On Being Moved

This might strike you as a weird post but give it a chance….

I grew up under the tutelage of a mother who had come to Jesus during the “Jesus Freak” years of the 70’s. Some hippies were into the druggie scene, others were into the Jesus movement.

My Mom, late now, would tell us the story of how she was in her home one day when I was about 2. She had a plumber come to the house. She was feeling lost, had eve tried to commit suicide before I was born. The plumber proceeded to tell her it was no coincidence he was there and invited her to church. From then on my Mom was a devout fundamentalist, all-in Christian. We attended very charismatic churches through my youth, where the parishioners would speak in tongues and people would be “slain in the Spirit.” If you have watched the tv evangelists, that is the part where people fall down onto the floor.

All of this left me with a cringy feeling that led me to a more conservative version of Christianity in my adulthood.

But what I want to convey here is that I do believe there is a place and time when the Spirit of God can be tangible. Not every Sunday in my experience, rather few and far between.

However, when I stood in a humble little church in the middle of Kenya worshipping with that loving congregation, singing out to Jesus, tears began to roll uncontrollably down this very together and non-crier girl’s face. I was moved.

Today when I listened to a sermon on the prophecy that George Washington was said to have received from an Angel, I was moved to tears.

I am no authority but I feel there are moments when we can experience the close presence of the Spirit of God. You can feel it as it moves you even if you are not a very emotionally tuned person. You don’t have to drum it up. It comes upon you.

You don’t have to look for these moments but I think we should be open to them and not resist if they do come to us.

Spirit of God, fall fresh on us.