An approach to discerning God's will that I advised the students against was that of randomly opening the Bible, pointing to a verse and trying to stretch that verse into some type of perfect advice for one's life. As I was preparing the talk I decided that in the chapel, I would randomly pick a verse and then try to apply it - as if I were replaying my younger self's attempts to twist Scripture into a defense of my tawdry relationship. Early this morning I even practiced this randomness. I opened my Bible to verses here and there and I could imagine how I might in-the-moment apply each verse to the situation that I would be painting for them.
I don't know what I was thinking - practicing the randomness. You can't practice randomness! Read on.
The chapel talk was moving along fine... So, the kids hadn't laughed at my version of Gideon's fleece. ("God, if you want me to break up with so-and-so, may I wake up tomorrow morning with a zit on the tip of my nose." The next morning I woke up with zits at the centers of my forehead, upper lip and chin - but not on the tip of my nose.) So what... Perhaps I'd find a real doozy of a verse to try to stretch into my story...
And what a doozy my finger landed on. Now, you'd think that I might have skimmed the verse first before I launched into reading it out loud in front of 500 kids. But, no... my finger landed on Jeremiah 3:2, and I just started reading:
Look up to the barren heights and see.
Is there any place where you have not been ravished?
By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers,
sat like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land
with your prostitution and wickedness.
No one laughed at this point either. Except for me.
You see, this would not have been an inappropriate verse for the Spirit to send my way at that point in my life... Of course, I wasn't going to get into this with the high schoolers. (I think I skipped the last half of the verse and moved quickly on into the rest of the talk - which went fine from there on out.)
I guess the moral of the story is, don't be too quick to tell the Spirit (and others) how the Spirit doesn't communicate.
6 comments:
Don't you love it.
The teen years. Sometimes I wish I could repeat them to do it better and live up to the potential I had...Then again I'm am so thankful that it isn't an option to go back.
As a mom of a 14 year old I just have to say I'm so glad we had so many of the hard talks between the ages of 3 and 13. Now I am one of the stupidist people on the face of the planet...yeah, my parents get a kick out of the paybacks.
Oh, and I am completely unreasonable in the area of restricting her life... wonder why??? Could it have anything to do with the fact that I had her at 19?
Heids-
You had me giggling again. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Hey, we need to chat soon! What is your schedule like this weekend?
Did you just wish you could just magically disappear or rewind the tape in life? Girl, you never cease to bring a smile to my face through your day to day experiences.
love ya
Chris
That's so funny! :) Thanks for sharing your story!
blessings,
Shelly
...reminds me of a book i'm reading, Expecting Adam, where a young woman, determined to shed her Utah mormon past by gaining two degrees at Harvard with a fierce atheism, learns during her tumultuous pregnancy with a Down baby that limiting (well, in her case, excising) God's strange and unmistakable presence -- ways of communicating -- in her life is over time so obviously impossible.....As for me, I've struggled with this listening, this feeling or knowing of presence, and of nudging. I sense that my fears have often limited my faith..but in any case, I may try throwing open the scriptures now and again..just for a chuckle. How interesting to have surprised yourself in the midst of a talk like this...
love, s
Heidi,
I just ran across your blog, It has been years since I have seen you or talked to you! It was good to read your blog and get a glimpse of you are now. I come up to GR alot. My wife and I are living in Chicago, and are gearing up to move back overseas. Anyways. I love this post... Brings you back to thoses old chairs in the chapel at LCS. I would never go back! lol
Rusty Polinder
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