Holy

While the word "holy" brings to mind ideas of the divine or living according to a highly righteous moral code, at its core the word "holy" actually refers to setting something apart as not being ordinary. When ground is holy or water is holy it stands apart from the ordinary water or ground we see every day. Holy water would be used for a special purpose, greater than ordinary stuff flushed down the toilet. Holy ground might stand out as being of more significance than the ordinary ground we mow on a warm summer day and Fido uses first thing in the morning. The Bible is holy because it contains spiritual truth about God found nowhere else. This week... this Holy Week... is holy because even as the world continues to move in its humdrum ordinary ways this week stands out because of the holy actions Jesus lived, out of divine love for us.

Sure it is Holy Week, but when we look out our windows everything seems to look the same. Most of us we continue to go to work. Our children continue to go to school. We need to fill up our gas tanks and decide whether we want half and half with our coffee. Yeah... it doesn't seem all that different out there. Children are being born at the local hospital. Couples are deciding enough is enough and divorce is the only answer. Crimes will continue to be reported in the newspaper. The ordinary still surrounds us.

But in the midst of the ordinary we are given a divine gift. All is not ordinary with the world. There is a spiritual truth that impacts our lives... that we miss in the midst of the constant beat of common life and ordinary weeks. The gift of a Holy Week is that even as life continues to tick away we are reminded that God broke into the fabric of time through a Savior. God is united with us through Christ. And Christ becomes one with us fully through the cross. A holy event to be sure. You don't see that every day.

The gift of the holy... whether it be water, ground, the Bible or an entire week... is that the holy reminds us of the divine. Since our minds are all too often stuck in the physical we better have some physical moments of the holy that wake us up to the presence of God in our lives. God is always guiding us, but we tend to forget that.

Allow the rhythms of Holy Week and the opportunities to worship on days and at times you don't usually worship wake up within you the presence of Christ. While surrounded by the ordinary you can experience the holy.