Back in Indiana last Sunday, I sang with my eyes closed during worship. And, every time I shut my eyes, I was surrounded by faces and memories whirling in front of me. Remnants from Kenya, flashing through my mind’s eye as if they were happening all over again.
When I worship, I often imagine expansive & memorable scenes from nature or images of what heaven might look like one day or memories of past worship experiences. As I work to focus my mind toward Jesus, all these visual pictures remind me of the great awesomeness of God, His power, His reign, and His faithful movement in my life. But this week the visions were especially vivid as I recalled memories from Africa.
There is something amazing about experiencing God around the world. When we leave our safe and familiar spaces, we are free to experience and notice a God Who is big and wild. Most of us used to know this about Him, but then life droned on and we somehow forgot. Sometimes it takes leaving our safe zone, doing something crazy, traveling around the world to a completely foreign culture and language and people to remind ourselves: God is there too. God is doing great things everywhere. God is not just for me and my people. Hello self, do you remember that God is amazing?
In a mere ten days of travel, I amassed a storehouse of amazing memories: sights, sounds, smells, tastes. Hugs and handshakes from precious children. I will not soon forget their smiles, their eyes, their hands.
My encouragement to you?
Put yourself where you can build memories with God.
Sometimes this happens through no effort of our own, but just the natural turn of life in this fallen world. Tragedy and heartbreak can lead to beautiful memories with God, if we will let them. Other times, we can make active choices and take specific steps toward building these memories. From my own life, our foster-to-adopt journey was an intentional walk on a hard road but it formed a framework of His faithfulness. We have story after story of answered prayer and a very real sense of His presence. Another step of obedience for me: Kenya. A mother with five young children leaving to travel to Kenya? What for? Why now? I’m not even sure if I can sufficiently answer those questions, but I will be forever impacted by the memories God and I built together on that trip.
If our lives are completely safe and comfortable and convenient, then it’s like a flat shiny wall: beautiful to look at but slippery and unstable. We need the cracks and crevices of tough roads and crazy callings to give our feet and our hands something to grab onto. Memories with God are like cracks in the wall–a solid place to return to, a sure spot for our souls to land.
When you close your eyes to worship, what do you see? Perhaps it’s a vision of your mission trip on the other side of the world or His faithfulness on your hard road with a foster child or a special sense of God’s presence as you chatted with a next door neighbor. May our lives be full of rich memories like these!
Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome . . .
Nehemiah 4:14
Friends, let’s go build a memory with God.
