sir , and you certainly don ’ t want that .”
I almost said it . I really wanted to . I wanted to ignore him and rush in to suck down that brown nectar from the green goddess . But I didn ’ t . I didn ’ t because sometimes you know it is the voice of God pulling you in to something great , and if you don ’ t slow down and listen for just a minute , you ’ ll miss it .
I stopped . I stopped because I was deathly afraid of missing something greater , something powerful , or something that would release the feeling that an unbound schedule meant I would plummet straight into dark depths of despair . So I took the risk . I drew near , and the closer I got the more I couldn ’ t help but inhale his stench and observe his deep , dirty lines of life-pain . I didn ’ t want all this heaviness on my rush-in and rush-out stop-off . I knew this daily twenty-one-minute commute inside-out , and pausing now would throw my whole day off .
Yet what I have realized is that stopping and stepping into unsafe forces us to receive God ’ s new safe . Will we risk it ? Will we receive it ?
It ’ s the only place we get to see that God won ’ t turn His back on us , disregard our emotions , or critique us . Rather He ’ ll speak straight into our gaps of discomfort — if we let Him . Will we ?
I wish I could tell you , as that man and I talked , that I was given some glory story with words so powerful they made my insides settle like peaceful , early morning fog , but I can ’ t . Our shared words are mostly blurred in my memory now , but the underlying message of this encounter can ’ t be erased : shushing up and slowing down is paramount to God working in us — and strengthening us . The truth is , God is ready to hit us with unfathomable new perspectives — ones that redefine our past , present , and problems if we will only stop , receive , and consider .
Will we ? Will we walk unafraid into His presence ? Into God ’ s rhythms ? Not cowering from mysteries ?
You see — that man and I ? We both had needs that day , though maybe we didn ’ t even know what we needed . Maybe we didn ’ t know why we reached out to each other . Maybe our lack of knowledge didn ’ t matter . God knew . He positioned that man at the door and me heading to it . He set up a blind date founded on the principle of love — and waited for the celebration to unfold . God ’ s deep affection was stored up in this chance connection of two unlikely souls . It often is , if only we stop , receive , and consider .
What if I had pretended like I couldn ’ t see or hear him and just kept walking ?
It pains me to think how I could have missed his eyes . Eyes that looked into mine the same way mine looked into his . Eyes that understood . Eyes that said , I see you . I care for you . It is hard out there . Even more , it pains me to think there was a chance I could have missed God ’ s great collision that wanted to break up my don ’ t-get-too-close-to-me mentality . Oh , I thank God I didn ’ t miss out . I thank God I didn ’ t miss His small prompting of , I see what you are going through . I know you .
I stopped . Received . Considered .
God knew both what he needed and what I needed .
This show called life — although we think it ’ s about us , it hardly is at all . There is so much more to it . When we open our eyes to the greater possibilities , we enter an immersive experience where love comes alive , where the pin-drop nature of God ’ s whispers are heard , and where the form of who we were actually made to be emerges . We hardly need scripts , because the whole point of unconditional love is that it ’ s entirely unscripted . We don ’ t have to know everything but just have to be willing to accept His everything . To let it settle right into the deep gashes of fear . Then , things change .
Don ’ t Miss It !
Now I can ’ t help but think that some of you might look at this story and say , “ So what ? You slowed down ?
SMG Solutions 45