If you have ever met a celebrity or someone that you have idolized, the experience is not complete until you tell someone else about it. Somehow by just meeting someone famous we seem to earn cool points. The experience can make us feel better about ourselves. Somehow their celebrity rubs off on us a little.
Our faces beam with pride as we re-live the encounter to everyone we know. Others respond, "Oh, I met so-and-so a couple of years ago." By simply meeting someone famous, others will talk about us and retell our tale as if it were their own.
Why doesn't this happen more when people encounter God? While we can't wait to tell friends or family about meeting our favorite professional athelete, a movie star or a powerful world leader, many Christians do not have the same enthusiasm about God. They claim to have powerful encounters with God and yet never tell another person about it. Christians purport to believe that the God of the entire universe has placed His Spirit within them. But the name of God is seldom found on their lips.
This has me wondering how much people really encounter God today. Do we offer up warmed over religion instead of a vibrant encounter with the One and Only Living God? Do we truly know God? Or do we just know about God?
A Christian can read about Jesus and can fall into the same mindset that a person has when reading about George Washington. But there is a big difference between these two beings. George Washington is dead and a historical figure of the past. Jesus is active and alive in the world today. The story of Christ concerns the future not the past. Yet all too often, Jesus gets treated like a historical figure in the past instead of a vibrant part of our existing life. The present reality of Christ is the key to real life.
The people who I read about in the Bible have such amazing encounters with God that their entire lives are transformed forever. You couldn't come in contact with Jesus and be blase about it. Either you loved Him or you hated Him. Either you followed him or ran away.
I have experienced incredible moments with God. Words cannot describe the peace and rest of God. The love of God cannot be measured. I am more certain of it than I am of my own existence. But why do I struggle sometimes to convey this truth to others?
Oh, Jesus, fill me with awe and excitement for You. You are the Famous One. You are the author of life. You are the only one worth talking about. Forgive me when I would rather talk about anything else other than You. May Your praises continually be on my lips. May I long to tell others about my encounters with You. Thank You for choosing to know me. You are the Famous One. Amen!
