My star word for this year is guidance. This word has made me pay more attention to
opportunities for receiving guidance.
Maybe that’s why there seem to be a plethora of people lately saying
things to me that are the same as what I say in sermons and Bible studies and meetings. At a workshop last week, the leader told us
about her theological ‘three-legged stool” – 1) In all things give thanks, 2)
God uses everything for good, and 3) God makes everything new. Those three "legs" are in many of my sermons and yet I so
needed to hear them said back to me that day.
I get to hear my own words said back to me on Facebook as
well, in the “memories” feature. I’m
often amazed at the wisdom I’ve posted in the past and forgotten. Today a song I posted seven years ago was
among the memories.
Every Time I Breath / Big Daddy Weave
I remember the day I first heard that song on the
radio. I marveled at the passion for God
in this song and wished I had that same depth of passion. As I hear it today, it stirs up that depth of
passion that I have along the way come to find in my own heart, and I’m thankful
as I realize that my prayer was answered.
But I can also see that there has been pain involved in getting here,
pain that has been instrumental in opening up my heart.
Hearing this song reminds me about another prayer that’s
even older, from long before I knew I would become a pastor, when I had only
begun to know God in a more personal way, and I told God I would do whatever he
needed me to do, as long as I could keep following and pleasing him. That was also when I first began to want to
help others to know God more personally.
There are so many things we pray for people – for health and
healing and safety, for success and stability – but how often do we pray for
people to have God moments? How often
are we asking God to help someone have deep, personal, life changing, heartfelt
encounters with him? Or even more than
encounters – ongoing, thriving life lived in the strength and nearness of his glorious
presence?
This past week many pastors preached about the story of
Peter, James and John on the mountain with Jesus, watching Jesus become transformed
so that they vividly saw his divinity.[1] So often the message is that we can’t stay
there, we have to go down the mountain.
But can’t we just stay there a moment longer and enjoy it first? And doesn’t God go with us down the mountain? Isn’t everything we do after that better if
we let it soak in first and then let God go with us?
It is my prayer that everyone would know the deep joy of God’s
presence so that, like Peter, they want to stay there, and in a way that the
Big Daddy Weave song would resonate with them, too, and overflow into all the parts of their lives.
But I wonder if this works the same for
everyone. Gary Thomas, in his book
Sacred Pathways[2],
tells how we all find God in different ways.
A song will not speak to everyone.
The same words will not resonate with everyone. I get that.
Really, my prayer is not that the song would resonate, but that everyone
would find the path that works for them so that they would know the joy that is
described in that song, that they would be able to say, “God, I am so in love
with you.” Helping people find this is my goal as a pastor,
my hope for my children, my prayer for my friends and for the world.
As you read this, know that means you, too. I hope that you would know God’s love deeply
enough to be deeply in love with him, because he’s deeply in love with you. Jesus came to help us see that. It’s a challenging, life changing, sometimes
painfully strong love. May you find time
daily to bask in the glory shining from God’s face and enjoy his goodness and
renewal and give thanks.
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