MOMENT - a) an instant. b) importance in influence or effect
I had a moment.
The kind of moment you experience after "one more thing" finally gets the best of you and makes you wonder if the days, weeks and months of fighting so hard have been worth it. The moment you experience when you've done everything right, crossed all of your t's and dotted all of your i's, and still you get "the call" that something went wrong - again. The moment when you ask yourself if you are doing the right thing, because at every corner someone or something is seemingly trying to take you out! The moment when you scream "uncle" and end up in a hallway with a complete stranger who miraculously "gets it" and you know somehow that she truly does....so you go home...and start to remember other moments....
words from that song on the radio that took your breath away. The scene from that movie that stirred up feelings you didn't even know you had. Words from a sermon you've heard before, but that took on a whole new meaning that Sunday. The chapter in that book you read three times because something you'd been trying to figure out finally clicked. The day you met one person you never should have met, only to find out in that conversation, that the coincidental run-in was actually a much needed divine appointment for the both of you.
Too many times we let our circumstances and our feelings dictate what we do and who and what we pursue. We assume that if things are all upside down and topsy-turvy that we must be doing it all wrong. We think if it's too hard or too painful then it's not worth doing. We think God doesn't seem to care, so we give up on our assignments, our relationships, our ideas and our dreams.
And that's when we miss it. We miss everything.
We miss watching the mountain move before our very eyes. We give up our front row seat to a miracle about to unfold. We miss the something-more-beautiful-than-we-ever-imagined outcome to heart-felt prayers; desperate pleas we thought had only been hitting the ceiling in our bedrooms. We miss what is good and pure and right and perfect because we give up when the going gets tough instead of praying through and waiting a little longer. We miss important lessons and answered prayers because we give up on God instead of waiting on Him to finish doing what only He knows has to be done; what He's been doing when we thought He wasn't doing anything.
We all have defining moments in our lives. Moments that shape us, mold us, and make us into who and what we are today. Moments that, in one split second, cause a small shift in the way we choose to live our lives, and result in something far bigger than we ever imagined. Moments have the ability to grow us or destroy us. We must make a choice.
I remember the moment that changed everything for me many years ago. I remember how one little shift in my perception caused a domino effect I never could have dreamed up all by myself. In fact, before that first domino fell, I was certain that moments like those didn't happen to people like me.
I was thankfully and wonderfully wrong!
Through the words of the apostle Paul, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
This doesn't mean that what God asks of us will be easy. Or comfortable. Or cheap. Or fit in our busy schedules. Or make sense to our friends or family. Or make us feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Or give us recognition. Or a promotion. Or a break.
However, doing what God asks of us has a surprise waiting for us at the end. A never-in-a-million-years-would-I-have-dreamed-that-I-would-be-here-and-doing-this surprise!
10 days from today I'll be Africa bound where I will no doubt experience other moments and watch from my front row seat as others on our team have moments too. Moments they coulda, woulda, shoulda missed out on, but made a choice not too.
What choice will you make the next time you find yourself in a moment?
