My favorite line from the 1990 movie Pretty Woman sums up the theme of the movie for me: The homeless/crazy/prophet character at the end of the movie walking across the street, crying out, “What’s your dream?” The official plot of the movie aside, what stands out in my memory is the weaving of the stories of two lost people from vastly different backgrounds with similar dreams of connecting and belonging.
Today’s Elul devotion rightly observed that we each have our own story to tell about our first encounter with YHVH our Elohim, relating it to the familiar Bible tale of Jacob leaving home and his dramatic, life-changing experience of meeting the God of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham on a ladder or staircase to heaven.
My own story is like many others who were raised in a Christian family, starting out with the first Sunday of my life in church. Literally.
I “walked down the aisle” (it’s a Baptist thing) when I was around 9 years old. Many of my friends were from church. My teenage years revolved largely around Youth Group activities with my church. I even went to a Baptist college, for goodness sake! To be honest, I am of the opinion that being raised in the church can be every bit as much of a “handicap” as being raised in an unchurched environment. Yes, each has its different set of challenges, but the bottom line is that every person must come to their own relationship with God - and not rely on their family traditions or their church culture to “save” them. We see that so often, the term has been coined Cultural Christianity.
For me, the challenges I faced in my walk with God really bubbled to the surface when I was away from home, at college with all of the inherent distractions - Christian college or no. There came a point where I needed to stop dancing back and forth over The Line and decide where I wanted to take a stand. Walking with God? Or walking toward all of the noise that the World offers? In my case, it was a blessing that I already had learned which direction held a better promise:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days...” Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (ESV)
We each have our own unique story of meeting God for the first time, because our backgrounds are so vastly different. None of us were likely running for our lives from our twin brother, but my guess is that each of us was running from something. In spite of that - or maybe because of that - YHVH wants and is able to meet each one of us where we are and fulfill our dreams for connection and belonging. In fact, I would say that if we are paying attention, we could see that He orchestrates or choreographs multiple opportunities for us to meet with Him.
Sometimes, the stories are dramatic and bring us to tears, sometimes the stories are quiet and intensely personal. Not one story is either more, or less, important to Him. What is important is that we respond to His revelation of Who He is and who we are in Him. No Hollywood endings, no knights in shining armor carrying bouquets of flowers charging in riding a limo. This story is much better and far beyond what we could dream or imagine. That is probably why He has captured so many hearts.
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