When Jesus takes us by surprise
Jesus took me by surprise yesterday.
Once a month I have a day marked out on my calendar as a "Day with Jesus." It's a discipline I took up a few years ago when a wise counselor recommended it. It sounds simple, but it's surprisingly difficult to pull off. Yesterday morning I was asking Jesus about how he wanted to do the day.
I was inspired by a blog post I read this morning by Scott Couchenour at Serving Strong. The post is about remaining childlike and engaging God with wonder and curiosity. Scott's words were in the background as I prayed about the day. I wanted to be childlike and receptive toward God.
As I prayed, I felt a leading to do some writing on an article I am drafting for the Covenant's denominational magazine. It's the story of how my entry into the Covenant feels to me a lot like a story of immigration. There's a lot of my personal story in the piece.
I felt this leading to write, but because writing is "productive" activity, I resisted. (Isn't it just like us to tell God we know better than he does?) I wanted to be receptive toward God, which I translated into doing something less "work-like." (Translation: "Let me be receptive in the way I want to be receptive.")
Still the leading persisted. Wising up, I decided to try it.
I enjoyed the writing. More importantly, about an hour into it, I met God. As I told my story, I recounted how he had worked in my life during some very difficult years. Narration became mingled with worship.
So it happened that in the process of writing, I met God. It's not that I'm on a different plane as a writer. It's that I simply followed the Shepherd and did things his way.
How about taking a minute and asking him if there's any way he wants to direct you in the rest of your day. You might be surprised!
Once a month I have a day marked out on my calendar as a "Day with Jesus." It's a discipline I took up a few years ago when a wise counselor recommended it. It sounds simple, but it's surprisingly difficult to pull off. Yesterday morning I was asking Jesus about how he wanted to do the day.
I was inspired by a blog post I read this morning by Scott Couchenour at Serving Strong. The post is about remaining childlike and engaging God with wonder and curiosity. Scott's words were in the background as I prayed about the day. I wanted to be childlike and receptive toward God.
As I prayed, I felt a leading to do some writing on an article I am drafting for the Covenant's denominational magazine. It's the story of how my entry into the Covenant feels to me a lot like a story of immigration. There's a lot of my personal story in the piece.
I felt this leading to write, but because writing is "productive" activity, I resisted. (Isn't it just like us to tell God we know better than he does?) I wanted to be receptive toward God, which I translated into doing something less "work-like." (Translation: "Let me be receptive in the way I want to be receptive.")
Still the leading persisted. Wising up, I decided to try it.
I enjoyed the writing. More importantly, about an hour into it, I met God. As I told my story, I recounted how he had worked in my life during some very difficult years. Narration became mingled with worship.
So it happened that in the process of writing, I met God. It's not that I'm on a different plane as a writer. It's that I simply followed the Shepherd and did things his way.
How about taking a minute and asking him if there's any way he wants to direct you in the rest of your day. You might be surprised!
Thanks for sharing this Dave! Really needed to hear this!
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