New Experiences

I was driving to downtown Dallas the other day, it was cool outside and classical 101 was playing in my car. Instantly I was taken back to a moment years ago as a young adult. A man hired me to help him in North Dallas work on his garage. Every morning for two weeks he would pick me up in his Mercedes with classical music playing on the radio and drive me to his house. We worked in his backyard remodeling his garage. It was a fun few weeks, he not only taught me a little about construction but a different perspective on life.

We all have those triggers in our life. Occasionally I’ll smell something and be back in a bistro in France or on a bridge in Prague. I sure do miss those trips. What about spiritual triggers? I can’t walk into our old prayer room at church and not remember that moment I lay before God for hours, knowing he was healing me. Every time I walk in the CFNI auditorium I’m immediately transported back to that live recording so many years ago with Keith Hulen and Marcos Witt. I’ve never cried that much in my life. Or years later at a delirious concert, and I closed my eyes for eternity while the band played and prophesied on their instruments and I was in another place it seemed.

Those things are awesome but what about new memories? What happened last week?
Just like those awesome moments with your wife, friends, or family, we have to be making new memories with God all the time. He takes us from glory to glory. A few weeks ago during Tuesday night prayer I made a new memory. God was so tangible and speaking to my heart and through me. I’ll never forget the image of hundreds of people laying before God at the altar, crying out to him and the 10 minutes of silence that followed. We don’t seem to do silence before God much any more, no one knows what to do with that. I must admit I am so hungry for more of those moments. Not that I can feel good or know I met with God, but so I can be changed into His image. So I can hear His voice and obey. I wrote a song a while ago called remote control. My point was I can’t even keep up with my remote control at home, how do I expect to run my life without God’s help. We so desperately need His help and direction.

Life is so stinking busy and technology seems to zap any free time we have. A moment in the waiting room for a tire change used to be moments of contemplation, now it’s filled with twitter, facebook, and espn. To hear His voice we have to be listening for it. That requires time and focus. So my thoughts for today are, make more time to hear His voice. Which means new experiences of the love of God, that leads to more revelation, that leads to direction for my life and burdens for others. Which leads to changing the world. Let’s make new memories with our God today.