I found God at a red light on New Market this morning on my way to work

Ok, so my title is more of an attention-grabber than strictly accurate, but bear with me; it'll come back up.

So, it's probably pretty apparent that I'm not the church-iest of people. While I'm generally sympathetic toward the core teachings of mainstream Christianity, I'm also highly opinionated...including a lot of opinions that essentially boil down to "I don't know." I absolutely and unquestionably grew up in the Church, though, and that's had an indelible mark on how I view and interact with the world. In spite of that, there are still a lot of things that I have trouble reconciling, and those are the things I either tend to ignore, or hold in suspension until some sort of enlightening moment occurs.

And, for me, those enlightening moments can occur at the most unexpected times. In the tradition of the American transcendentalists, some of my most powerful experiences of "worship" have occurred while held in the grips of nature (I don't think I'd ever felt so close to the sublime than the time a couple summers back I was hiking at Grandfather Mountain, and while I was on the bridge leading up to the peak, and I walked into a cloud bank. It took me a few moments to realize it wasn't just a patch of fog or anything, and that I was actually becoming one with the sky, held aloft several hundred feet above the valley by nothing but a few tons of steel beams and cables, and the grace of God not to have them released from their anchor-points). When I came back down I was shaking, and definitely not from fear of heights (which I don't have).

Music is another channel through which I tend to "experience" the divine. Even though they're a socially active folk-rock duo, and (as far as I know) completely removed from the Contemporary Christian Music industry, the Indigo Girls have always been a powerful catalyst for me. In the past, I feel that I've come to a greater understanding of ideas like peace and joy and separation and redemption than I may ever have otherwise. For some reason, this duo resonates with the higher aspects of my self in a way that few other preachers/teachers/musicians/poets/visionaries ever have. I like to listen and re-listen to their music mostly because I think it's good listenin', but sometimes something just jumps out at me.

I listen to my mp3 player when I'm in the car (cassette converter; I feel weird about wearing headphones while I'm driving), because I'm generally ambivalent about music I hear on the radio, and I always listen on shuffle, because there's something kind of cool about not knowing what you're going to hear next. Today, while I was waiting for a stoplight to turn (I told you I'd get back to it!) and the song "Shame on You" came on. It's a cool song, and it's actually got a pretty good dance beat for the genre it's in, but it's the lyrics that actually grabbed my attention today.

"My friends Tanner she says, "you know/Me and Jesus were of the same heart/The only thing that keeps us distant/Is that I keep fucking up"

In a few seconds of colloquial (and slightly vulgar) lyrics, a whole bunch of things kind of clicked in my mind. Being made in the image of God. Human imperfection. Christ's love. And even a bit about grace (although my favorite American meditation on grace is still probably Jonathan Edwards' essay "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" It gives me goosebumps to read it).

But, yeah...God seems to be present almost any place, any time, and inspiration can strike even when you're not looking for it. Maybe even especially when you're not looking for it.

Peace, love understanding, and respect!