Delivered from A Dead life
“God loves you, God loves you, Gold loves you!!!” The speaker was practically yelling from the pulpit at the half-awake student body. To be honest, that week of worship hadn’t really struck a chord with me, I was there for the worship credit. I didn’t enjoy the speaker. But, the last day something profound happened. The speaker’s final, forceful, push of this repetitive phrase penetrated my core. I can remember the literally feeling of an arrow piercing my heart. God’s Spirit was beckoning me. There were things to do and places to go. One of the places to go was Heubach’s morning worships. I had been attending them sporadically throughout the spring quarter. The next morning I was determined to wake early to make it before my first class. Looking back, I can’t remember if we met at 7am or 7:30am, but I can tell you as a college student - sleeping in and pushing snooze a dozen times was the norm. However, I remember popping out of bed and showing up right on time. I sat in those hard, beautiful, wooden pews as the pianist began to play a hymn. I tried to sing, but words wouldn’t come out, only sobs. I mean ugly cry, makeup gone for the day, nose dripping, drenched shirt sobs. Surprisingly, no shame or embarrassment surrounded the moment. It was only the most cleansing cry I have ever experienced. I was being emptied and filled. I was being delivered from a dead life. I was waking up to a life of love, acceptance, healing, all the things promised and yet to be discovered. He was bringing me alive to Himself.
I left that sacred space not really understanding what had happened. But now, I believe the Holy Spirit had come to me. Burdens I had once carried had disappeared and I felt physically lighter when I walked back to my car.
Reflecting on Romans 8 brought all these memories flooding back. I’d like to close with some powerful words in Romans 8 from The Message translation.
“It stands to reason, doesn’t it that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. God’s Spirit Beckons… God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.”
A big thank you to my Alma mater @wallawallauniversity for fostering a place where students can encounter The Divine in monumental, life-changing ways.