After Hours at the Cafe

There is a reason that the Alpha Course begins with the talk "Who is Jesus?"  It is a question that the church and the world continue to ask - even those of us who have followed him for a long time, yes even as we continue to ask, "Who is Jesus?"

Who is He?  And why does He matter?  Why must we fill the holes in our lives with the equivalent of decisions that hurt the soul, with choices that tear the soul?  What do we know of our soul and what it longs for?

What if in these thin hours we recognize for whom our soul cries for?  We may have all the marriages in the world of everyone who wishes to be married, we may read all the Bibles in the world and speak eloquently of what we read, but what does it mean apart from Jesus?  Yes, Jesus. It is not marriage that is the focus or a right - no, no, it is the Bridegroom.   It's not the words, even eloquent words, that we read and mark and learn and inwardly digest - it is The Word who bursts out of every page, yes, even Jesus.

Spring up O Well, 
Spring O well within me, 
I've got a River of Life, 
Spring O Well within me.  

In the closing prayer of this song above, it brings to mind another composition - which perhaps for the discerning heart, the discerning mind may recognize that this composer too is saying the same thing.  Our heart and mind and soul and all that is within us cries for The Bridegroom and the Word and yet why do we struggle so for position and power?  Why do we assert when we should relinquish, as lovers do, as writers do and in so doing, recognize what our soul so longs for - yes, even for Jesus.