From Hear to There

Let’s start with I am not preacher, I am not a teacher, I am not good student, in fact, I can’t figure out the most basic magic tricks.  Those shells, and the little thing underneath one or all of them, I haven’t a clue.  The second you tell me to keep my eye on it, it’s gone.  

But what I am NOT is stupid.  What I am is quieter than I appear, louder than I should be and more stubborn than what is good for me.  I hear, I ignore, and then, only because of a Very Strong Right Arm on my head, I bow, and I listen. 

I was told once by someone that I “just don’t respect the process.”  He was right, I didn’t because THAT process was stupid and a waste of time.  But the process above:  Hear; Ignore; Bow and Listen, I love that process. There is something about a process that contemplates “the good of all” that makes it less of a process and more of a really narrow, grassy, cool summer path.

What prompted me to write again--I only do rarely because frankly I don’t have much that I want to hear me say--is the thinking about the process of what makes a sacrifice.  Someone said to me recently that they “have never sacrificed anything for God.”  Wow, I thought what a heathen.  What a sad lost soul.  I kind of had a "Thank you that I am not like this wretch" moment.  Right then a process began. I felt a Strong Right Arm, firmly pressing not on my neck, not gently tugging on my heart, but crushing from me the life of which I was so proud.  And a voice, loud and strong and angry.  And I knew, like I did when I was a boy, I was in trouble because I was wrong.

It was the pressure from the hand, the press with anger on my entire person, near panic, near failure, utter loss.  I had never really sacrificed anything for God either.  So in total darkness I asked, what does it look like?  That is one of my favorite questions because you can’t answer it with trite, stupid replies.  You have to describe it in words that are visible and understandable.  And they can’t be under a shell.  They can’t include, “look over here.” 

I thought about what a sacrifice really was.  Typically a lamb.  It was to be killed, bled, cut up, burned and totally eliminated.  One right after the other, death after death after death, because the “Good” could not be fully satiated.  Not yet.

So I asked myself, what makes a sacrifice.  The friend who rightly said that they “have never sacrificed…” was right.

I set out to list all of the things I have sacrificed for God. And the list is absolutely astonishing because it is identical to my friend’s.  So I knew I have to change that.  And then the press of the Strong Right Arm came down on me again.  And this time, I felt real terror. 

It is not the Sacrifice that matters; it is the One that makes the sacrifice.  And I knew in a flash, a serious flash, a blink of an eye, I neither have an appropriate sacrifice, NOR DO I WANT TO BE A SACRIFICE! 

"I heard a ROAR and I looked and I saw a Lamb standing as if slain"  A sacrifice I cannot make, a sacrifice I do not want to make, a sacrifice I do not want to be made.  And that lamb reaches out with His strong right arm and touches my head and then I hear, I bow, and I listen.  A whole new process, allowing me to make it from "Hear" to There.