I found myself watching my wedding video this past week. I’m not really sure how it happened, quite frankly. It was one of those experiences where I found myself going down a “media rabbit hole.” You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s like when you go on YouTube to watch a tutorial on how to fix your radiator only to find yourself watching a video of Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake and Will Ferrell looking at each other later. And to top it all off, you realize that your car is still oozing radiator fluid. We’ve all been there.
Well, I somewhat intentionally adventured down a “media rabbit hole” this past week. My wife and I have adopted a “hi, love you, bye” routine to maximize the limited time that we get together on work days. She works nightshifts and I work days so we get around 5-8mins together in the morning, and anywhere between 15-45mins in the evening. It’s great. Typical work week quality time. We smile, update each other on what’s going on and if we’re lucky, eat. (Sidebar, we had smoothies one morning and they were really good! Yes, I made them. No, I am not biased.)
Anyways, I ended up having to work late one night so I was unable to eat dinner with her before she left for work thus I came home (at around 10:00PM) to an empty house. I was pretty bummed, and so was she. Not only did we miss another opportunity to share a meal, but more importantly, it was the second night in a row that we’d be spending alone. (Unfortunately, this happens more often then we’d like. It’s a season though. It won’t be forever so don’t cry.) Needless to say, I missed her, which led me to look at photos of her, photos of us, photos of us at weddings, photos of us at our wedding, and then, the wedding video. You see? It was all organic.
Interestingly (or obviously), my feelings started to change after watching our wedding video. I realized three things:
- How incredibly beautiful my wife is (I’d post a picture, but it’d break the internet). I still can’t believe that a woman like her could fall in love with a slob like me. She’s intelligent, giving, servant hearted, gracious and caring among so many other great things.
- She loves me and wants to spend time with me too, which is insane cause I’m weird.
- Tomorrow was just around the corner. I’d see her soon enough.
I found myself going from feeling sad to excited. My situation hadn’t changed, but remembering my wife’s beauty, her love for me and the hope of seeing her tomorrow changed my perception of reality. I realized that my feelings, at any give time, could be altered by the truth.
This experience caused me to reflect on my relationship with God. Life is rough and often times, more difficult then we want it to be. Sometimes when I sit in church, I feel tired and distant from God. It’s like the weight of my life pushes a wedge between us. I feel like we’re strangers because I don’t have (or make) time to hear from Him through reading His Word or talk to Him in prayer but instead of turning to Him, I run. I blame Him, which is exactly what the devil wants you and I to do. He wants us to believe that God makes our lives more difficult, like he convinced Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).
The devil wants us to turn from God because he wants us to think we can “be better” without Him so we cross our arms, sing through clenched teeth and listen through one ear while the sermon goes out the other. The truth is we can’t find rest or peace apart from God (Mathew 11:28-30). Our eyes should turn to Him during life’s lulls. We have to remember:
- The sovereignty of God. He is who He says He is and He is always good (Psalm 100).
- The love that He has for us. He loves so much that He sent Jesus to die for us and create a way for us to be in relationship with Him forever (Romans 5:6-11).
- The promise of His eternal presence. God is always with us (Deuteronomy 31:8) through His Spirit (John 14:15-17) and one day, because of Jesus, we will physically be with Him forever (John 14:1-3).
I truly believe that if we can remember the truth of our God and His desire for us, our perception of reality can be changed for the better. There is a power in remembrance. I don’t think that Jesus said, “do this in remembrance of me” (Mark 14:22-24) during the Last Supper for no reason. It’s like He was telling His disciples, and in turn us, to keep Him at the forefront of lives.
We need to remember that when we start feeling distant, lost, alone or afraid, we need to run to God. We should read the Bible, spend time in prayer and even spend time with each other. We, as the body of Christ, are a reflection of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are His hands and feet (1 Corinthians 12:27). The encouragement we receive through spending time with each other is one way that God reveals His presence to us (1 John 4:7-12).
May we not forget who our God is. My prayer is that whenever we approach Him, whether privately or corporately, we can be inspired to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come (Revelation 4:8)!”
Temitope 