Valerie Rae Hanneman
Isaiah 9:6 “and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (KJV)
I love the “Southern Belles” in Civil War movies. They crack me up with their helpless femininity. My favorite is when they get an attack of the “vapors” You don’t remember the vapors? Okay, try this. Take your right hand and spread your fingers out just as far as you can, as if it were a fan. Place your left hand, palm out, on your forehead, slump back and start rapidly fanning your face with your (hand) fan. In your very best Georgia drawl say “Why I do declare! I do believe that I am having an attack of the vapors! Why I can’t hardly breathe and my little ol’ heart is just a-fluttering.” Remember them now? At this point some Ashley type southern gentleman would rush off to get this belle-in-distress a glass of lemonade. (Not Rhett - Rhett was a man’s man and he wouldn’t be caught dead fetching lemonade for a “vaporing” female)
I get the vapors sometimes. Not quite as dramatic as a distressed southern belle but I know the symptoms well. When my mind and my body is at rest and I am freed to daydream I always seem to daydream about the time that I long for the most. The time that is going to put the exclamation point on my life - when I am in Jesus’ presence for the very first time. I close my eyes and imagine seeing Him for the first time, being on my knees before Him, putting my hands and face on His feet and being unable to speak because I am so in awe of Him. I imagine that very moment when He reaches down to touch me. That is when I get the vapors. My breathing gets short, my heart races and it feels like my soul is straining to leave this earthly body and be at His feet waiting for that touch. These vapors are anticipation vapors - not distress vapors.
Do you think that seeing Jesus at home is ever going to be commonplace? Are we ever going to get used to it? Can you imagine turning the corner of Acts 1:8 Street & John 3:16 Avenue, seeing Jesus, walking up to Him and casually saying, “Jesus! Dude, how’s it going? I’m on my way to WD-40 that squeaky gate in the southern pearl - what are You up to?”
That kind of casualness with Jesus is way beyond anything that I can imagine. I am going to be honest and tell you that I don’t have any insight on what heaven is going to be like - my finite mind can not imagine all that the infinite heaven is. So I don’t know what is going to be going on when we are at home - but I will tell you that my finite mind simply cannot accept that seeing Jesus - being in HIS PRESENCE - will ever be commonplace and casual. What my finite mind can accept is that every time I am in His vicinity I am falling to my knees, my nose in the gold dust of the streets, crying “Holy, Holy, Holy, LORD God Almighty!” and staying like that until He either lifts my head up or He passes by me.
So here is the conundrum (a confusing and difficult problem or question.) -
If I can get the vapors just imagining seeing Jesus, and if my finite mind simply cannot accept ever treating Him as commonplace in all of eternity - why do I treat Him as if He is commonplace while I am on earth?
When I use His holy name as a weapon to damn another - then I make His name commonplace in my mouth. When I am meanspirited and gossip about another and ignore His commandment to love one another - then I make His commandments commonplace because they only apply when it is convenient for me. When I lift my hands in praise on Sonday morning - and my middle finger on during Monday morning rush hour - then I am saying that Jesus is commonplace and only has a place in my life on Sondays. When I tell my friends how much I love Jesus one day then go out and get drunk with them the next day, I say to my friends that Jesus is commonplace, so why bother accepting a commonplace savior?
I can completely relate to Apostle Paul’s frustration when he wrote, “For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing!” (Romans 7:19) I don’t want Jesus to be commonplace in my life. I love Him so much that I get the vapors just thinking about seeing Him face-to-face. What I want more than anything else is to live a life that is an act of worship to my God. That is the good that I want to do. But time and time again in my thoughts, words and actions I say to Him - and to this world - that He is commonplace in my life. I don’t want to do that evil - but I keep on doing it anyway.
Praise God that His mercy is new every morning and that I have a chance to do better today at glorifying Him then I did yesterday. But I have to want to make that change.
If I want to continue to tell Him that He is commonplace through my lifestyle then He will step back and allow me to do that. (And allow me the consequences of that choice) If I want for my life today to be an act of worship to my extraordinary God, and for my life tomorrow to be an even stronger act of worship, and the next day to be even stronger - then He is going to step forward and help me - because this is what He wants for me.
Did you blow it today? Did you treat Him as if He were commonplace? He is anxious to forgive you for it and He is anxious to help you do better tomorrow. Just ask Him.
My LORD and Savior Jesus I can’t hardly wait to be at Your feet in eternity. It is the only future that I have. But I want more than a future dream I want a today that reflects the awe and wonder I am going to feel when I am with You. I want my thoughts, words and actions to be at Your feet today. Help me and strengthen me so I don’t make You commonplace.
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Posted by Valerie at April 17, 2005 02:37 PM