“Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.”

I love getting my Leadership Journal each quarter. Preaching is the primary theme this time and I was reading an interview with Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church (in Michigan, I think). It was an interesting interview on creativity and leadership and preaching, but there’s one question, early in the interview that I thought was a wonderful reminder and challenge.

Leadership Journal: “Your sermons are known for pulling from unexpected sources – everything from art history to quantum physics. Why?”

Bell: “When Jacob woke up after his vision of angels ascending and descending on the ladder, he declared, ‘Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.’ And Jesus says, ‘My Father is always at work even to this very day.’ Jesus lives with an awareness, an assumption that God is here and he’s at work. Dallas Willard calls this ‘the God-bathed world.’ This has deeply shaped me.”

There was more to the interview, but this just grabbed me. God is at work all around us in the lives of people in ways you could never imagine. I’m encouraged to pray for eyes to see God at work and how I can play a part in it.