Perspectives: Sacred Window

What do you think of this window? Isn't it beautiful? It looks like it belongs in a church - but that's not where I found it.  It's in the entrance of a TGIFriday's in Charleston.

What is sacred? What is secular? Are there strict dividing lines between them? 

I'm not suggesting that a window at TGIFiday's is sacred, but the moment I had, looking at it, think of sacred vs secular, and planning what I would tell you about it was a sacred moment. It was sacred because it had God in it.

Have you been to a worship service that didn't feel like worship at all? That felt like a self-help conference, or even worse, a boring break before lunch? There can be worship that isn't sacred at all, because God hasn't shown up - hasn't been invited or acknowledged.

God transforms the secular into the sacred, and God doesn't set the boundaries for the distinction that we do. I've met with donors where the moments spent with them, hearing about their callings to give, that are sacred moments, made so be the presence of God.  

I've heard music on the radio that was not meant to be sacred, but was.

And I've listened to music in a worship service that had no element of the sacred in it at all.

We draw strict lines sometimes - and God ignores them. We pass judgment on the sacred nature of something, and God laughs at us.

Be open to the sacred every day. It shows up in places we wouldn't expect it.