need Him to be? Am I treating Him like I WAS or I WILL BE? Am I letting Him be what I need in the moment? I AM is present. He wants us to walk this journey with Him and depend on Him in THIS MOMENT. We are not to look to Him as a God who did great things in history or a God who will one day do great things in the future. He is I AM.

I thank you for reading my blog. I hope you find it encouraging, and are enjoying the journey that God is taking me on. 

Blessings,
Meaghen