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Here humans craft and share their personal, compelling, beautiful, sometimes difficult 17 minute story of when God got real in their life and how that experience changed them. Following their story, they consider with host Sarah Hollar how their experience continues to affect them in their relationships, their sense of self and their way in the world.
Hello, friends. Welcome to Episode 9 of When God Got Real.
Thanks for giving us a listen.
Here's something to ponder. What is your earliest memory of God?
Is it active or passive?
Was it from a story told you by someone you loved?
Was it sitting cross-legged in a Sunday school class?
Was it after your introduction to the concept of an all-knowing,
all-powerful, ever-present, benevolent being?
Did something happen in your life that you interpreted as divine intervention?
As God singularly, purposefully interceding on your behalf?
Did the experience fill you with wonder, confusion, or pause of any kind?
Can you remember a time in your early life when the concept of God moved from
an idea to an experienced reality?
What have been the long-lasting effects of that experience? Do you trust your
younger interpretation of the event?
This story suggests it is God's pleasure to make God's self known to his fledgling humans.
Happy listening!
Time ago. When I was seven, I went to a school that put on a fall festival,
a Christmas play, and a spring barbecue as fundraisers for field trips and classroom extras.
The year I was in second grade was that great year to put on the play.
The teachers chose the Nutcracker.
Mrs. Yancey, my teacher, who wore her hair in cool braids and was kind to her
students, announced the roles and audition times for the primary parts.
I wanted to be a sugar plum fairy.
I wanted it sincerely, deeply, most fervently.
There was no rational reason for me to expect the part.
I hadn't taken any dance lessons. I didn't have blonde ringlets.
I wasn't the cutest girl in the second grade classes.
Still, I wanted to wear the dress I suspected would be pink,
has some sparkly thing on my head and twirl with a wand across the stage.
I wanted this experience and I suspected I needed help in getting the chance.
I had been taken to Sunday school regularly. I sat through the church services that followed.
One lesson I remembered was Jesus telling his 12 friends, knock,
ask, seek, and it shall be given you.
With hope and with confidence, in the morning and at night, I talked to God. I prayed.
I was respectful, honest, and clear.
I also thought that this might be a quid pro quo situation, so I promised.
If I got to be the Sugar Plum Fairy, I would practice.
I would follow all the directions, and in addition, I would work really hard
to be the person God wanted me to be, to act as he desired.
I think as the days passed, I added more specific examples like not squirming
in church and being nice to an irritating neighbor boy.
I examined my conscience and determined I had done all I could to secure the desired outcome.
A day or two before the scheduled auditions, a trip to the doctor's office confirmed I had chickenpox.
In those olden days, that meant the infected person had to be quarantined for two weeks.
Itchy, isolated, disappointed, theologically confused, I sighed and moked.
To myself, I don't remember sharing my letdown with my mom or dad.
Probably because I wasn't interested in being talked out of feeling disillusioned
or instructed in what I could have done differently.
So, I suffered with a limited experience and perspective of a seven-year-old mind.
Upon my release and return to school I went to find the cast sheets I expected
to see my name as Daffodil No.
17 Back Row in Waltz of the Flowers,
It wasn't listed there I wasn't on the tech crew Or with those who opted out to sit in the audience,
I thought to find my friends' names and looking up, discovered my name across
the line of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
I was stunned and excited and nervous and curious and grateful and nervous and
awed and nervous and touched and.
God heard my ask, saw my search, and answered.
God said yes to my prayer and made it so.
This intervention, this working out for my benefit, without compensatory merit
or effort, was amazing and overwhelming.
It was love, and it was grace, and it was too big to understand.
So, I thank God and learned the part.
The night of the performance, Mrs. Yancey zipped me into the fancy pink dress,
clipped the sparkly crown onto my head, handed me the newly glitter-glued wand,
and sent me whirling onto the stage.
I flitted in and out of dancing mice, poured the Nutcracker's crepe-paper costume
off with vigor, revealing the prints underneath.
The piece unfolded, matching my imagination.
To my mind, it was perfection.
Mrs. Yancey was thrilled and relieved. My parents beamed.
My friends were so pleased with their execution.
Audience members congratulated us.
The post-play snacks were delicious. Second brownies were offered.
