Thoughts From The Throne...

Each week I write a "Thought From The Throne" that are posted in the ladies bathroom stalls around campus. Here is the one for this week...

On Sunday I visited a church that I normally don’t attend. The service was at 7:45am, which needless to say made me get up much earlier then I was used to on a Sunday morning. After the service was over I went to my home church to meet up with some people. After we hung out I was planning to go back home and take a nice long nap. So I got in my car and started to drive away.

As I was driving away I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to go back to church and stay for the 11am service. I didn’t know why I felt so compelled to do so, but the feeling wasn’t going away. I thought, “No, I already went to church once today and am really tired—-and a nap is the next thing on my agenda.”

But God persisted and the feeling continued. The feeling was so strong that I had no choice but to turn around and drive back to church. So I did. I parked my car, walked inside, grabbed a bulletin and looked for a place to sit down.

I looked around the sanctuary as people were milling around talking with one another, when my attention gravitated towards the back row. There was a woman sitting by herself though people were walking and talking all around her. There was an empty seat close to her so I sat down. I introduced myself and we started making small talk. From the moment we started talking I could tell God was at work in this woman's life and she didn’t like it. Her name was Megan and that Sunday was the first time she had been to church in over five years.

We didn’t talk a lot but from the conversation we did have I could see and feel that she had experienced a lot of pain over the past few years and specifically in the past few months and she really didn’t know what to do. At the end of the service, she looked at me and said, “Thanks for introducing yourself and for talking to me. I’m in a rough place in life right now. But your kindness means a lot—more then you’ll ever know.” I looked in her eyes that I could see held a lot of pain, smiled and we went our separate ways.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see Megan again and I don’t know exactly what things she experienced or was in the midst of experiencing that caused her so much hurt and pain. But I do know that God is pursuing Megan. And God is pursuing you. And God is pursuing me. And He doesn’t stop.

Like Megan, you probably have your share of hurt and pain that you carry around, though some of us hide it very, very well. But just because we hide it doesn’t mean it’s not there. And often the more we hide it the heavier it becomes. It gets heavier and heavier until it’s too heavy to carry and something breaks.

You may be one carrying a really heavy bag right now or you may be one whose bag recently broke and your left looking at the remains. Wherever you are, God wants to meet you there. It may sound cliché, but it’s true. The beauty of the cross is that it’s not all about forgiveness but it’s about restoration. God wants to restore your soul. He wants to take that bag and give you rest like you’ve never experienced before.

And if you don’t give it to Him now, things won’t get easier...but don’t worry, He’ll keep pursuing you and calling you and loving you…and trust me…He won’t stop…