Have you heard of this?

                You know when someone comes into your life and opens it up?

You know what I mean? They help steer you down a new path. They teach you a new way of understanding. Every single encounter has value. Whether the encounter is positive or negative, whether your relationship with this person is 5 minutes or 5 years, they are on your path for a reason.

I love it when I’m especially aware of this as the encounter is happening. When someone introduces me to an idea or a resource and it feels like I was supposed to hear about that thing right then. The timing is perfect. It’s like an explosion of ideas and thoughts and feelings and energy! Sometimes when this happens to me, I talk so much and get so energized, I want to read everything and write everything and meet everyone and well, there’s not enough time in the day.

It’s as if I have been hurled in a new direction…propelled forward. It’s exciting! I picture God saying, “Sue needs a nudge in this direction, I’m going to introduce her to so and so. I think they’ll have fun together.”

Because I do believe in divine intervention and I do believe that God is intimately involved with the details of my life (and yours), I try to remain open to all encounters. I try to say “yes” as much as I can. I try not to fear a new idea or a fresh perspective because I believe God wants me to hear it…and because fear is so limiting.

This happened to last year when I was invited to be part of a group. I don’t know what to call it exactly so I’ll call it a “Faith Journeying” group. They are an amazing group of women! They introduced me to Krista Tippett and her “On Being” website and radio show. Here’s the link: http://being.publicradio.org/. This has been such a gift to me! She interviews different people from all walks of life. To me, she has the dream job. If you have time and haven’t listened to her before, I highly recommend a visit to the website.

Okay, so Krista Tippett is my cerebral, intellectual example. I have many of these examples: books that teach me and feed me and lead me to new ideas, seminars, speakers, blogs, etc. I love the intellectual study of faith and all of the conversations surrounding that.

I have an emotional, experiential example too. It happened the other day when I was in a group where people were praying. The woman that was praying was so full of grace, it took my breath away. She was literally laying hands on people and praying over them. The air in the room was filled with the spirit of God…kindness, peace, understanding, support, and love. I was moved to tears. She asked me to say the closing prayer and I cried all the way through it. I couldn’t help it. I was experiencing the presence of God and I was in awe. He was there. I know it.

Here’s the thing…we can know about God in many ways. We can know of God by reading about Him. We can know of God by talking about Him and reading His word. We can learn about God at church or in books or on the web. We can dive into all of that stuff and know it all well and yet, we may remain just acquaintances with God all our lives.

Sometimes, we need to actually meet Him, to feel Him. We need to experience Him.  Those are the moments that take our breath away. In these moments, we have goose bumps and our hearts are beating faster. Those are the moments that help us hang on to our faith. Those are the moments when we KNOW He’s real. He’s no longer just an acquaintance, He is present in our life, and He is a friend. And that’s when everything starts to change.

There is no way to predict what those moments will be. I can’t predict them for me or for you or for my kids. I can’t plan them or schedule them or mark them off of a to-do list. All I can do is say “YES”!

Say YES to all new spiritual experiences. Listen to people when they tell their stories of God. Really listen without an agenda or judgment. God is everywhere and in everyone. I just need to let go of fear and open my heart. It’s a choice every day. Actually, it’s a choice every minute. I’m planning on going with it.

What about you, are you going to say YES!?