PrintPay Attention, Mike
My knowledge and experience of God in my life has mostly come from truth that has quietly possessed my heart like the dawn captures the morning sky. Rarely has such truth been like a bolt of lightning! I think I could count on two hands those times when God has suddenly invaded my conscious mind and an aspect of truth has been revealed in what seemed like a moment in time.
However, one of those rare "sudden invasions" came on a Wednesday afternoon some years ago when I was on a personal retreat. My practice was to get away once a week for a few hours in the afternoon. On this particular day I unexpectedly sensed a quickening within my spirit that God was present and about to say something. Words 'formed' in my heart. I intuitively knew that they were not my words, if you know what I mean. I wrote them in my journal.
Mike, I want you to pay close attention to your relationship with Bev and the dynamics of that relationship. It is a mirror of your relationship with me.
The intervening years between that experience and now have been years of unpacking that invitation and learning just how accurate and helpful it has been and continues to be. Let me give you one example.
Sometimes Bev tells me that I am not communicating with her and involving her in my thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams.
So does my Lord.
It's quite amazing how my lack of communication with Bev coincides with my lack of communication with the Lord. One mirrors the other. Oh, I still talk with Bev but in a limited manner. I still talk about some of the nuts and bolts issues of daily life together. But these are little more than "matter-of-fact" issues. There is little or no sharing from my heart. Little or no self-disclosure. Little or no intimacy.
I once read that intimacy means, "in to me see". (You have to say it out loud to hear the significance of the phrase). Intimacy happens when we invite another person to look within us and we allow them into the inner recesses of our otherwise private, "off limit" lives. I guess these thoughts are percolating in my heart, given that we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary last week.
I must tell Bev about them!!
