I always knew that the Lord spoke. I just never really thought it was truly for me. God would speak on rare occasions, but they were few and far between. Walking on to the Race I knew that God would be present and speak to me at different times, but to expect that God would use me to speak to others or would daily meet with me was ridiculous.
God spoke something crazy to me the first days I was here in Haiti. “Wake up early and meet with me.” Now early to me on the race thus far had been 7am. I was already doing the ludicrous thing of getting up at 5:45 to work out, was I really supposed to wake up any earlier? “I will meet you at 4:45. If you meet with me I will meet with you.” Clearly God had lost his mind. How was I supposed to wake up that early and actually function enough to meet with him? How was this really going to be fruitful?
The alarm rang at 4:45 and for the first time ever I wasn’t angry about waking up before 7:30. This was surprising and reassuring. Maybe God was really serious when he said that this was going to be good. With Bible and journal in hand I walked up the steps to the roof overlooking the ocean and mountains, my headlamp the only light source before the sunrise. I sat before the Bible praying that God was serious about showing up. There was no way I was waking up early the next day if he didn’t show himself today.
God is never one to break his word. God showed up in huge ways. The first day I met early with him he gave me a word for Sara on my squad. The thing God wanted her to know was how loved she was, which happened to be the exact thing she had been praying to God about the night before. I was hooked. I was hooked on getting up early to be with God. I was hooked on listening to him and not taking up all the time talking. I was hooked on being in intimate communion with him in new ways.
Over the last month God has not disappointed. I have met with God everyday before the sun rises and every day he amazes me with the ways that he shows up. My relationship with God has taken on a new level of depth that, honestly, I didn’t think would be possible for me. I truly believe that being in Haiti and at Mission of Hope has a lot to do with it. Haiti has given me space to listen. My days aren’t jam packed with ministry work that ends at odd hours and never follows a schedule. Mission of Hope has allowed me to spend a month that is cushioned with space to spend with God. Haiti has given me breathing room, and I will forever cherish the month that intimacy with the Lord was allowed to be my focus.
The crazy thing about all of this: I am not anyone special. I don’t have a secret handshake or the right combination of words to unlock the voice of the creator. I simply show up each day with the expectation that he will meet with me. I simply choose to let him talk and believe that he wants to speak to me. The craziest part of all of it is that God wants this type of relationship with everyone. I am not set apart in any special way. God longs to spend time in deep intimacy with his children, sharing his heart with them and speaking to them.
My challenge to you is this; do you really trust that God wants to speak to you like this? Do you believe that God wants to share his heart with you by speaking directly to you? I know that God longs to meet with each of his children in this way. Show up with the expectation that God will speak and you might just be surprised by the outcome.
