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Sometimes when we want Him the most, it seems like God doesn’t show. When we need comfort, or guidance, or deliverance, or answers — we pray and we wait. And wait. And pray and wait some more. Have you ever felt this way?
There’s a song out right now by The Fray called “You Found Me” that captures this sorrow of humanity waiting for God’s divine hand. I found God on the corner of first and Amistad, Where the west was all but won, All alone, smoking his last cigarette. I said where you been, He said ask anything. “Where were you? When everything was falling apart, All my days were spent by the telephone. It never rang, and all I needed was a call that never came.”
I’m not going to try to explain it, because I can’t. But all around us people are praying and waiting by that divine telephone. Can you feel the sorrow?
Lost and insecure. You found me, you found me. Lying on the floor. Surrounded, surrounded. Why’d you have to wait? Where were you, where were you? Just a little late, you found me, you found me.
I strongly suspect that we’ve gotten it all wrong. Without love, I’m nothing. And I don’t mean this in a hearts-and-flowers, chocolates-and-wine kinda way. Deep down, to the core, something is really wrong with our faith when we have such trouble loving each other.
And then every now and then someone gets it right. We recently had a situation in our church that could have been very divisive, that could have resulted in all kinds of fundamentalist vs. liberal bickering. But it didn’t. Why? Because our elders and ministers refrained from this and encouraged dialogue instead. They drew our attention to the hundreds of times Jesus and the apostles valued love and unity over all else. And when Jesus prayed for us, He prayed specifically that we would be one, just as Jesus is one with God (John 17:11). I feel truly blessed to be a part of this particular congregation, and it was inspiring to see love in action through that situation. But it took a lot of inner work to back down from that ledge, to say to someone “I may not agree with you, but that’s okay.”
May we so strongly seek the love of Jesus that we’re willing to do this work, to go through the trouble of truly loving each other.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how we, as members of the general Christian population, are sleeping spiritually. Did you recognize any of your own habits in our list? I feel humbled and a little discouraged by this exercise, as I’ve been asleep for too long. But I fully believe that identifying the problem must precede a solution, because everything exposed by the light becomes visible. So I pray for The Light to expose those sleeping corners of our spirits today.
And once we know what we’re doing wrong, let’s seriously consider what we should be doing instead. How can we wake up? In the physical realm, I prefer three things to rouse me from sleep: a loud alarm clock, a strong cup of coffee, and natural light. So my morning routine goes something like this: hit the snooze button once, finally get out of bed, start the coffeemaker, have my quiet time with God over coffee, then open the blinds to let in the morning sun. After this sequence I usually feel alert and ready for whatever the day (or my children) may bring.
So what can we do to wake up spiritually? I’ve made a short list below — feel free to add on through comments.
1. Ask God to open our spiritual eyes. There’s a whole ‘nother world out there, and I think if we could see it from time to time we would never want to sleep again. But that kind of sight is His alone to give.
2. Study the Holy Spirit. I read through some of the New Testament the other day, choosing to focus on the Holy Spirit, rather than skimming over those parts like usual. All I can say is…. Wow. Go read it.
3. Question your motives. Why do you go to church? Why do you want a new TV? Why do you avoid the homeless on the corner by your office? Do you really believe in all this crazy supernatural stuff? Why don’t you live like you believe? These last two questions haunted me for the past year, and once I fully looked them in the face, I could sense my faith waking up.
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4. Ask God to fine tune our ears so that we can hear from Him.
5. Ask God to help us obey His still small voice and those nudges that He so often uses.
6. Do what God says to do. From James 1:22 – Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Any others?
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13
