image by tenor.com
Possibly like some of you, my spiritual state moves up and down. Oh, I always believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord and follow and serve Him, but the sense of closeness ebbs and flows. And frankly, I usually have no clue why, but I have learned some about the process. Two months ago, I was riding high spiritually. The last several weeks, not so much. God was there, I had no doubt, but the sense of intimacy wasn’t there. Then, after an excellent family Christmas and a marvelous Christmas worship service, God wooed me back with whispers in the night. It came with the loss of several hours of slumber, but well worth it. Here’s the unusual process.
Rain hit hard about 2 AM, enough to wake me up, and I quickly dropped back to sleep, but perhaps not as soundly. Around 4 I was instantly wide awake. No reason, that happens once or twice a month. So I got out of bed and picked up a novel to read and popped some melatonin. That got me feeling a little drowsy so I went back to bed, but wide awake as soon as my head hit the pillow. So I prayed, and asked God to tell me who to pray for. Sometimes that works. This time, God seemed to whisper John Southwood, one of my best friends.
Unusual, because he had passed well over a year before, and I had flown to Tennessee for his celebration of life service in October. So I asked God to be with his widow and children and grandchild and siblings and all. Then the prayer took a turn as I reviewed our time together. Back in 1972, a SoCal college ministry group asked us to co-lead a mission trip to a small village outside Taos. I’d been involved with the group, and John came out to here from Purdue to attend Fuller Seminary.
We bonded, in part from co-leading with one very difficult member of the group. Kind of a friendship forged in fire. But we had a common faith, a common love of long distance running (ask me sometime about our first run together in NM at 8,000 ft), and a similar curiosity about life. He then went back to Purdue, then to Tennessee as VP of Sales for an internet company. I travelled to Purdue for his and Jane’s wedding, and he came out for mine and Sheila’s.
We stayed in touch with letters and Xmas cards, then God seemed to intervene. We moved to Thousand Oaks for a job, and John and Jane came out to TO often to help their son out with childcare and such. Coincidence or a divine appointment? I lean to the latter, strongly. We discovered the great taste of a Red Buffalo at BJ’s Brewhouse, and he and I attended a writers conference up in Santa Cruz. We sat around our fire pit and philosophized. About God. Politics. Following Jesus. Writing
So, how did that drive me out of my spiritual funk? Remembering John was a trigger for me to remember how God has intervened so many times in my life. Ironic, I began thinking and praying about John and his family, and that led me thinking of what God has done. I think John would appreciate that. I told the story to Sheila the next morning. She just smiled.
Maybe, when your next spiritual funk happens, listen for some midnight whispers. Not about John, but that whisper just might get you pondering what He has done before in your life. And what He can do again.
Kick Starting the Application
Do you share those rich and dry times? Have you figured out the causes? Have you tried praying on those nights you can’t sleep? Have you found another way to look back on what God has done in your life, as a means of restoring that spiritual intimacy?