Inside-Out

I walked over to the church Sunday morning to prepare for worship. Miss Mary Eliza was already there waiting, as is her custom, for church to begin. We walked into the quaint sanctuary at Cambellton United Methodist Church and I placed my notes on the pulpit. On the altar I placed four loaves of freshly baked bread from the Publix Supermarket. The aroma of the bread wafted through the sanctuary. We were preparing for worship. The text was John 6:35, Jesus is the bread. The image of fresh bread placed on the altar stirred images of communion and other times when bread has been essential.

Just before the service began, Laura, our daughter and her fiancée, Nate Paulk arrived. I had invited them to sing in worship. The song they chose was one I had not heard, “Inside-out” by a contemporary Christian group, Hillsong, out of Australia. Their music lifted the spirits of those in worship. I was thrilled to finally hear the two of them sing together.

The images of bread and the spirit of God moving in our minds and hearts from the inside-out captured my imagination. Too much of our time is captured in doing rather than living in the God’s spirit. The times in my own life when I’ve forgotten who am I and whose I have come when I have tried living from the outside-in rather than the inside out. When we know in our heart of hearts that Jesus is the bread of our lives, we live more centered and whole, from the inside-out.


We’re building bridges…across the Church…inside out. Thanks Laura and Nate, for teaching me a now/old way to be present in the world. Jesus, who built bridges from the inside-out, brings bread that is ever lasting.

Lord, give us this bread, that we might live first from the inside.

Bill