Sometimes it comes when a child is born – usually the first child. Or, when the last child flies the nest. It can be when we step across the stage and receive a college diploma or slip on a ring and say our marriage vows. Sometimes it’s in the form of a medical report, or sitting in hospital room with a close friend. These “aha” moments can be small. Sometimes they are huge. In a moment of time we move from free spirits to philosophers. Contemplation sneaks up and grabs us. We look at time differently. Our mind, spirit and senses awaken in new ways and process life with greater interest and precision.
About this time last year I had a conversation with someone who had come to the proverbial fork in the road. I guess it was an epiphany of sorts. Here is a rough transcript of what he said.
“I was driving to an out-of-town appointment a few days ago. I had a lot of road ahead of me. There wasn’t much on the radio that interested me. So, I just drove in silence. I thought about all kinds of things: family, job, friends, places I had traveled. For some reason I started thinking about my spiritual life. To be honest, I’ve never really been one of those people who spent a lot of time in contemplation about “life”. I just live it moment by moment. But, for some reason, I began to think about my life in ways that I had never thought about it. Maybe it’s because I’m past forty. I not sure really. I just know that this time the moment of contemplation lingered. In fact it took me down roads in my heart and mind that I’ve never traveled. I knew one day I would eventually journey down those roads. I just thought it would be later in life. And, I guess that’s when it hit me. My life is NOW. It’s happening now – not tomorrow. I realized that for most of my life I sort of “hung around” my faith…around Jesus. But, I never really sat down and said, well…like Isaiah, “here I am…send me!” I felt all manner of emotion. Sadness. Tension. Fear. Hope. It’s unlike anything I have ever experienced. I realized that this road trip was a “turning point” for me. My spiritual stars had come into alignment and my
life was being “called by God” to write a very new and different kind of chapter. The crazy thing about it all is that I’ve known most of this stuff all my life. I guess my spirit had finally gotten to a place at which I could see and hear what the Lord has been trying to tell me for years.”I don’t know about you, but I love that story. It leads my mind to the Apostle Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus recorded in Acts chapter nine. Talk about epiphanies! His life was never the same after that. God may not move in our lives as dramatically as he moved in Paul’s life. But, I think He moves nonetheless. He knocks, calls, nudges, pokes, woos, and "speaks" to us in a variety of ways, much like He did to my friend a year ago, to tune our mind and heart to His frequency. I can’t help but wonder if there is something God might be trying to get me to sit up and pay attention to in my life? How about you? I pray we all have ears to hear. It is a blessed thing indeed when that happens. It’s then that we see our life journey as more than an experience. It becomes a divine journey into the heart and will of God.
O Lord, save us from simply traveling across the earth defined by routines, schedules, and life experiences. May we lean into the dangerous experience of contemplating about faith and life. Tune our ears to your calling. Quiet our fears. Calm our hearts. Help us to give to you our moments in the spirit of wisdom so that you are honored by our lives. Thank you for Jesus who taught us to say, “My meat and my drink are to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His purpose.” May we seek it with every fiber of our being. Amen.
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas
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