Conviction at Evening Prayer

I have attended services at the same small Baptist church for thirty-one years. I do not say this to establish credibility but to say that I am not a person given to extraordinary claims. Last Thursday during the closing prayer I became aware of a presence in the room that I can only describe as immense — not frightening, but so much larger than the space we occupied that the building felt suddenly like a thimble. The sensation lasted through the benediction and left me trembling. I drove home in silence. I have since returned to the ordinary rhythms of my life, but I find I am less afraid of dying than I was before.