You’ve been there if you walked with the Lord any amount of time! What I am alluding to is that still small voice that prompts you often in ways that aren’t obvious at first, but always leads to something amazing. This was the case for me again this week. I have so enjoyed the sermon series at our church, “Death to Selfie”. Watching the failures, victories and humanness of Jacob as God transformed him into something remarkable has been refreshing.
The message this past Sunday which continued this topic was “When God Shows up in the Middle of Nowhere: Jacob’s Bethel experience”. Bethel was originally called Luz. Luz whose meaning is “Almond Tree”, according to Strong’s Concordance, was in the middle of no where. Yet, this is exactly where God chose to reveal Himself to Jacob. As the story in Genesis 28 goes, God was present in Luz but Jacob didn’t realize this until his amazing “dream encounter”. Jacob had spent his life wheeling and dealing. He bargained, tricked, supplanted and was a heel grabber (as his name implies) by trying to grab and grasp at all he could as a means to get ahead. You even see him making a deal with God in this instance in Gen. 28:20-22
Jacob vowed a vow: “If God stands by me and protects me on this
journey on which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings
me back in one piece to my father’s house, this God will be my God. This stone
that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives.
And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.”
The short of the story is that God did take Jacob up on this deal and proved to be more than faithful to him throughout his life. This God encounter caused Jacob to rename the City of Luz to the City of Bethel (House of God--a place of Remembrance). Many years later, when life was crazy for Jacob and after he had experienced great success and some substantial heartache, he returned to Bethel. When life becomes so complicated and our progress so obstructed that we can’t remember why we are where we are or what we should do next, a trip to Bethel is in order! Sometimes we have to go back to go forward. The Patriarch Jacob (who was renamed Israel...but that’s another story) knew this truth!! On his return to Bethel now a blessed but aged multimillionaire who walked with a limp as the result of another God encounter, Jacob/Israel was a new man. He had learned to rely on God rather than upon his own devices and his knack for tricking his way up the chain. He no longer strutted into the room, but rather walked with an obvious limp. This time, as he prayed at Bethel, there was no wheeling and dealing with the God of the Universe. There was no negotiating a deal. Jacob/Israel had learned that God was more than faithful. He had learned that God was more than enough all by Himself. This time, Jacob/Israel merely worshipped God. He had discovered that when God shows up in the middle of your nowhere that God was actually “now here” all along! (NowHere)!
So this was my Sunday message, and as we left the service, I had every intention of posting something along these lines on Facebook as I had done after many other services including the one prior to this. However, I decided I would blog about it in my “Blog/Diary” instead and post it that night; but alas that still small voice that prompts you was gently nudging me in another direction! Yes, it was confusing, but I felt the Lord prompting me to hold off. I didn’t know why, and I was inspired to write at that moment. Why wait? I was afraid I would lose my passion as the cares of the upcoming week began to implode upon me. Yet I have walked with Him long enough to understand that it is better to follow His leading. I now know why we had a “slow down” plan. God had every intention of giving me my own Bethel experience, but I would not know this until later on in the week.
It was almost twenty-four years ago that I stood in the parking lot of Gaston Community College with a hope and a promise that if I worked hard and stayed the course, I could realize my dream of becoming a teacher. Just four days earlier, I had walked across the stage of North Gaston High School and all my friends were celebrating at the beach, but not this strong-willed, determined scholar. No! I was getting a head start at Gaston College so that I could transfer those classes to Belmont Abbey where I would be pursuing my dream of teaching. I was the top finalist from Gaston Memorial Hospital for a radiology degree and had a full ride! I turned this down not once but even the second year in a row when they were starting a new cohort and called once more to persuade me to join. I was flattered that they were so impressed, but I was going to be a teacher--so I stayed the course. I was young, but decided to wed a teacher. He was smart, kind and charming! He brought home a meager salary that we learned to stretch to meet our needs. We made many sacrifices in our two bedroom mill home and one automobile family life. I worked part-time, went to school full time, and shortly after marriage, my husband and I became pregnant. It was all a lot of work, but we never gave up! I was going to be a teacher, one day!
The years past quickly and life took shape with many realized dreams. So, there I stood in that Gaston Community College parking lot on August 7, 2014 a Gaston County Instructional Technology Facilitator with a B.A. in elementary education, an MEd. in Special Education for Gifted Students, and having obtained numerous certifications. I was moments away from being one of the final Keynote speakers at The Gaston County Schools Teaching and Learning Conference where I, a teacher, would speak to other teachers. I would be speaking in the auditorium where twenty one years earlier I graduated with an Associates of Arts degree with a promise and the hope to be a teacher one day and with my Belmont Abbey acceptance letter in plain view on my coffee table! This Gaston College graduation was a graduation that included carrying my precious son across the stage with me...inside of me! He was to be born in two months! This spectacle got me a few moments of fame in the local Gaston Gazette!
That Gaston College parking lot houses many memories for me. It was onto the pavement of this parking lot that a nervous North Gaston senior stepped as a member of the North Gaston High School Homecoming Court and walked toward the recording studio to have her homecoming speech recorded so that it could be played at their school assembly. It was in this parking lot that I had my heart shattered by a guy I thought was the love of my life only to realize God had a better plan. It was in this same parking lot that I became violently ill thinking I had the flu, only to discover I was actually carrying one of the greatest loves of my life just underneath my heart. It was in this parking lot that God answered my prayer after class one day. I needed gas money. I only had mere change and wasn’t sure I would make it to my grandmother’s where I needed to go. I prayed asking God to either help my car make it all the way to my sweet grandma's or to help me find change on the parking lot. He chose the latter. I had more change than I had asked for. This was no small miracle to me in those days...and the memory actually still moves my heart in these present days!
So again, here I was on August 7, 2014 at my Bethel experience. The realization of a promise in a parking lot! A promise that was delivered by The Patriarch of Patriarchs! When I arrived this day, I had to park my car in "Egypt" since there were so many people at Gaston College. I began the long haul to the prominent, newly renovated auditorium. I almost made it to the door when I realized I had left some very prized construction paper, red ball replicas in my car. They were important to my presentation. I was frustrated at the thoughts of retracing my steps and making the same haul again, but then I heard that same still small voice, “Lisa, don’t rush this! This is our moment. It’s just as much mine as yours!” I began thanking God for His amazing faithfulness and his lavish gifts, I glanced down at my garnet college graduation ring from Belmont Abbey that I had worn by happenstance. I had intended on wearing the smoky quartz that matched my brown outfit until I saw a 5 garnet set from my grandmother. Feeling nostalgic, I wore her ring that I always pair with the garnet class ring. In that moment the prize that was the proof of a promise fulfilled sat proudly upon my hand. How could I have known all those years ago that one day I would be a teacher who teaches teachers and gets to speak to them in the auditorium of my old college. Yes! The journey with Christ is amazing! We follow Him because He loves us and because at each Bethel experience we are reminded that this is the most exciting life of all!!
Can’t wait to see what God will pull out of his closet for me next!! Love this video!
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