Devo 44
"Resonance"
10/29/02
Housekeeping items: Nov. 15 is the date that I'll purge out all the old addresses from my list here. If you'd like to keep getting these devos after that (minus these annoying reminders!) let me know by way of response to this email. If not, stay silent and just delete the next couple of devos you receive, after Nov. 15 you won't get anymore. That said, let's move on...
"I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Romans 1:16
I wrote the story below earlier this year after hearing a song by Sonic Flood by the same title. The line in the chorus "We will resonate Your glory" caught me by surprise at first; it seemed an odd way to describe our response to God. But as I began thinking about it I realized how appropriate the description was. Genesis 1:26 says that mankind was created in the image of God. In Genesis 3 sin and separation enters the picture. What didn't change, though, was the fact that we were created by God and in His image. No matter how much the sin in our lives may mar and distort our relationship with God, there is still that little bit inside of us that remembers what it was like in those first few days in the garden. The Bible, the words of God have the power to not only remind of our Father's love for us, but to actually restore us to that freedom Adam and Eve enjoyed for so short a time. If you are a believer spend some time daily in the word (pray for me in this too); there's more in there than old stories and wise sayings. If you are not a Christ follower, chances are you have felt that tug inside that says life was meant to be more. The Bible is a big book, but start in the book of Matthew and don't stop reading. Anyway...
I was twenty-five and as yet unaware that a mountain had formed around my heart.
I was aware, however that something was definitely wrong in my life. I could tell that I was letting things get to me that before would have passed unnoticed. I heard the shortness of my replies to my coworkers when they asked questions of me that at one time would have seemed very relevant. I could feel the tightness in my shoulders at the end of the day and realize that I've never felt that before. I could feel this overwhelming sense of futility that made everything I did an unbearable chore.
It took a while, but my heart had become almost completely encased in rock, and the life I led was more akin to death. Not only was I miserable, but everyone who came around me became miserable as well.
But despite the crushing weight of the mountain encasing my heart, my life, weak and feeble, beat on.
I didn't know it but a greater power was at work within me. While it was apathy that laid the foundations of the mountain forming over my heart, it was a power still greater which caused my heart to beat in a steady undying rhythm. And late at night, while lying in my tortured thoughts, when I was very still I could feel the life within struggling to be free telling me that this mountain didn't need to be there. Faint though it was, I longed to hear that beat.
I heard it again from an unexpected source. It was while I was studying in the coffee shop downtown. While pouring over my books, a shadow fell across the table. I looked up and saw a man with a book in his hand asking if he could have a seat. I was just about to dismiss him when I heard it; my eyes fell upon his book and I heard it; I looked the man in the eyes and could nearly feel the pulse of life within him that I had so longed to feel. The man took my silence as acceptance and sat down across from me and opened his book.
It is impossible to describe what happened over the next half hour. But as the man spoke, I could feel the beat of his life wash over me, over every limb and every fiber of my body, and over my besieged heart. And as the beat flowed over my encrusted heart, the beat of my own life, faint and frail, joined with that of the man now across from me. Together the two joined and perfectly overlapped, merging and joining until it was not two separate beats, but two hearts beating at one in perfect unison. With the newfound energy my heart strained at its confines. The rigidness of the mountain so long in forming now buckled, now cracked.
The man left with an invitation. He told me of a gathering of people my age which he led, and would I like to come. Before he left, he produced from his backpack a book identical to the one he carried and gave it to me. That night, alone in my bed, I opened the pages of the book and read the story within. I read of a man who was born of a woman but conceived by no man. I read of his humble birth and his lowly visitors. I read of the plot to kill this innocent babe and the escape into a faraway land. I read of this man as he began traveling from village to village, preaching the kingdom of God, healing the sick, calling the outcast his friends. As I read, the very pulse of my being was again quickened. As the pages told of the multitudes yearning to be near this man, so did my heart yearn. Again I was gripped in the power of a life not my own, beating in synch with my heart, overlapping, augmenting, straining at the bonds threatening to suffocate me. The mountain cracked anew as I read of his compassion for the crowds; this man from God, this man who was God, burning with compassion for those who sought him. The cracks deepened as I read of the people waving branches before him, blessing his name, crying out 'hosanna.' Deeper the cracks grew as the man reclaimed the house of worship for his father, deeper as he gathered his closest friends around him to eat, deeper as they went into the garden to pray. It was no longer two lives beating in unison, but now one life pulsing within me, coursing through my veins, igniting the very marrow of my bones. Stronger and stronger the rhythm grew until the crust, the mountain which had encased my heart for so long shattered. Just as the stone rolled away from the man's tomb and He arose resplendent and new, the mountain around my heart was cast away and my life was born anew.
I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry as I lay there upon my bed so I did both. It had been so long since my heart, my life, had beat unencumbered. I looked out my window just in time to see the red-gold sun peek over the horizon. And as the sun's light ignited the clouds in brilliant hues of pink and orange, I could again feel that otherworldly life beating within my own.
The End