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Will You Have a Good Seat?

There are many benefits of the job I have working for a Christian college. One of them is to pull out the trump card and say, I thought you loved Jesus, whenever they say something I don’t like. Ok, I’m kidding. I don’t actually say it out loud. 

The real benefit is working among like-minded believers who know we are all in this mission together to serve the King. Oh, we surely forget from time to time, and we all have our levels of maturity in the faith. But when we stumble, we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who can pull us aside and say, I thought you loved Jesus. (Kidding. Again, no one says it out loud.)

But here’s something that, seriously, does keep us all grounded. The faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the chapel services alongside the students. Yes, we all have much to keep us busy and it would often be easier to keep plugging away on a project or two. 

Yet there is no greater equalizer when people of different levels of authority gather with students who have no authority and we join in singing the only real Authority. 

Sitting in a recent chapel, singing The Revelation Song, I was struck with a few thoughts. 

Where we worship, we sit in a half circle. I enjoyed looking around and seeing that everyone’s focus was on stage. (Ok, maybe everyone except mine. Don’t be so judgy.) Everyone was focused on worship.  Everyone was singing to Jesus. 

Since we were singing The Revelation Song, my thoughts turned to the day when we will sing, all of redeemed creation, to Jesus. 

It’s a powerful image, thinking about everyone focused on one thing. Everyone focused on Jesus. 

But then I wondered what the venue might look like. Would there be seats? Would Jesus be in the middle? And if He is in the middle, would I have a good view? I swear, if my eternal seat is behind someone tall or with an unusually large head...

I digress. The fact is there will be men and women and children from every tribe and nation will be there. I don’t know the last time you read Revelation, but it’s going to be a crowd. I don’t want make this about me, because just being there, when you know you don’t deserve to be there, is still good enough. 

After all, I will join the countless number in worship. We will sing with pure hearts. We will sing without need of being heard. I assume we will all sing on key. Most importantly, we will sing to the One who saved us all. 


So maybe I should admit that just having a seat will equate to having a good seat. Will you have a good seat?

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