On the way home, my family dissected the event with enthusiasm. I was euphoric.
I'm guessing this is a version of a Little Leaguer hitting an unexpected grand
slam early in the season.
The next morning, still basking in the otherworldliness of the stage and lights
and costumes, I had this deep thought.
I wanted to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. I asked God to make it so.
It seemed God had directly granted my wish, answered my prayer.
A surprising thought came into my head What about the other second grade girls
who wanted to be the sugar plum fairy?
Likely some Maybe many of them thought to ask God to make it so for them Likely
they wanted it as much as I did Likely they would have practiced and done it well,
Why did God make it so for me instead of one of the others?
One of the few faith tenets I understood at seven years was that God loves all.
Capital A, capital L, capital L, all his people.
They are precious to him. He desires good things for them.
So why me in the pink dress?
A long time for a little kid to ponder, I stayed with this question.
The conclusion reached was this.
God's grace. God's grace.
Unearned, unbought, unbartered, unbargained.
I got what I asked for because God loves me and knows what's best for me,
and God answers others' prayers with love and knowing what is best.
His answer won't always be what I wish.
It won't always be what others wish. but he will always listen with loving ears
and will always do what is best for us.
From that age and before, I have not had another memory so detailed.
I've not had another where the thought process was so definitive.
As I matured, the theology, the sense of what God was about in that experience,
has become more profound for me.
I've come to believe that God in his unfathomable wisdom and long-game perfect
order hearing my innocent,
confident prayer determined for this one,
at this time, for this purpose I assent I make it so,
for the good of her soul and for the depth of our relationship and for the meaning
she will make of it later this will be my will for her,
she will remember my yes she will understand it will not always be yes and she will not lose faith,
she will see my yes in others' lives and she will acknowledge them so those
others may be encouraged and thankful and comforted.
For decades, I kept this story to
myself because it lacked
gravitas and sophistication and because it was true and tender to me and I didn't
want to be in the position of defending my interpretation or having my experience dismissed.
But there have been occasions
where it seems an apt illustration of God's grace and that grace's power to
resonate in one's life and powerfully affect how one orients oneself in the
world and in relationship with God's beloved,
lately I've been nudged with another understanding,
We provide few models and take few opportunities to ask children about their
experience of seeing God active in their lives.
God saying yes to their prayers and God saying no, not this,
and later unfolding a better plan.
We don't take seriously the young human's ability to conceptualize and the desire for the divine.
We don't trust that Bible stories we tell of God's power and goodness and interest
in being present in their lives really lands in their growing minds.
We ask, what did you learn in school today? How did soccer practice go?
Did you have fun with your friends?
There doesn't seem to be a natural default to ask, Did you see God show up in your life today?
Did you see God in someone else's life, in their action or attitude?
Noticing and claiming God active in my life has been a sustaining benefit in my life.
It has given me both ease and confidence.
Power, an entity, wiser, stronger, kinder, more just, more ethical,
consistent, invested in my well-being, showing up with guidance,
affirmation, correction and grace OMG,
literally OMG that's your gift that power,
that entity is definitively trustworthy both with the yes and the no,
in noticing and claiming the occasions when God got real for me I've soared
with the yeses, grown with the noes,
matured in the weights.
My intuition tells me I am not alone in this experience of God.
So, for this episode, I'm joined by my friend, collaborator,
partner in faith, travel, daily living, and mischief.
Cheater make it. Thank you for saying yes to this conversation.
I appreciate you stepping in after a winter storm, a guest cancellation,
and a couple of unanticipated disruptions.
You are a good egg.
Thank you Sarah I I like being a good age this story that you have related is
remarkable I'm particularly,
encouraged by your expression of self-awareness you were self-aware as a child
you clearly are self-aware now that is a conversation we often have and how how did all that happen.
Well, I'm of the mind that God has an idea of us.
As scripture says, when we are being knit together in our mother's womb,
when we are being knit together from the foundation of the world, God knew us.
God has an idea of how we're going to fit in his cosmic eternal plan.
And we're wired for that.
So if I am self-aware, I would say that's how God wired me to be.
If you're asking about being aware of God in my life,
that becomes easier for some people than others.
If it's more difficult for others, then it is a skill, it's an activity,
it's a practice that is absolutely worth practicing, developing, paying attention to.
