Earthquake!

Just remembering...

I grew up with a belief in God- in His existence anyway. My parents were believers. I was baptized, along with my dad, when I was 13 and have been in the Church ever since. Typically, I have attended churches of Christ (instrumental) or christian churches. But I have also darkened the doorways of Messianic churches, assemblies of God, a cappella churches of Christ (well, one anyway). Never had anybody really study with me and in one way that was good because I never was "indoctrinated" with any particular denomination. Mostly I learned from Scripture and observation.

Even so, I still ended up with this view of God that was less than complete, fallible human that I am. My image of God was of sort of a giant teddy bear, if you will. A Father whose lap I could climb into for a hug on a good day or a bad one. And that is true, but it is far from complete. I mean, I knew God was holy and sin could not dwell in His presence, etc, etc. But I didn't KNOW it. Know what I mean? It was words.

Well, one year I was planning a short term missions trip with a couple of friends to Honduras. We were going to spend the summer at a medical mission. Well, the countdown had begun. I had the time off work (actually, I think I had quit my job), had my passport up to date, all that. What we did not have was the go-ahead from Honduras. They were in the middle of some administrative changes and did not communicate with us but maybe once or twice. We ended up canceling the trip.

In the meantime, another friend had been planning a trip to Spain to visit her missionary cousin. She found out that my trip was history and invited me on hers. Spain? I'd never even considered it, but okay. Why not?

Well, to make a long story short, I believe God had had this in mind all along. Amid riots, earthquakes, delayed flights, being stuck at the airport in a foreign country and some very powerful answers to prayer, God revealed my distorted image of Himself.

It was positively frightening. I was shaken to the core...and that was a good thing. I have come away from that experience with some much needed perspective. God is so much bigger than we can imagine; we are so much smaller than we think.

But God has chosen to love us. He has given the best that He has to offer so that we can be with Him. Talk about perspective!

Before my trip to Spain, I prayed that my faith would grow and be more real. If you are honestly praying for your faith to grow, hang on. It's gonna be a crazy ride!