Lessons learned in my childhood:
- Don’t put chocolate bunnies in a sunny window.
- Count your eggs before you hide them.
- Dogs can’t eat chocolate.
- Ants love chocolate.
- Don’t eat the prettiest eggs first.
- Make Dad be careful the first time he mows.
- Share with your sister.
Things I learned when I was older:
Christ is risen.
Like Him we rise.
Christ is real, always with us.
I hope all of you have had a chance to truly meet Christ on a personal level. If not yet, I hope that experience awaits you. It doesn’t have to be in church—in fact it rarely happens there. For my son, it happened one morning walking across the basement.
The first time I truly met Christ I was alone in my bedroom at night. I was supposed to be confirmed in church the following morning, though this was my second confirmation, a different church from the one I grew up in. I awaited the next day with absolute dread. I was secure in my belief in God and Jesus, but not at all sure I wanted to be committed to a particular breed of church.
As I worried over the issue, a tremendous feeling of peace came over me. The phrase often used is “peace that surpasses understanding.” It’s difficult to comprehend the meaning of that phrase unless you’ve actually experienced it. It overwhelms you, and there is no doubt in your mind whatsoever of its origin. Then He spoke to me. “Wait. When it is time, I will show you the way.”
That’s it. No further elaboration. I didn’t need it. The words came into my mind, but they were as distinct and clear as if my ears had heard them. And I knew exactly who said them. I knew then I shouldn’t show up for confirmation the next morning.
My failure to appear caused quite a kerfuffle. The minister came to visit my parents, wanting to know why I hadn’t shown up to join the church. I told him the truth. “I don’t feel the presence of God in your church.”
If you can imagine, he told me, “You’re being idealistic. You can’t feel the presence of God.”
I was stunned. I am still saddened that there are many pastors leading their congregations in blindness, because indeed, not only have they never felt the presence of God in their own lives, they don’t even believe it’s possible.
I knew because that night before was not the only time I’d felt the presence of God, though it was the first (and only) time I was spoken to. When my family moved from the suburbs of Kansas City to a rural area, I began attending a small rural church. My Sunday School class was relegated to the room near the top of the bell tower. It was hot—no air conditioning vent up there—and there was a wasp’s nest in the ceiling.
Yet the first time I joined the class, I felt it—that feeling of warmth, peace, and acceptance. I knew God was in that room. Unfortunately, I did not feel that in the church I had planned to join.
Many years later, I stepped through the sanctuary doors of another new church—and instantly knew I had found home. It had been so long since God had told me He would show me the way, that I had completely forgotten about that. After attending the church for a while, I did remember, and realized He had kept his promise. Not the next day, or the next year, but when the time was right. His time.
So I pray for all of you my friends that you my be led to the right path at the right time—God’s time.
