Altars, Faithful Reminders, and Your Story

A book I’ve been spending time with is Enjoy the Silence. It is a book that encourages the reader to think through how a biblical text can speak into our lives and shape our prayers. Recently, the reading was on 1 Samuel 7:5-13. In that passage, verse 12 says “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

That is a significant verse, because in the Old Testament, the Israelites sometimes placed a large stone or built a monument to mark where God had done a great work. Those monuments helped them remember that God is faithful. Often, the monuments were given names, as Samuel did in verse 12, where Ebenezer literally means “stone of help.”

Now, in Enjoy the Silence, after reading the 1 Samuel passage, the book asked me this question: “Think of the moments when God has done great works in your life.”

*pause*

I have to admit that I struggled to think of anything in response. And if I had to bet, I betcha you maybe struggled a little too, when you read the same question.

Okay – for the record, I have thought much more about that question since I first read it on June 5. And yes, I can think of some things now. But I think I can remember some of those moments when God worked in my life because I’ve rolled these questions around a bit . . .

I wonder if most of us are no longer stunned or awed by God anymore, to the point that we miss how He is working in our lives?

I wonder if we feel like the things that could be considered “great works” just don’t happen in our lives, because we have a misperception of “great” and a skewed sense of our own self-value?

I wonder if most of us are even aware of those daily God Moments, where He speaks to us through circumstances, natural wonders, and other people?

I wonder if we hesitate to share our stories – the full, rich, honest stories of our life – because we don’t even really know them ourselves?

So – maybe you’ve heard me say before that the story of my life is unfolding daily, and because of Christ, it will end differently than if I didn’t know Him. And here’s the deal - your life – your story – is unfolding daily as well. A deep hope of mine is that, because the circles of our lives spin together for a moment or two, whether through this blog, over a cup of coffee, during our kids’ ball game, or ___________ (you fill in the blank) - that your story will end differently because you know me. That would be a great work of God in my life.

Peace Out.