Sitting together and Asking Questions
Hi,
This morning there is an inner urging, almost a longing, to sit with you a while. Won't you come in? Please sit, make yourself comfortable. Would you care for something to drink? It has been some time since I sat here at the computer and visited. The natural course of conversation would begin with one of us asking the other how they are, but this morning I sense an inner longing to ask another question. Instead of asking how you are, I would like to know: How is your relationship with God? Have you been spending much time together lately? What has He been speaking to your heart these past few months? What words of comfort has He been permeating your inner being with? What truths learned earlier has He been bringing to mind now in this new season? Have you found yourself remembering lessons learned long ago as a child? Do you catch yourself singing songs that haven't crossed your mind for years and years? When going about your daily tasks do you find yourself unexpectedly recalling beautiful sweet memories that make you smile through your tears? Have you found yourself thanking God more than ever before for all of the wondrous gifts and blessings He has filled the years of your life with? Have all of these beautiful memories and wondrous gifts been filling your mind and heart while all around you it seems as if the world has gone more than a little bit haywire?
Our conversation would continue with me asking: Right in the middle of bedtime prayers with your children do you suddenly find yourself boldly declaring the truths of God's goodness, who He is, and what scripture says? Are unplanned moments of intense warring in prayer showing up throughout your days? When news reports from traditional news sources are heard do you automatically begin praying protection over the ears and minds of every person listening to the news reports because somehow you know that you know the reports are lies and that many people are being deceived and made fearful? Is the Bible more real and relevant to you than ever before in your entire life, even though it has ALWAYS been real and relevant to you? Does God seem closer and dearer than He ever has before, and He has always seemed close and dear? Do you find yourself in the middle of dusting the house and all of a sudden you wonder what is going on in the world because somehow you just know something is going on somewhere and that you must pray RIGHT NOW?
Do you feel as if the miraculous and the supernatural are about to become MUCH more common? While lying in bed in the early morning hours do you find yourself thinking that it wouldn't surprise you at all if God supernaturally transported you someplace? And then, after you had that thought, did you start to wonder, if He did, how much time would the clock show you had been gone for? Would time be the same or would it be one of those things where you were in the place God sent you for three days but, when you returned home, the clock showed it had only been a few minutes? Are you having these kinds of thoughts? Does the miraculous and the supernatural seem more real and possible?
Do your family and friends seem more precious and important, even though they have always been precious and important? Does it seem as if all of a sudden little things no longer annoy you and that everything has fallen into place and your perspectives are falling into line? Like maybe you are finally, after all these years of praying and hoping, growing up and actually, for real, maturing? Does it?
Even though it kind of embarrasses me to ask you this because it sort of sounds all hippy flower child - ish, I'm going to ask anyway. Do you catch yourself feeling as if you just kind of love everybody and you're not even smoking anything illegal? There is no purple haze hanging in the air. The weird thing about this isn't that you love them, but that you can see them, faults and all, and love them anyway. I'm talking about all of the protesters, activists, rioters, the angry, the grieving, the distressed, the freaked out, the ding-dongs looting and killing for fun, the prayers, the haters, the lovers, the singers, the shouters, the ones hiding in their home in fear, the people sitting with the sad, those who are meeting the needs, the ones boldly living their lives come what may, the ones talking and talking and talking and not doing anything just endlessly forever talking, everyone, literally everyone.
Yeah, me too.
This morning there is an inner urging, almost a longing, to sit with you a while. Won't you come in? Please sit, make yourself comfortable. Would you care for something to drink? It has been some time since I sat here at the computer and visited. The natural course of conversation would begin with one of us asking the other how they are, but this morning I sense an inner longing to ask another question. Instead of asking how you are, I would like to know: How is your relationship with God? Have you been spending much time together lately? What has He been speaking to your heart these past few months? What words of comfort has He been permeating your inner being with? What truths learned earlier has He been bringing to mind now in this new season? Have you found yourself remembering lessons learned long ago as a child? Do you catch yourself singing songs that haven't crossed your mind for years and years? When going about your daily tasks do you find yourself unexpectedly recalling beautiful sweet memories that make you smile through your tears? Have you found yourself thanking God more than ever before for all of the wondrous gifts and blessings He has filled the years of your life with? Have all of these beautiful memories and wondrous gifts been filling your mind and heart while all around you it seems as if the world has gone more than a little bit haywire?
Our conversation would continue with me asking: Right in the middle of bedtime prayers with your children do you suddenly find yourself boldly declaring the truths of God's goodness, who He is, and what scripture says? Are unplanned moments of intense warring in prayer showing up throughout your days? When news reports from traditional news sources are heard do you automatically begin praying protection over the ears and minds of every person listening to the news reports because somehow you know that you know the reports are lies and that many people are being deceived and made fearful? Is the Bible more real and relevant to you than ever before in your entire life, even though it has ALWAYS been real and relevant to you? Does God seem closer and dearer than He ever has before, and He has always seemed close and dear? Do you find yourself in the middle of dusting the house and all of a sudden you wonder what is going on in the world because somehow you just know something is going on somewhere and that you must pray RIGHT NOW?
Do you feel as if the miraculous and the supernatural are about to become MUCH more common? While lying in bed in the early morning hours do you find yourself thinking that it wouldn't surprise you at all if God supernaturally transported you someplace? And then, after you had that thought, did you start to wonder, if He did, how much time would the clock show you had been gone for? Would time be the same or would it be one of those things where you were in the place God sent you for three days but, when you returned home, the clock showed it had only been a few minutes? Are you having these kinds of thoughts? Does the miraculous and the supernatural seem more real and possible?
Do your family and friends seem more precious and important, even though they have always been precious and important? Does it seem as if all of a sudden little things no longer annoy you and that everything has fallen into place and your perspectives are falling into line? Like maybe you are finally, after all these years of praying and hoping, growing up and actually, for real, maturing? Does it?
Even though it kind of embarrasses me to ask you this because it sort of sounds all hippy flower child - ish, I'm going to ask anyway. Do you catch yourself feeling as if you just kind of love everybody and you're not even smoking anything illegal? There is no purple haze hanging in the air. The weird thing about this isn't that you love them, but that you can see them, faults and all, and love them anyway. I'm talking about all of the protesters, activists, rioters, the angry, the grieving, the distressed, the freaked out, the ding-dongs looting and killing for fun, the prayers, the haters, the lovers, the singers, the shouters, the ones hiding in their home in fear, the people sitting with the sad, those who are meeting the needs, the ones boldly living their lives come what may, the ones talking and talking and talking and not doing anything just endlessly forever talking, everyone, literally everyone.
Yeah, me too.