Christ In My Heart, in My Mind, in Ten Thousand Places
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED BY BREAKPOINT.
As a kid in church I remember singing, ad nauseam, “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy… where? Down in my heart.” So, one day I prayed that Jesus Christ would come into my life, but then I wondered where he would live. And my childlike theology answered, “Oh, right. Down in my heart.”
As I grew to an adolescent, I asked a Sunday School teacher how I would know God’s will for my life, particularly the important things like whether I should date Lindsay, from the 9th grade, and he told me, “Pray and you’ll know in your heart what God wants you to do.”
Now, it’s easy to poke fun at this kind of thinking, but this focus on my heart as an essential and precious lesson for any young Christian. It is a lesson evangelicalism teaches well in its songs, prayers, preaching, and culture. It’s one I’m grateful to have learned.
Unfortunately, in my context, this lesson was matched with an equal disinterest in anything outside of my heart. The physical stuff around me, for example, was apparently going to hell in a hand-basket, and Christians were just a-passin’ through this world on our way to heaven. We learned that if we turned our eyes on Jesus, the things of earth would “grow strangely dim.”
In other words, by age ten, I was a Christian with a more or less Gnostic understanding of the Christian faith. As I saw it then, my relationship with God belonged to the spiritual, not the physical, world.
Christ In My Mind
Eight years later, I attended a Christian college where I was introduced to Christian thinkers like C.S. Lewis, John Piper, and the Westminster Divines. I experienced a new (and needed) lesson about faith that A.W. Tozer sums up well in his often-quoted line, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
Majoring in Bible, I took courses on epistemology and theological method, and participated in late-night dorm room discussions on the Five Points of Calvinism. It was invigorating and fresh and I was happy to be exercising these new “muscles” in the mental gymnastics of theology. In fact, this brave, new, intellectual world of Christianity gave my faith a new lease on life, especially since my typically tumultuous adolescent experience had left me cynical of my “heart.”
By the time I got to seminary my heart loved Jesus, and my mind wanted to know Him, but the rest of me, and the rest of the world, was still nowhere to be found in my faith. The gnostic dualism of physical against spiritual was very much alive.
Christ In Ten Thousand Places
Near the end of seminary, I read the late Eugene Peterson’s book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. The book’s words deeply impacted me. Peterson took his title from this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:
I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is — Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
[To hear a great conversation between Eugene Peterson and Ken Myers about Peterson’s book, go here.]
Also, around this time, I began visiting churches whose liturgies reflected the more embodied theology and practices of the ancient Church. The sensory experiences of liturgical worship matched what I had learned from Peterson: Jesus Christ is not just in my heart and mind; He’s in my body, and in ten thousand other physical places in this world, “Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his.” Wasn’t this the point of His incarnation?
Altogether, this meant that, finally, for the first time in my Christian life, the existence of the physical world was no longer extra, or mundane, or some kind of danger to my spiritual life. Instead, I realized, it was sacramental, full of the grace and meaning given to it by Christ’s incarnation! All water suddenly became a reminder of my baptism. All bread and all wine were now reminders that God became man to make all things- visible and invisible- new.
In the end, my journey of discovering Christ in ten thousand places found its way into a song. You can hear it below.
The Gospel Coalition #TGC19 Playlist
A couple of the hymns I recorded for Come Away From Rush & Hurry made it onto a great playlist the Gospel Coalition put together as a soundtrack to their conference. You can check out the entire playlist here:
Really glad these hymns, “Blest Are The Pure In Heart” and “At The Cross Her Vigil Keeping” are getting some exposure. They have blessed me tremendously. The first time I heard “At The Cross…” was during Lent. We prayed each verse of the hymn in between the Stations of the Cross liturgy. It was as beautiful as it was haunting.
“Blest Are…” is certainly a memorable text but it was the melody that first lodged in my heart and mind. I heard this gem a few years ago for the first time.
Anyway, I’m so grateful to be included on a playlist like this, with so many artists I both listen to and admire. I hope you’ll enjoy and share the playlist on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you get your tunes!
Here’s the playlist/article from TGC’s website.
JB
Sunday Nights At The Cathedral Church Of Saint Luke - Downtown Orlando
Sunday Nights At The Cathedral Church Of Saint Luke
6pm in Downtown Orlando, FL
Saint Luke's Cathedral Orlando
What: Christian Worship In The Anglican Tradition
If you're in the Orlando area (or nearby), I want to invite you to Sunday Nights At St. Luke's. Each Sunday night in the heart of downtown Orlando, in a beautiful Gothic-revival style church called The Cathedral Church of Saint Luke, I lead worship for an ancient Christian service called Holy Eucharist. In songs and prayers, in scripture readings and preaching, we reenact the story of the Bible together: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. It's a worship experience that involves all five of your senses. You could say we even taste, smell, and touch the story in the bread and wine of communion. So from the architecture to the liturgy, as poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, "Christ plays in ten thousand places." And it's glorious. For more on Anglican liturgy and the Bible, HERE'S an article from one of the priests at St. Luke's, and my friend, Justin Holcomb.
Saint Luke's Cathedral Orlando
When: Sunday Nights 6pm
We meet each Sunday night from 6-7:15pm. In Anglican churches some worshippers come early to kneel and pray silently in the Cathedral before the service begins. You are welcome to do this! After worship, we walk to a local pub for food, drinks, and conversation.
Saint Luke's Cathedral Orlando
Where: The Cathedral Church Of Saint Luke
Address: 130 North Magnolia Ave Orlando, FL 32801
Website: www.stlukescathedral.org
The Risen Christ, Altar, Saint Luke's Cathedral Orlando
How: Parking
Parking can be difficult in downtown Orlando. There are three good places to park when you come to the Cathedral: 1) Metered street parking around the building is free on Sunday nights, 2) The Lanier Parking Lot sits RIGHT BESIDE the Cathedral and parking is FREE there for those attending Saint Luke's, 3) The Regions Bank Parking Garage is another great free place to park. Pull into the garage, take a ticket, and get a parking voucher from an usher at the Cathedral before you leave. As you pull out of the garage put both tickets in the machine and that's it! Get more info on parking HERE.
Who: Leadership
One of the great things about Christian worship in the Anglican tradition is that its liturgical style ensures that the gospel's proclamation isn't based on one pastor's personality or sermon. Nevertheless, God's church is led by imperfect men and women and we want you to know who they are! These folks have a steady role with us on Sunday nights. For a full list of wonderful staff of the Cathedral, go HERE.
Bishop Greg Brewer
Dean Reggie Kidd
Canon Justin Holcomb
Canon Josh Bales