Middle of the week. No one has time, patience, or the want to. Church on Wednesdays is something we did as kids, right?

I’ll be the first one in line to confess it’s just too much work…  I’m tired.  What are we going to eat for supper? We can’t afford to pick up food afterwards. I need to shower first. The kids will fuss. I don’t feel like putting on makeup. We’d have to stop and get gas first.

For some reason, the middle of the week has this ridiculous power to suck the life out of the prayers we expedite to Jesus on Sunday mornings. I am guilty in the first degree…

I leave church on Sundays with Jesus literally bubbling through the pores of my heart, like a dry sponge submerged in a bowl of water… Only to make it to those tough mid-week mornings and wonder what I’m doing with my life. I’ve messed up so bad. I can’t believe I said that. Am I good enough? What will they think when they find out? Will this pain ever relent? Am I really enough?

I get it. Been there. Done that. Got a whole box of t-shirts to prove it, and none of them fit.

We’re all a mess. We don’t have the time, the money, the tears, nor the will to fight it during the mid-week problems that life catapults to our front door mats. We shake our fists and kitchen spatulas at the God who says.. be still, my child. Wait.

Waiting is hard.

It’s Draining. Uncomfortable. Pressing. All consuming.

My family and I have called Church of the Highlands home for the past year and a half. Yes, it’s a huge place with lots of people, lots of music, and name tags. As the greeters opened the doors for us on our first visit, the love that rolled out of those doors was tangible and I literally watched it cover my feet, filling my soul with a richness I could almost taste. A richness only Jesus himself would have waiting for me.

First Wednesday services are just what they sound like. The First Wednesday of every month. It’s a service like no other in my honest opinion. Don’t get me wrong… Sunday’s are sensational and much needed for the soul. But there’s something about gathering at God’s house in the middle of the week. It’s like swinging by a best friend’s house last minute, and their house and hugs just feel different. A good different. The conversation is better on visits like these, the emotions are real, and the coffee tastes better. That’s what First Wednesday’s at Highlands are like for me.

There’s nothing I love more than walking in with people, who like myself, have probably had a bad day. A day of bad news, bad decisions, and flat tires. Walking shoulder to shoulder with these warriors of the cross as we all find our seats and sanity, is nothing short of Jesus work. As we worship to the music nectar of Church of the Highlands, I look around and see such sweet surrender. The faces of God’s people are real. The day has happened and we’ve landed here… wading in a pool of mercy and an ocean of undeserving grace.

I see beautiful shaking hands held high, and fingers pointed towards heaven. I see makeup running down the faces of moms who may have just lost a child, just signed divorce papers, or just let Jesus in. I see grown men wiping tears filled with regret, burden, or joy. I see Highlands ushers make a seat, a way, and a place for every single weary soul that walks through those doors.

After a soul-shaking worship, a sensational message is always delivered. A message filled with stunning conviction and the constant reminders that we are His and He loves us more than anything… despite everything… No matter what. End of story. Period.

Church of the Highlands is more than a church. You’ll notice this the minute you walk in, or tune in. This place is the heartbeat of Christ. Pumping through the walls, halls, streets, buildings, cities, and precious faces you see.

This life is so ridiculously hard. So trying. So pushy backy.

So today, whether your season is striving or thriving. God sees you. He gets it. He can handle it. The big is always directly related to the small. Hills make the valleys, and shadows bring the sunshine.

Hang in there my brothers and sisters. God will do it. God will deliver it. God will diagnose it. God will make it. God will provide it.

You know why? Because He sees it.

And I hope I see you at First Wednesday.