Cities are places of hope and of hurt. They are often characterized by great diversity. I bet if you tried to locate an individual from nearly any people group in the world, you would be able to find them in New York. Dmac tells us very often to never forget that over 55% of all people who live in NY were not born in the United States. They are all so beautiful as well. It amazes me to see their faces and hear their languages being spoken all around. Yesterday I was standing on a street corner and a man speaking Mandarin Chinese on his phone was waiting to cross the street with me. I actually understood a few of his phrases (which was a huge linguistic triumph!). This morning, along with hundreds of other individuals in the city, supposedly representing over 100 nations, we gathered together to worship the Lord in north Times Square. Times Square Church is one of the most diverse places I've ever been in ethnically. And as a church body they have reached a level of heterogeneity that is astounding and probably nearly impossible in any other context. People like to be with other people who are like themselves. This is why the church is so separated racially/ethnically. Issues of contextualization of the gospel to our own beliefs and practices get in the way of our worshipping with people of different beliefs and practices. This church, whose worship style is primarily African-American style gospel demonstrates the willingness of such groups as Asians and whites to give up their cultural style to be a part of the body. 
The Spirit of God was so strong in that place. I could feel His pleasure as the hundreds of people that filled the theater lifted their voices and their hands in worship. We sang of His love and of His glory in several different languages. People rejoiced as they moved their bodies and together lifted up praises to our King. It was really fun.
I think I am getting really spiritually distracted here though. In the large crowds and the vastness of the buildings and the things to do, I've begun to believe that there isn't enough of God to go around. I was sitting in the service this morning, about to partake in communion with the body there and I accidentally dropped my little cracker. I felt this lie well up from inside of me, it was so still though that I almost believed it. It said, "It's okay if you drop that, you don't really need to partake in the whole body and blood of Christ. You aren't really worthy of the whole thing anyway." It was almost like I was sacrificing something because I didn't really deserve it in the first place. [By the way, I'm not lazy to bend down and pick it up, it fell out of my reach.] I thought about what that meant; not taking the whole of communion. How had I gotten to the place where I decided that I didn't need to partake in the whole body and the blood? I'm still not sure. But as believers we are wholly for Christ, something we understand well, but struggle with AND He is wholly for us! Our inheritance is His fullness. O, I need to be reminded of that!
In all of the diversity and all of the wonderful interactions with the millions of people who live on this island, God is still enough to give all of Himself to me. I can still partake in His fullness even though He loves everyone here. It's such a mystery to me, but I love the sound of that and I'm continuing to ask for more and more intimacy as the days go by.
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