Instantly
You must know something.
I love to write. However, if you
are not a person who believes that a human can have a personal, intimate,
passionate relationship with the living God … evidenced by the things that are
produced in a humans life through the power of this living God … through the
person … the very real person who also happened to be God in the form of Jesus
Christ … then you won’t want to read what I am about to write. Please, don’t be offended. It’s just not gonna make sense to you. Instead, go have a Starbucks on me … and know
you are loved.
However, if you, too, find yourself intrigued and believing
what I will unashamedly call the TRUTH … then have I got a story for you!
I truly believe that writing is sometimes my act of
worship. I know when I write for the
sake of just writing. I also know when I
write when I am inspired by this One whom I love. There is a difference.
This morning, as I sit in my empty living room, shades drawn
open to capture the wee most bit of light on this grey morning, toes cold at
the tips, still in my “jammies” and just
finishing one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had in a long time (found a coffee syrup
in a local shop … wonderful!) I know that this is one of those moments where I
have been inspired.
Every year at the beginning of this Christmas season, I
begin to read from the Bible in Luke.
It’s become a personal tradition that has made me appreciate this time
of year at a deeper level. Being a
rather methodical person, liking to read … let it sink in … write my thoughts …
hear … listen … and then move on, I have trained my little brain to be “on
guard” when I read the Bible. Since I
believe this book to be THE holy, inspired, truth from the God of the universe
to his beloved children, I pay attention.
This morning, I only read a few verses. I was captured by something … radiant. How I know this to be true is the effect my
spirit has when reading. When the pencil
can’t write fast enough … or the heart can’t beat rapidly enough … or the light
I feel welling up inside my head can’t shine bright enough … I stop. I know I am in the middle of a holy moment.
For the sake of keeping this blog from being an epic novel …
let me make just a few points that put to shame what is rattling around in my
brain. Zechariah and Elizabeth, two
really old people who happen to be a priest and a gal who comes from a whole
line of priests, find themselves and childless.
Zak is a hard-working guy, doing his priestly duties. In a dramatic tale you can read about (Luke
1), he is told his wife who is WAY past menopause is gonna have a bouncing baby
boy. He freaks. He can’t – literally – believe it … even
though it’s come straight from the lips of God.
Result: silence. Zak is unable to speak … consequence of not
believing.
Fast forward to Baby being 8 days old. It comes time to give Baby a name. Angel told Zak what to name this promised
little bundle of joy. Elizabeth, too,
knows what the Angel said. THEY
(family/friends) wanted to name Baby after Daddy. Sweet.
But not in God’s plan. When
Elizabeth replies with an empathic “NO” … after a few gasps I’m sure … THEY
(good ol’ family and friends again) offer rebuttal. THEY, thinking Momma has post-pardom baby
blues, turn to Daddy, who can’t speak, to clear up this little situation. Daddy, grabbing for a pen and paper, writes …
His name is John. Then, this is the holy moment …
INSTANTLY
He speaks. He praises
God. He later gives a prophecy.
Oh the power of an INSTANTLY! Here’s the Red Bull moment: it doesn’t matter what Zak didn’t believe in
the past … it doesn’t matter that he was a good guy who was a dutiful priest
and did what he was supposed to do … what matters is that at this moment … when
THEY were all watching and waiting … Zak gets it. Zak gets that the most important reality in
his life is what God says … not what THEY say.
He gets that he has suffered for months the consequence of believing his
own plan over the plan of Almighty God.
He gets that the only life worth living is a life that says “This doesn’t
make sense and my tiny, infinite human brain cannot even wrap my head around
this … but I will trust YOU.”
And … I-N-S-T-A-N-T-L-Y … he praises God. He opens his mouth from a long silence and
utters the first words he’s vocalized in months … they are words of extreme
gratitude toward the One who he has come to know in a new way, a raw and honest
way … through his own lack of believe … in his own silence. It is God he praises … in front of the THEY
that were watching. He doesn’t care what
THEY think. He only knows that his heart
has undergone a most magnificent transformation that has left him unable to do
anything else but praise his God.
What … imagine with me … what if this happened to me? What if … again, go with me on this one …
what if this happened to all of us who know this same God? Most of us - people who say we are believers
of God through Jesus Christ - are very much like Zak. We are good servers of God. We are dutiful and good and honest,
hard-working folks. But come on … let’s
be honest … how often do THEY around me … hear only praise from my lips?
Let me push the envelope a bit more. Not only does Zak first praise God … he then
is filled with an awe-inspiring moment from the Holy Spirit. There’s a lesson in there for us.
It was because of a pure heart, now fully submitted to God,
that Zak was filled with the Holy Spirit.
There was room. He had emptied
his stuff in order to make room for the power of the living God through the
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t know how or if this will transfer to your head, heart,
mind, soul. I know that for me … I gotta
do some emptying. My plan in my timing
and my way … it just isn’t gonna cut it.
My comfort level based on my abilities or lack thereof … wrong. My good effort based on my well intentions …
all well worth applauding. However, the
moment I get down on my face before God, acknowledge that anything good or
valuable or cute or useful is not mine … has not been made or contained by my
effort … but only comes from a loving, powerful and gracious God … that’s the
stuff that gets “me” out of the way and allows something powerful … in an
INSTANT … to take place. I’m in! May we all have the courage to be “in”!
1 comments
Paul said he counted all the former things as rubbish for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. You've spoken of a whole different way of thinking, a different and all-encompassing perspective, a different attitude toward daily life. You're talking about a submitted and surrendered will. Not a defeated will, but a will voluntarily and totally surrendered to the divine Love and to an admiration for the most wise, powerful, perfect, humble, holy, selfless, sovereign Lord. I've been learning to submit my failures for His glory (by grace thru faith) and to praise Him in everything. Gal. 5: 22-23 are not qualities we should try to attain. They are a reality we shall live when we do what you've expressed. Thanks Sis.
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