Of Refrigerator Magnets and Sledgehammers

There are times with God taps us on the shoulder just to remind us of His presence. My wife had this happen just a little while ago. My wife was getting ready for her horseback riding lesson. Before I go much further, I have to explain that for my wife, horseback riding is not just some activity. Instead, it is almost recuperative for her. Some people work on cars, or shop, or fish, or exercise, or paint, or… whatever. For her, it is a moment to relax and recharge. One of the best things I ever did was to take her to a dude ranch for a summer vacation. It was then that she fell in love with the activity.

Unfortunately, she has been unable to horseback ride for almost a year when she started up lessons gain. The lessons were under the guise of providing them for my son. Actually, to be honest, they were for my son. Yet, it was only a little more expense for her to take the lessons as well. For just a bit more, we were able to provide to provide my son with the ability to explore the activity and my wife with a way to reconnect with this activity that she finds restorative. What does this have to do with God? Be patient; it's coming.

Before the first lesson, my wife was looking for her riding helmet. She found my son's right off, but she had not been able to find hers. Getting frustrated, she decided that if she couldn't find her helmet, she'd just not take the lessons (and just have them for my son). See, at this time, she was still struggling with taking the lessons herself. As much as she enjoys horseback riding, she couldn't bring herself to commit to the little more expense for herself. She had no problem with paying for my son, but she struggled with the extra $10 for herself.

The morning of the lessons, she found her helmet. She was relieved and overjoyed. She really did want to take the lessons, and they really help her stay sane. At the same time that she found her helmet, our two year-old daughter knocked all of the refrigerator magnets off of the frig, leaving only G-O-D (in that order).

Coincidence, eh? You could say so.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had another similar coincidence. One couple from our small group was coming over to our house for our weekly study. Because the rest could not make it, we suspended our current study on Thessalonians. Yet, I really wanted to have some sort of study. I got on the Internet to see what I could find for a single-lesson study. After looking at several, I found one on Repentance that looked good. That Sunday, Pastor Dave repeated several of the same ideas in his sermon on Sin and how the concept has fallen out of favor in our modern society.

Coincidence, eh? Actually, I explained it away in a different way. I knew that Dave was going to start a series on the 7 deadly sins. Surely that was in the back of my subconscious as I was reviewing lessons. This particular lesson looked good because the idea was in the back of my head. That what I though until…

The next day, I was doing my daily devotional. It's part of a computer package that I have that provides a devotional by the date. I think the original text was written sometime in the 1950s. Still, it's pretty good. On July 3rd, the lesson was on (you guessed it): The Concentration of Personal Sin. Considering that the topic really is out of vogue, that really has to be something more than coincidence. This made me stop and think for a moment. I may need a sledgehammer sometimes in order to see what's right in front of me, but I'd like to think I'm not completely blind.

Yet, a rational person could say that I'm just a little more sensitive to the topic, so I see it a bit more. This is the idea that I'm aware of this topic in close proximity because I looking for it. That is, one finds what one looks for.

So, if one is looking for God, one finds God. Actually, I think there's something to that. Yet, I don't think that it's the case that we create God. Instead, God is present.

I used to say that I needed a burning bush. Why wouldn't God talk to me like that? Sure, there was a little chance of falling over dead or blind from being in His holy presence, but there's not much chance of ambiguity about the message.

I think if we look, there are still burning bushes. Well, not burning bushes per se, but God Moments. Moments with refrigerator magnets, or lessons, or perhaps a minor comment made in the middle of a conversation. I had such a God Moment tonight.

Pastor Dave asked me (pretty much out of the blue) if I had ever considered doing anything on the Internet. I asked him what he meant. He stated that he wondered if I ever did anything with recording my faith walk on the Web. The context was simply that I was considering teaching a class based on John Eldridge's Epic (so the comment really is out of the blue). He didn't know that I've been keeping this blog off and on (more off than on).

More importantly, he didn't know, couldn't possibly have known, that I was debating over making a firmer commitment to keeping an ongoing blog. I was actually debating with myself over keeping the blog and testing the waters with writing an article for a magazine like Christianity Today. (I even looked at the Christianity Today website about their submission policy.) Of course, if I'm being honest, I would probably decide that I should write an article. Then I would decide that the piece wasn't good enough and then put off any real action until I eventually forgot about it. I'm like that.

So, what have I decided with this God Moment? I think I should be writing regularly. I used to think of writing as my gift. Yet, as I started teaching, I found less and less time for my own writing. Second, I think I'll try to keep regular entries in this blog. I'm not so ambitious to think that I'll write daily, but I think weekly is possible. Third, I think I'll keep looking. I don't think finding God's presence is such a bad goal.