Here’s Rudy loving smelling everything in the garden!
March 2011 was a tough chapter in my life. It was one of those times you wake up and say to yourself, “What the heck happened?” I felt like I had been hit by a two by four across the head. I was in a transition from my church to who knows what. What was I now going to do? Would anyone want an old leader? Would we have to move?
Many of us have had these tough chapter in our lives. All of us in different ways have this painful experience right now before us. We thought when COVID first hit that these were “unprecedented times.” None of us could have expected the pain and hurt of our racial struggles to explode, while we were also dealing with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. These three have been a hard pill to swallow and painful.
So how do we get through this current reality?
A couple weeks after I exited my church position I was letting my dog Rudy out to do his business. The early morning task was usually mine to do. It was a cold March morning. Not thinking I stepped out the door without my shoes. Dumb mistake. My feet were instantly hurting on the cement. I kept alternating which foot I stood on, so they wouldn’t freeze.
Rudy, however, was loving the morning. Spring was beginning to emerge and there was plenty to smell and discover. Rudy wanted to sniff everything, savoring each distinct smell. Life was a beautiful multi-dimension olfactory experience.
I wasn’t there.
I was sleepy, grumpy, irritated he was taking some much time. My feet were hurting. “Come on Rudy! Do your business.”
As I was grumbling to myself I heard whispered in my heart, “The stedfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning …”
What? When those words came to “new every morning” I knew God was speaking directly to me. I was completely awake, completely taken out of the difficult moment. I knew the Lord was speaking to me. I knew he wanted to tell me he had not forgotten me, that he was faithful.
By the time I walked in with Rudy I was stirred in my soul. God I knew had spoken to me in this moment. I had gained some wisdom and confidence from the Lord.
I learned a big lesson that day. Lamentations 3:23 wasn’t a verse I had thought about in a long time. It wasn’t the verse of the day on the Bible App. I didn’t decide to read it that morning. I had memorized it way back in college when I went through the Topical Memory System. Yet, I hadn’t paid much attention to the words since that time. However, I was keenly aware that morning of these powerful truths.
Most mornings I’m in the Bible reading and considering truth. Like a lot of Navs I use memorization as one of my spiritual disciplines. I give attention to my prayer habits spending time in a variety of ways to converse with God.
What I learned was to pay attention to God when he whispers his word in my heart.
This was not on the radar for my spiritual disciplines. I knew about an abiding life and even some of the practitioners like Brother Lawrence. I never intentionally took note of Scripture that popped into my soul. I had to be taught by the Spirit that day, to pay attention to these “off” times when I wasn’t seeking God, but God was seeking me.
These whispers cannot scheduled. They do not happen in a regular pattern. When he speaks his word to me I am learning to pay attention, writing it down in my journal. This habit has expanded my view of what abiding in Christ is all about. It has brought me great encouragement, joy, and direction. These words the Spirit puts in my mind gives me confidence and hope. It has opened me up to a whole new way of abiding in Christ.
I hope God gives you a Rudy moment soon, to deliver his wisdom for you.