Sometimes in life, it is hard to find the words to adequately describe something that you have never experienced before.
Perhaps it is something so remarkable, exciting, amazing, deep, or powerful, that even when you reach way down into the depths of your vocabulary…. the words just aren’t there to describe it.
That’s where I found myself not so many years ago, as I began to give God access to my life, and God started doing in my life what God does, which is things…. that are exciting, amazing, deep, and powerful.
Things…. that I simply couldn’t describe.
At the time, I also had this newfound feeling of need and desire to share with everyone what God was doing in, around, and through me but, so often…. there were simply no words to describe it.
I sometimes felt like a fool when I did try to tell someone because afterwards, it wasn’t uncommon for people to look at me like I had two heads and honestly, if someone had told me the same things years prior, I would have looked at them the same way…. like they were crazy.
But there I was, babbling on and sounding like a nut, until one Sunday morning….
John Riggin, my rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal, was preaching on how God works in our lives, and how when the Holy Spirit moves on, in and through us, it is very hard to describe these events, or the physical feeling, in human terms.
John made the comment, “When you can’t find the words to describe the things God is doing in your life and how The Holy Spirit is working in your life, that’s normal…. because there are no words”!
I distinctly remember the feeling of relief, and empowerment, that washed over me at the same time. In short…. I’m not crazy, and that is indeed God!
Sometime later, I was talking to a fella from my hometown of Lucedale, Mississippi, RJ Tanner….
RJ and I were standing in a gravel parking lot talking about faith, God at work in our lives, and I was trying to describe how I felt when God showed up, when the Holy Spirit filled the room, filled my soul, but after stammering around I finally said…. “I just can’t find the words to describe it”.
RJ stepped in and enthusiastically said, “Man I can. It’s like Lightning…. in…. my…. BONES”!
If I live to be 100 years old, there will never be more accurate words to describe the feeling I get when God shows up, when His Holy Spirit fills the room, and fills my soul. It’s like…. “Lightning In My Bones”!
John Riggin and RJ Tanner are about as far apart, in terms of personality and life experience, as two men can be but….
God used them both to make profound statements in my life, to strengthen my Faith, to show me that I was indeed on track, and to encourage me in my Faith walk through this world.
It makes perfect sense to me today that God would use a preacher in a pulpit and a biker in a parking lot, two people on complete opposite ends of the spectrum to speak His truth to me, a redeemed and repurposed man…. that bounces around in this life somewhere between them both. That’s how it works.
Get In The Boat. Do Your Part.
Lightning In My Bones…. From Nose To Toes!
Shane / #16