Showing Up

"Sooo... what's God doing in YOUR life?"

Don't you just LOVE this question?  Seems innocuous enough... to the naive, that is.  To a recovering cynic like me, however, who boldly sees layer upon layer of innuendo and hidden agendas where no man has seen before... it is nothing more than a subtle barometric tool meant to measure ones' reaction to being put on the spot.   

Ever have someone ask you this question, say in a group setting (around a circle is always great, with everyone intensely staring each other down in an OK Corral kind of way), and you find yourself going into this instant internal panic mode… wracking your brain in a desperate attempt to come up with something good and dramatic to top (or at least keep up with) all the other spiritual Jones's and/or glowing testimonies in the circle before you?    Yeah, me neither.  That never happens to me. 

Ok, I’m lying.  In fact, it just happened to me.  I was in just such a circly situation, and though I know God is always at work, my mind was drawing a complete blank… and as half of me listened with awe and wonderment to story after story of all the cool stuff Jesus is doing to and through my spiritual friends, the other half of me was thinking, “I got nothin.  This is not good.”

Let me clarify.  It’s not that I don’t think God is doing anything in my life.  It’s just that sometimes it doesn’t seem very “made for tv”, or even “made for circle time” by comparison.  It just seems insignificant. You know, little stuff... like the Fatherly way His voice whispers words of direction I so very much need in the midst of my cluttered, chaotic day.  The surprising way He actually uses me to speak wisdom into someone’s life (huh, did those sage words really just come out of MY mouth?)  The “random” way He pops someone’s name into my mind in the middle of a sleepless night to pray for them, only to find out the next day why… The sneaky way he uses the most unlikely source to speak jarring words of encouragement to me just when I least expect it… and just when I needed them most.

It’s little stuff, really.  Nothing dramatic.  And yet, by the time it was my time to share, I realized, that IS what he’s doing in my life.  Showing up.  In a thousand little ways.  Usually I’m so deaf and blind, I can’t see or hear him… or at least I’m on this delayed timer, and don’t realize it until after the fact.  But the fact is, He is ENGAGING… with me!   Actually taking time to LISTEN, TALK TO, and even USE  me for His glory.  Amazing. 

So I guess you could say what God is doing in my life right now is, well…  showing up… in a lot of little ways.   And come to think of it, this is a pretty big deal.   

Sooo… what’s God doing in YOUR life?  ;^)