And I think that the reason why I say that with confidence is because for people
I know that have a clearly defined relationship with God, they will say,
my life is better because of it.
And what makes them have
a deeper relationship with God is the ability to
see God present and moving in their life
not theoretically but practically they can look at incidents where God showed
up and intervened on their behalf or gave them what they needed to navigate
a situation or taught them contemplative,
orientations, taught them how to sit in patience, taught them how to understand
the role of suffering and sacrifice.
They can point to things where God was active in their lives and,
held them, encouraged them, supported them, sustained them,
kept things at bay so that they weren't overwhelmed, found ways to make his
promises visible and understandable to them.
I think that is a mature description.
I'm curious of the invitation to a child.
And, no, just the invitation to a child.
So children have a much more defined sense of authenticity than we sometimes think.
So if you're going to talk to a child about having a relationship with God,
you have to in yourself be secure or have a sense of what is true for you in
your relationship with God.
And it has to be meaningful to you so that when you open your mouth and speak
about a relationship with God, it flows and it seems true and trustworthy and authentic to you.
So before you ever talk to a child about God's presence, what do you truly believe?
What do you feel comfortable saying?
And can you articulate why it makes a difference in your life?
Yes.
And continuing on this idea of introduction, One of your phrases within your
story was noticing and claiming.
And obviously you're speaking of noticing and claiming these experiences.
I am curious if we describe those as gifts from God, or do we describe this
awareness as a skill that is taught? Yes.
Yes. Yes. I'm not letting you get away with that. I'll say more. Um...
Well, I think it's really helpful for someone who has had experience and can
tell a story about when God got real for them.
They will also tell you, when I had that experience and I paid attention to
it, I noticed it, I claimed it.
Then going forward in my life, it was easier for me to notice and claim other
ones. And sometimes right in the moment, sometimes in retrospect,
but in noticing and claiming, I came to understand that is the essence of God.
I can depend on that. I can trust that.
But without and some people have it naturally, but some need to be invited into
that. A story needs to be told them of how this looks and what the effects were.
And then the invitation to where in your life, where in your life is something like this happened?
It's what makes this story so compelling. Because you as a little girl dreaming
about something and had it come true.
Yes. Yes. God said yes to me in that ask.
And I will say that I certainly didn't realize it at the time.
Later on, I realized that yes to me was for some future things God wanted,
hope for me, expected for me.
It wasn't just a one-off. And I think that's really interesting because I think that often happens.
That God's answers to us in the moment has long-term implications and effects.
I think that is true as well there, dear.
But to extend that just a smidge more, let's talk about the trustworthiness of this notion.
And the belief in the yes, the maturity in the weight, and trustworthiness of the no.
I love those expressions. Just circle back around on that one more time.
Well, obviously, the yeses are easy for us, and we appreciate them.
And we see God's grace in those.
And the no's are harder. The no's are harder because, you know,
we think we're being discerning.
We think that it may be a righteous ask.
We want sometimes especially when we're praying on behalf of others and we want
this positive outcome and the no can lead us to think well where is God why isn't God here,
and it's only through you know lived experience and of our own lives and paying
attention to lived experience of others that we see that,
those,
are because God loves us and because God wants good for us and the whole of
the plan is not yet seen or is not yet evolved.
And so that's sometimes the no, the no is it's not in our best interest.
It's not in the universal, eternal that's interest.
So is this equilibrium you speak of completely understandable?
And is there a practice?
And I think I know your answer to this question. Is there a practice for all of us to be aware of?
Well, for church people, we pray the prayer that was Jesus' answer to the disciples.
Teach us how to pray. And the Lord's Prayer says, Thy will be done.
That is the purest prayer.
That is the most pleasing prayer that's the most truthful prayer that's the
purest prayer thy will be done because god i trust you to know more than i know
i trust your will over my own,
so the practice is um going back and back and back and back beginning again
each day with the idea of God's perfection and God's perfect love for us.
And that engenders trust and patience.
I think that's an amen. Thank you, listeners and subscribers.
Thank you for your time, attention, and ponderings.
I invite your comments and reviews. I also invite you to share your story of when God got real.
Send them along to sarah at whengodgotreal.com.
Until next time, breathe and be well.