Something that the Lord spoke to me early in the year cut right to the heart of one of my biggest excuses.
Over and over in conversations, I kept saying how many distractions I felt whenever I’d try to sit with my Bible open in front of me and heart open within me. Like my mind couldn’t stop racing, thinking about things on my to-do list, friends I wanted to check in with, family I was missing back home, what I hoped we’d eat for dinner that day, etc. (because just because you’re ~on the mission field~ doesn’t mean you aren’t still mostly the same human you were back home with mostly the same human tendencies for worry and wonder). I tried and tried with all my might to silence the distractions and set them all in an orderly fashion on a imaginary shelf in my head, to be picked up again in an hour.
And then one day, the Lord said so patiently to me, “I’m not asking you to silence all the distractions, I’m simply asking you to focus on me through them.”
I heard recently an analogy of meeting with Jesus in a coffee shop.
When you’re sitting across from a friend in a coffee shop, catching up and maybe getting advice and sometimes crying about your worries and stresses, there is always background noise.
Other people chattering together at nearby tables, somebody talking on the phone in one corner, maybe a mom with noisy kids standing in line to order, the grinding of the espresso machines and brewing of coffee, the bell on the door dinging with every open and close, passing cars and street noise out the windows, maybe your phone buzzing on the table beside you, on and on.
But when you’re sitting with your friend, you’re focused on them. Attention fixed on the person right in front of you.
Maybe for a moment, your eyes are drawn to the person who just walked in the door or someone drops something across the room and the noise draws your focus away… but only for a second.
Almost as quickly as your attention was drawn away, it comes back to the person in front of you and the drink in your hand.
Meeting with Jesus is like that sometimes.
For just a moment my mind drifts elsewhere to a person or a noise or a curious thought, but soon enough I can pull my attention back to my Friend in front of me.
It would be weird and unrealistic if I were to walk in to a coffee shop and expect all the noisy things to be silent in order for me to talk to my friend.
Sometimes meeting with Jesus is like being with Him in a coffee shop.
But other times, it’s like meeting with Him in a secret place.
A dear friend of mine wrote these words over a year ago, and shared them with me recently, about meeting Jesus in the secret place.
“I’ve found in my life that the secret place isn’t always something that you have to go out of your way to find. Sometimes it finds you. Let me explain what I mean by secret place. This is a place that is kept a secret between only you and God. This is a place where the details of what happens stays secret between the one experiencing it and the one causing the experience. To get there, all you have to do is step inside a room by yourself and close the door. Now you’re alone with God.
Sometimes I have to sit a little and let that sink in. ‘Just me and God.’ God the creator of the UNIVERSE is in my bedroom with me. Beautiful things happen when you’re alone with your maker. For one, I can’t help but fall in love with God all over again. Man, He has such a way with words that makes all my troubles seem powerless. He has such a presence about Him that washes away all the nagging emotions and lying voices. The secret place has easily become my favorite place to visit.”
The secret place–not hard to find and yet sometimes our least visited stop on our journey that is life. What a tragedy.
My team is currently in Panama! We’re in the middle of an Ask the Lord month–meaning we have no pre-determined ministry hosts and we’re constantly asking, ‘Lord, what do YOU want us to do?’ rather than setting our own agenda and asking the Lord to bless it.
So far, my team has spent a few days in Panama City and has spent the past week in Chiriqui staying at a YWAM base.
Today we’re headed to Boquette to spend the day with a U.S. expat who randomly stopped us on the side of the road to ask one of our teammates a question. We found out quickly that he’s a Christian, a US Army Veteran, and a dad just trying to raise his daughter well.
And tomorrow… we don’t know! Pray with us that we’d see the Lord’s provision for a place to stay for the night. 🙂
Please pray:
- for my team to hear the Lord clearly and obey as He leads us in these coming weeks.
- for my team to grow in unity and communication, to be of “the same mind and have the same love” as Paul would say in Philippians 2.
- for strength and perseverance as we continue this Race.
