I’m a bit slow at times….

Nothing new is how my friends and family would respond, except of course that I am now just catching up on that news flash.  But I wasn’t driving slowly this past Sunday morning as I made my way in the early hour to the church building.  I was pushing…ummm…(not a good idea to confess in print), and many thoughts were rushing through my head as I had a particularly heavy Sunday coming my way.  For many reasons Sundays are usually a non-stop 10 to 12 hour day for me and I have gotten quite used to the mad rush and the accompanying stress.

And then it happened…

“Hey!!!!”  I was shocked on many levels.  That was clearly the voice of my Lord as I have experienced it before, but this was really loud.  It broke through all my racing thoughts.  I thought, “does God say hey?”  He just did.  “Slow down!!”  “So my wife has been right all these years, I do drive too fast” said my tumbling thoughts. “Slow down, I want to talk with you!”  I slowed down all the way to 54 mph, a speed which always causes me stress when driven by the slowpoke in front of me. “Take a deep breath.”  “Sounds like my mother,” responded my braking thoughts.

Then He said it…

“I love you!”

There it is.  It stands alone perfectly on its’ own two feet.  It shook me right to the very core of my being.  Two days later I am still basking in the glow of that moment.  I am startled and shaken.  I can hardly put my thoughts out before me.  I have a stupid grin on my face.  When I close my eyes and remember tears well up.  I feel rather foolish, but I like it.  I like it!!! 

A few weeks ago Andrea and I rediscovered a cassette tape which was recorded by my son and Andrea when he was about to turn three.  I was traveling away from home for eight weeks preaching in various churches in the Vancouver, B.C. area.  Stephen and Andrea recorded over the span of a few days all the songs and nursery rhymes that Stephen had memorized.  I remember receiving that tape in the mail and playing it in my Walkman (if you don’t know what that is, well…) as I ran or walked.  I will never forget when I heard my son’s whispered voice say to me, “I love you daddy!”  Andrea asked Stephen what he had said because she couldn’t hear him.  Stephen then proceeded to shout into the microphone, “I love you daddy!!!!!!”  Those words have always moved me deeply.

For fifteen minutes on Sunday, I drove under the speed limit, crying for joy as I listened to my Father tell me he loves me.  It changed the whole course of this past Sunday (ask anyone who was there).  I believe it is changing the course of my life.

I did tell you that I am a bit slow at times?