Heading to the Desert
Amidst terrifying deadlines and semester papers stacking to the ceiling, I still eek out some time to write this. (”When, O LORD will be its desuetude?!?”)
I managed to stumble out of bed and into the car this morning. Good thing there is ZERO traffic in this town at 6:30am. I was heading to BOBS as usual, this morning’s crowd was a quieter than most mornings, but it was good all the same. A friend of mine named Darrell who helps the poor start churches in their homes was serving breakfast. He pointed out a couple who were praying together before their meal and motioned that I should sit with them.
They were about as beet red sunburned as you can imagine, both wearing red plaid and a bandanna on their heads. You could tell they were new, because they weren’t sure where to get food/sit/etc. I found out that they were from Ft. Worth. “Why did you come to Abilene?” I asked hesitantly (I’m still finding my footing when it comes to conversing with others who aren’t in “my” social brackets).
“We came out to here for spirituality.” the husband, Steve, replied.
“What do you mean?”
“We left our home and our stuff in Ft. Worth so we could get closer to God here in Abilene.” the wife Sherry said casually.
I was amazed, as I usually am at BOBS, at their life story they proceeded to tell me all about, and how the LORD GOD had been present and continued to show them rescue and freedom. When they “heard the voice of the LORD” telling them to make their way out to Abilene, they knew they had better listen.
“How can you hear from the LORD?” I asked, not sure how to respond to such faith. They man put down his fork, looked me up and down, and shoved his palm up against my chest. If I had been much more awake, I probably would have landed my right hook on his jaw, but maybe that groggy trust was exactly what I needed.
“It feels like this.” And as he pushed on my chest, I could feel the warmth of his hand, and the pressure behind it, being placed right above my heart. It was a strange feeling. No one has EVER answered that question quite like that (usually its some logical, heady jabber).
I jotted their phone number down (they had just moved into town and were interested in meeting with the house church network gathering this Easter Morning). I hope to invite them there, and then I hope to be invited into their lives. They’re the kind of people that I could really learn from – the kind of people who show others the radical response to the tangibility of God’s voice in the world.
