Acceptance

Tonight was Porch Night, which is a gathering of people who come together to dicuss the Bible on a porch. It's an unorthodox group, to be sure. Not all of us are Christians, and none of us have it together, and we don't pretend to. Some weeks it is utterly painful to come and hang with it and dig deep and not come up with Sunday School answers. Other weeks, the presence of God rests on us, and though we might be struggling with the deeper issues of faith, it just works.

Tonight was one of those nights. One of the guys who is not a Christian really struggles to reconcile Jesus, really cool guy, to miracle worker and savior. He believes that the miracles mentioned in the Bible are figures of speech, that they didn't really happen the way they are portrayed. He is a very analytical person who needs tangible eveidence. He's a scientist, a facts man. Several people in our group keep explaining that it's not just about facts, but faith. Many of us have seen miracles and other signs that God is real. Not that it makes us special. God has spoken to us in some way, and for whatever reason, we picked up on it and received it.

We ended up praying for this guy tonight, that his stomach, which has bothered him for years, would be miraculously healed. I don't know if God will choose to speak to him this way, but I pray that God does speak to him, that his eyes will be opened. In the meanwhile, we'll keep loving on him, this amazing brother of The Porch.