GOD SHOWED UP…AGAIN!

(Subtitle: The Rock Where God Changed My Life)

It was a big rock sheltered by tall pine trees gently swaying beneath a summer midnight sky brightened by a full moon.

God set me on a rock…and God showed up again.

In the stillness of that moment, my life was changed…forever…again.

I was nineteen.

Although many years have passed and many miles have been travelled, I can close my eyes and return to the reality of that moment…again and again.

This week, I sat on that rock feeling alone. God showed up…again.

[Note: As I was working this past week on this Winsday Wisdom session, I heard an excellent sermon by Grant Rose, Pastor of Shreveport Springs of Grace. He used this title as he preached on one of Jacob’s divine encounters, this one recorded in Genesis 35:9, “God appeared (showed up) again.” I have included some notes and thoughts generated by his message.]

HOW GOD SEES YOU IS TRUER THAN HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF.

HOW GOD SEES OTHERS IS TRUER THAN HOW YOU SEE OTHERS.

The first time this specific rock became so special to my life was the summer following my first year in college. I was happy to be back home. My high school years in our small town were fun, very comfortable with good friends and good experiences.

I went to college sixteen hundred miles away from home. It was not as much fun as I anticipated. I met interesting people, found some future friends, saw historic landmarks, and became the starting quarterback for the Crimson football team. However, I really had little desire to return for another year.

The “opportunity of a lifetime” did not give cause for me to return for subsequent years. Desire for fame and fortune did not resonate in my heart and soul.

This large rock was my place of solitude and peace. I was in the Kiamichi Mountains at the church camp I attended for one summer week ever since I was ten.

The previous summer, my best friend, Mike, and I supervised the guys. We have lived many years in fear of Bobbie returning to our doorstep demanding retribution for the egregious number of push-ups assigned to him for his incessant talking during quiet hours.

This particular summer, my pastor recruited me to return as camp counselor.

Preacher Ewing was wonderful at this summer camp stuff. Fun activities, spiritual talks around the campfire, and the VERY BEST cinnamon rolls. Preacher could cook. While other church campers fed on cereal and sandwiches, we ate fried chicken, steaks, and homemade desserts.

The Preacher did not foretell me I would be the primary and only counselor of seventy-seven youth under the age of seventeen. He did not mention that he and his wife would spend the nights at a hotel in the nearby town so he could be back to start breakfast by 5 AM.

There were two cabins, one for the boys and one for the girls. Mischief and hanky-panky were separated by ten feet. There was also a kitchen cabin of goodies available for late night raids. I was the only one responsible for the oversight of their safety and well-being.

This situation looked as if it were a recipe for disaster.

I began the late-night watchman vigils on the rock. It was the best place to keep an eye on all the cabins as well as any possible nightcrawlers.

I did feel like Jacob on those nights he laid his head down on a rock, sometimes feeling lonely, sometimes feeling treated unfairly. He had nights filled with feelings of shame, failure, and grief.

Then God showed up…again. Each time it changed Jacob into how God saw him and others and the future.

The same can be said of Joseph’s life. The feelings were the same. Instead of the rock location, God showed up in a pit and a prison and a foreign land.

Outwardly, one would think I had an easy life. This night I was fearful of the future. The immediate future. The intermediate future. The distant future.

While my thoughts raced from suspected shadows nearby to places far away, I looked up. I stared at the moon and the stars. I listened to the treetops whistling in the breeze. I was watching over the seventy-seven, but I was alone.

That is when God showed up…again.

I grew up in a home where Mom and Dad loved Jesus. They read God’s Word. I never missed church. I found a personal relationship with Jesus at the age of eight. I renewed that devotion during some special moments at this camp throughout my youth years.

God’s Word taught me how to live for what is right, how to stand alone when necessary. At college, I did not neglect my love for Jesus. I was not perfect and definitely not preachy. I was just trying to get a passing grade in my classes and be better as a quarterback.

I participated in university activities with some guys and gals who were very rich. Some were very smart. A few were both.

One night in late spring, a pebble hit my dorm window. A teammate motioned for me to come down. (We did not have cell phones then, so rock throwing was one of our caveman ways of communication.)

I sat with Bill on the front steps of my dorm overlooking the campus Yard. He wanted to ask me a question, “What is different about you?”

I did not know if that was intended as a compliment or a criticism. He explained that he and others saw an inner strength and motivation that appeared different to how they lived. I did not preach that night. I just know God showed up…again.

This night sitting on a Kiamichi rock was not like any of the other times. I was unsure about who I was, where I was headed, what I should do, or why. I did not have the spiritual navigational skills to explore the horizons or plummet the depths of such questions.

But God showed up…again.

God knew who I was and where I was, as well as what was ahead.

I listened closely that night to the voice speaking to my heart. It was a mountaintop experience. That night, I committed everything to Jesus as Lord of all for all time…again.

God changed me…again. It was a lifechanging moment. It changed how I view God, life, and myself.

As David said from his lowest point, “God lifted me out of the pit of despair…set my feet on a rock, made my future footsteps firm, and placed a new song in my heart” (Psalm 40:1-3).

HOW GOD SEES YOU IS TRUER THAN HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF.

It is truer than how you are thinking or feeling at the time.

I say it over and over. “Everyone needs to find their rock.”

I have been back to my rock several times physically and countless times spiritually.

You have a place where God showed up; go back there. If not, find one. It does not have to be a rock. It can be a chair or your bed. It might be an open field or a small garden. It might be on a mountain or beside a lake. Or the beach!

God shows up in all those places in the Scriptures and in our lives…again and again.

Go there. Take your loneliness and unfair treatment. Take your bitterness and resentment. Take your shame and failure. Take your loss and grief and go there!

When God shows up, it changes you. It changes how you think, feel, and see yourself. It changes how you see others.

You are not running this life race by yourself. You are “in Christ.”

Fully forgiven. Fully loved. Fully heaven bound. Fully graced with the desire and power to love others first and most.

God’s perfect life and love dwell inside you. That is truer than your perception of present circumstances or prospective future. You have been changed by God. See your life and the life of others through that lens.

I went back to the rock this past week. God knew I needed it more than I realized.

I came away singing, “Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, God’s love lifted me…Again!”

I think I even heard the heavenly roar of the angels!