For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. 2 CORINTHIANS 6:2 NLT
During a pause between beats in the rhythm of a winter’s afternoon, I stand at the kitchen sink washing dishes, grateful for the window there. Sunlight streaks through the trees, where red-headed finches flutter about branches to gather berries.
As I observe the wonder, a disturbance breaks as sound waves rip open the silence. A jet slices through the stratosphere leaving streaks across the sky.
Intrigued with neck craning, I try to catch a glimpse of the aircraft through my window. By the time I look, the plane has already passed. Yet the boom resonates through the hills and rattles the walls of my safe home.
I think about what this means for the reliability of my senses, by which one perceives time and space, and how it relates to my faith.
This reminds me of something I heard Pastor Greg Laurie say: “The gospel is only good news if it gets there on time.” The apostle Paul understood this when he wrote that now is the time to look up.
Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation.
Here at the start of another year, I know how you may feel like you are racing against time. A year when each day feels like 86,400 breaths that you can barely catch. Don’t blink, because when you look up everyone will be onto the next thing. The next sound bite. The next tweet. The next missed call.
The next moment reverberates reckless in your already tired ears. And who can hear it? When the call resounds within your heart to go, to love, to hold, to serve, to be present now…Who can hardly even hear it?
The past year was one in which unprecedented things happened in the celestial heavens, and earth shattering events shook our souls. When the headlines appeared in our backyard and we knew the names of the victims. We wept, because who can stand to bare much more of this?
We teeter on the fence between sleeping standing up and awakening to our current reality. This is where we must take pause. We get this one wild moment when two hands swing straight up and our souls crash together in one solid stroke. When in the darkest hour, we have a chance at awakening to a brand new thing. Will we not perceive it?
What is crying out in your soul that desperately looks for an answer? Or have you stopped crying because it just hurts too much? Are you still searching and wondering if the answer will be around the next corner?
Let me encourage you, that you are not too late and the answer will be right on time. “For God says, ‘At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you’.”
God hears you. Those dried up tears and shouts at the ceiling do not echo back unheard. At just the right time, God brings salvation. That time is now. Today is the moment when you get to say: I am ready. I’m ready to say Yes, and invite God in. I’m ready to participate in my story. I’m awake, but I want to be fully alive.
Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. EPHESIANS 5:13-14 NASB
(This post has been updated, but was originally published on December 30, 2016 with the title Awaken My Heart, and was featured on For Every Mom blog in 2017.)
