"As the hart pants for water, so my soul thirst for Thee, O God!" - Psalm 42:1
Last year, my wife, Jennifer, and our three boys took a trip of a lifetime to Rome and the Amalfi coast. The picture above was taken outside of our hotel room overlooking the Mediterranean sea. It is a stunning place with beautiful food and we would all love to go back someday.
And someday, we will. These events are fun things to look forward to because they don't happen everyday. However, everyday, we need to be reminded that God sees us wherever we are and whatever we are going through.
We can look at beautiful places in the world and be reminded that God is powerful. We can read in Scripture that God is loving. We can look back at events in our lives and know that God is always with us, but we need to know everyday that God sees us. It is how we are made, "My soul thirsts for Thee, O God!" We know it in our brain...we just don't always feel it in our heart. "God, do you see me?"
Two weeks ago, we had our trusty 2000 Yukon stolen right out of our driveway. It is old, but it is also big and safe so our son drives it to school. And I was mad that it happened. I was mad at the people who took it and I was mad at God for allowing it to happen. I remember my prayer, "Really, God? Nice." After a couple of days, I gave up trying to find it. I was resigned to somehow finding another vehicle for our son that was both reliable and affordable. But on the third day (!) police officer O'Brian called me and said, "I found your Yukon." I drove to the address, and there it was. The thieves were gone, the keys were gone, the right rear tire was shredded, and I am still waiting for the shop to tell me that the new tire has come in. "Really, God?" was about all I could muster for prayer. "Nice."
Then, on the next day, I was doing a spiritual exercise that I heard about for the first time this summer. We were at Gull Lake Ministries in southern Michigan and our speaker was Rev. Marvin Lewis from Chicago. He was talking about our need to be seen by God and taking time to look at each day for ways in which God showed up because, indeed, God does show up. God sees us, we just sometimes miss it. Pastor Lewis called it the, "Expectation" or, "Anticipation principle. There are just a few steps. This exercise can be done in the evening or in the morning on the next day depending on whether or not you are a morning person. The idea is to get the head knowledge of who God is into your heart so that you begin to feel noticed by the One in whose image you have been made. Here are those steps:
1. Preparation: Acknowledge God's presence.
2. Give thanks to God for the day.
3. Ask God for His perspective
4. Review my day: (You don't have to answer every question every day. Pick one or two.)
a. For what am I thankful? For what am I least thankful?
b. When did I give or receive the most/least love?
c. What was the most life-giving/life-draining part of my day?
d. When did I connect/disconnect with God and others?
e. When did I experience/not-experience the fruit of the Spirit? (Gal. 5:22-23)
f. When did I cooperate/work against God?
Look forward to the day to come! (The Lord has something more for you than this! 2 Chronicles 35:9)
It was during this reflection on the day that the Yukon was stolen that I remembered looking up from where I was sitting on the curb as I waited for the tow truck to come. I looked up and across the street from the Yukon was a little neighborhood church. I had seen that church before, but in that moment of reflection I felt that knowledge God's love being transferred from my brain to my heart...like God was saying, "Don't you see, Geoff? I see you." I would have missed it if I didn't pause to reflect and work through the above questions.
So, if you struggle with intimacy with God, I encourage you to use this tool and be amazed as you begin to feel all of that head knowledge that you have accumulated of God through the years transferred to your heart!
