"And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not."
Genesis 28:16 (KJV)
Jacob wasn't in a temple. He was on the run, from his brother and from his own mess, and he fell asleep in the open with a stone for a pillow. Nothing about that spot looked holy. That's exactly where God met him. And the first thing out of Jacob's mouth when he woke up was a confession: the Lord was here the whole time, and I didn't know it.
I relate to that more than I'd like to admit. Most of my week happens in places that don't feel sacred: the 10 at 5:30, the checkout line at Ralphs, the laundromat on a Sunday night, my phone at 1 a.m. I save my awareness of God for church and quiet mornings and treat the rest like dead time. But He doesn't clock out when I leave the building.
This month we're talking about standing firm, and here's where it starts: you can't hold your ground in a place you think God left. Most days the problem isn't that He's absent. It's that I'm asleep: distracted, hurried, half-present. Jacob didn't have to travel anywhere new to find God. He just had to wake up to where he already was.
The same God who met Jacob in that dusty camp is present at a Catholic Mass in Boyle Heights, an Orthodox liturgy in Hollywood, a Pentecostal prayer meeting in South LA, and the Baptist church down your block. Paul calls Him "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:6). The believer across town who worships a little differently than you is not a stranger. Wherever Christ's people gather, the Lord is in that place too.
Carry this with you
Once a day this week, stop wherever you are and say it out loud: Surely the Lord is in this place.
Lord Jesus, wake me up to Your presence in the ordinary places, and in every brother and sister who calls You Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Alia
UNASHAMED, Los Angeles