“In tight circumstances, I cried out to the Lord. The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.”
Psalm 118:5 (Common English Bible)
Early in 2015, I was elected Moderator of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida. For the reader unfamiliar with Presbyterian government, the office I was elected to is the highest elected office for what is like a diocese in the Roman Catholic Church. Minutes before the meeting convened, I nervously paced outside in the parking lot. Nervous because the first item that day before the governing body was divisive. And, I would be responsible for managing the period of discussion and the vote that would follow. Nervous because the Presbytery was facing deep challenges that would require my best leadership and care. Nervous because of the high level of trust that was being placed upon me to lead. I paced alone in the parking lot as clergy and lay leaders gathered inside prepared to elect me as their leader for such a time as this. I looked to God, in prayer, for strength.
Then, a car pulled alongside me and stopped. The driver was Dr. Thomas K. Tewell. He had been staying as a church guest in the church’s guest house during business in South Florida. Formally the Senior Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City, Tom was now the Executive Director of Macedonia Ministry—an equipping ministry for pastors. Tom is a church leader I had admired and looked to for guidance for over a decade at that time. Unaware of the Presbytery meeting about to convene indoors, and unaware that I was to be elected as Moderator of the Presbytery, Tom simply stopped to say good morning. I told Tom of the meeting about to convene and my discomfort. He parked his car, got out and gripped my hand and prayed with me. More than my hand was gripped. The contagious energy and faith of an extraordinary man of God lifted me above all distress.
Tom’s radiant and victorious personality lifted me far above my nervous anxiety and placed me in the certain presence and care of God. My concerns simply disappeared. I experienced a strength that was absent before and a confidence that I was exactly the person to serve the Presbytery at this challenging time. Immediately following my election as Moderator and the gavel of leadership placed in my hand, I addressed the Presbytery with these words, “God is here with us. In our disagreements, let us conduct God’s work with humility, civility, and respect for one another.” Those words, spoken with a conviction that was absent minutes earlier, flowed from the power of Dr. Thomas Tewell’s friendship, mentorship, and love for me. That serendipitous encounter with Tom changed me.
This has been the experience of the greatest saints of the church. In times of personal anxiety and distress, they came before God, in prayer, and sought communion with the divine. They did not necessarily seek something. Though they each recognized prayer for material things as legitimate, they unfailingly relegated such things to a secondary place. Of greatest value was the experience of the transcendent that would purify moments of distress—a power that would lift one above the trivia of life. Such Christian men and women recognized that fellowship with God, in prayer, transformed them from victim to undefeatable. Prayer reminds us that God is the one who upholds all things and that God’s power is patient, loving, just, and holy. This teaching from Psalms reminds us that God takes those squeezed, cramped, and distressed and places them in “wide-open spaces” where they can breathe again.
Joy,
Nurture Faith with Dr. Doug Hood 