“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else,
we would see the order in it.”
― Tony Hillerman, Coyote Waits
I like the words “touch-point.” I use them as a description of times in my life when a mammoth-size invisible index finger drops out of heaven and thumps me on the noggin.’ I’ve got a journal somewhere that has the major ones I can recall. They’re the things that change the course of your life, maybe the day you met your spouse, or a phone call from the doctor that you didn’t expect — the touch-points are not always pleasant. Possibly, maybe, a dear friend of mine had one of those moments this past Sunday morning. I’m convinced he did.
In Why I Believe. My Conversion (Part 3 of 3), I suggested that folks who don’t subscribe to that dude on the cross, should try a little prayer, essentially a brass-tacks theological bet for God to reveal Himself. One of my closest friends took me up on the wager. Last week he and I had been discussing my book over a beer at The Old Monk, where he had several of the big questions that make all of us shake our head in disbelief about God. For several nights in a row after the Monk, he said the prayer, and Sunday morning texted me this:
“So I’ve been giving a little ‘shout out’ … as you had mentioned in your book, every day since we had our chat at the Monk… so this morning I was having coffee with my mother at Merit Coffee… we left, and a nice, young guy came running out asking us to wait. I thought I had left my phone or something. He wanted to know if he could have a quick word with me, I said sure. He said he had this strong feeling about me and that he felt I was filled with questions and was searching for something and he wanted me to be open to allowing Christ in my life… I thought I was being punked!! I seriously was looking around for where you were… (you weren’t punking me, were you?)… then he said God Bless you and walked back in Merit… wow.”
Shazam! I kinda dig it when God responds in such a literal way. Or did He? That’s the question for all of us. As much as we want God to appear in a puff of harp-filled smoke, or float down out of heaven like Superman and speak directly to us; He seems to prefer leaving it up to us to discern whether divine intervention took place. Or did some random dude decide on his own, on that particular morning, to approach my friend, a stranger to him, and mention Jesus Christ? Things that make you go hmmmm.
The question for all non-Christian folks is whether this encounter is only for a select few? In other words, as I said in Friday’s post, can you say, “Good for your buddy, but I’m not interested. Life is good as is?” Sure you can, you have free will to do anything you prefer, and we often do. However, you can’t escape the exit that’s coming for all of us. You’re gonna check out of this hotel at some point, and Jesus may be THE concierge steering us to the next one.
Let’s circle back to touch-points, to help give some thought with yours. For me, there are a few bigguns that come to mind. One changed the course of my life with work, and it was roughly ten years before I became a Jesus freak. I was 23 yrs old, had recently graduated college, and was having cold feet about moving to Los Angeles. I was at a local blues bar watching guitarist Albert Collins, and wearing a jean jacket with an image of Stevie Ray Vaughan on the back that I had painted by hand. As I stood there listening to the music, I felt someone behind me grabbing the bottom of the jacket to stretch it out. I turned around and saw this ultra-cool gal with brilliant dreads. She asked, “Where’d you get the jacket!?” I said “I painted it.” Her mouth fell open and she spun me around to look again, then whirled me back to face her, “YOU painted this!?” “Yes,” I said. She handed me her business card and said, “We’ll buy these from you.” I looked on the card and she worked for Warner Bros. I remember blinking at her, stammering like Keanu Reeves, “Whuhhhh?”
That changed everything for me, and began my art career, which led to me being an entrepreneur. Second only to my Christ encounter, that was the biggest touch-point in my life. I have a choice. I can look at that circumstance, and see it as one of hundreds of innocuous forks in the road, with no relevance other than a direction to take. Or, did God give a nudge then, same as He did again when I was 32? Has He been moving chess pieces to create a path from birth? A series of questions have to be answered. Is there a God? Is it-she-he knowable? Is God sovereign or only a timekeeper? Does God care about His creation? Somewhere in the five, 10 or 50 questions, the Bible and Christ have to be considered. Why? Because the two entities have more weight than any other book, King or President in the history of the world. No, you cannot dismiss the questions and be apathetic. Why? Because you have an expiration date, and making an assumption that you’ll be fine, answers one of those 50 questions about who has final authority. Here’s a hint, it ain’t you.
On a smaller scale, but equally important, was a time — after becoming a Jesus freak — when I was dead-ass broke and waiting on a small check from a client. I was in dire straits, and had sold my music CDs and a guitar to scrape up some coins; and had even given blood for some extra scratch. On that particular day my gas tank was on E, and on my way home I said an anxiety-filled prayer, “God I need some help here.” Twenty minutes later I pulled up to the gate at my studio, I opened the car door to punch in the code, and with my first step out of the car, there was a $20 bill on the ground. I had a choice to think “Gee, how random,” but instead, held it up to the sky, shook my head and said “Thank you.”
I’m reticent to say “God has a plan” because people have abused it in vacuous ways during the most inopportune moments. But He does. He is getting the attention of my friend I mentioned above, and it seems damn near tomfoolery to guess otherwise. If you don’t know Christ, say the prayer, ask Him to be real. Then keep your radar up for how He woos you into a relationship. None of it is chance, every item was ordered specifically for you.
Regarding the context of the Bible, keep in mind it’s not written as a documented history of the world, with explanations of physics, dinosaurs, and the rings of Jupiter. You don’t have to separate science and faith, but do know it’s not a scientific book. It’s a record of how God has chased mankind through the centuries, and how He desperately wants a relationship with every single one of us. In other words, it’s an extended love letter showing the extravagant methods God initiated to fix a broken relationship.
See ya next time. ML