So, on my most faithful days I know that the Holy Spirit is showing us tangible signs of her work.
On my days where I let the clutter and hustle and bustle of this world cloud my vision, I forget this belief.
Today was one of those days where the Spirit was so insistent that it felt she was hitting me over the head with a hammer. ... In the most loving way possible, of course.
Today I faced an important meeting at work. I had spent the past five days preparing for this meeting, gathering important data, documents and conferring with my team. It was all in an effort to be prepared for any question when I faced a group of company executives to report the progress of the start-up company that I have been building these past two years. It was one of those important meetings where weighty decisions would be made, and frankly, it had kept me sleepless a night or two in the past five days.
By the time 11:30 a.m. this morning had rolled around, I was a ball of nerves, and there was a knot in my stomach. I was anxious over this meeting, as the future of my team depended on this meeting, as did the future of our young company.
But I had other obligations before this meeting would take place, and I had to do my best to keep the emotions in check.
(So full admission here at this juncture: Sometimes in my most stressful times, I turn to worry first. And often just flat forget about the prayer until much later. ... Despite, preaching multiple times from the pulpit that God tells us not to fear over and over and over again, I still do. It's a bad habit with which I continue to wrestle.)
One of the obligations I had was to chair a meeting of our local Big Brothers Big Sisters Advisory Committee. And so, at 11:30 I hopped in my car and headed for headquarters. Halfway through my favorite Christian rock song by my favorite Christian rock group played on the radio. And when I say my favorite song by my favorite band, I mean I booked an entire vacation last spring just to travel a couple of thousands miles to see the band play this song. (See the photo above.)
The song? ... "Testify" by the band Needtobreath.
So what's miraculous about that, you might ask. ... Well, it's a song that rarely ever makes radio play. The band has far more popular hits, and so this song is almost never played. Additionally, I heard the song on a radio station that I never listen to. Seriously. We are blessed with a handful of stations that play various genres of Christian music, and this particular station generally plays contemporary big band praise music. And it's generally not my cup of tea, and so I always hit the "Skip" button on the radio.
But, today when, I climbed into my car, this station was on, and for whatever reason, I never turned it. I let songs that I wouldn't normally listen to play, as my anxious mind focused on the meeting that would take place in four hours.
But then "Testify" came on. ... Out of nowhere. ... On a station whose format wouldn't even normally have this song in their playlist.
When the realization what I was listening to hit me, I nearly cried. I didn't. I held it in, but there were certainly big, ol' fat tears just on the cusp of spilling out of my tear ducts. ... God answered. The Holy Spirit delivered. And as the song slowly came to an end, my worries dissipated. ... Just dissolved as if they were being melted in acid. I arrived at BBBS meeting refreshed, centered and knowing that I'd just witnessed the Spirit at work.
Signs. ... They're out there folks. The Spirit is always actively moving about in this world, pushing and nudging and pulling us closer to God. And today I was again reminded that the signs are out there. We just have to look for them, and not let this earthly world cloud our vision.
And that is why today, I am finding faith in the signs.
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