I am an introvert. I am a preacher. I love to preach. I love to lead worship. Weird, right? But that’s how I am. I feel at ease and at home during that hour. I am myself.
The congregation I work in is a small racially diverse community. It is really amazing to look out and see the wonderful diversity of God’s children.
The African-American women who attend have a way of talking about God in their life, that, at times, makes me feel very uneasy. The harsh reality is I am uneasy, because when these women talk about God - God is close, God cares, God is present, God is real, God is in my life, God is involved in my life. God is someone. Someone to talk with and talk about. Someone Real.
While I truly believe and am comforted by God’s presence, it also scares me. It scares me, because I want to rationalize God, make sense of God. I don’t want to come across as some Jesus freak who gives thanks for the changing of a traffic light or who sees God’s punishment in natural disasters. I want people to know that I am a person of “reasonable faith” and this makes me The Faith Introvert.
Faith in God is not totally reasonable, but neither is love or compassion or imagination or art or music. As I know that love and compassion and imagination and art and music are real, I know that God is real. I trust in God. Outside of my sermons, I want to be able to better talk with people about where I see God alive . Because God is. God is Someone to talk with and talk about. And this is a beginning.
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