I Saw the Lord

Before allowing me into seminary, the school administration insisted I take a psychological test.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that they had a good idea. During my childhood I had met several preachers so my guess was they were doing a spiritual granola check. They were attempting to sift out all the nuts and flakes. Even though they made all incoming students take the test, it seemed more than appropriate in my case.

Taking the test made sense to me for a couple of reasons. One, I have always thought I wasn’t, as they say where I grew up, “exactly right.” The second reason is that I thought I had to be just a little bit nuts to even want to go to seminary. Going to seminary and entering the ministry were not high on my list of things to do. Most observers would have thought that my college “education” was not good preparation for seminary. I had spent, or some may have said misspent, much of my college career smoking, drinking, cussing and fighting. I just didn’t strike me, or most of my fraternity brothers, as the ministry type.

Since they let me in, I guess I passed the test. Judging by the makeup of the student body that gathered around me, I sensed the test wasn’t all that difficult to pass. Having come from a secular university and not pursued a “Christian” education, the people in my class at seminary struck me as a strange group of people joining me in the pursuit of a graduate degree in theology.

The test wasn’t terribly difficult, with the exception of one question. That one question pretty much psyched me out. The question was, “Have you ever heard the voice of God?” In college I was a psychology minor so I knew that the correct answer to this tricky little question should be a resounding NO! Hearing voices, especially God’s voice, is a one-way ticket to the ward where they lock the door behind you. On the other hand, it was an entrance test of sorts for seminary… the place where one studies about God. So, perhaps the correct answer here would be, yes.

Frankly, I am not sure I have ever heard God. People who are constantly yipping that “God told me this” or “God said that” make me more than just a little nervous. I just don’t find God to be all that gabby. I have also noticed that it is often a gabby person who has a gabby God who talks to them all of the time. Perhaps, since I am a quiet guy, I serve a quiet God.

There is a similar question that I find much easier to answer, “Have you ever seen God?” That answer is an easy – yes. I see God all the time all over the place. I see God in the many acts of kindness people have done in my life… the innumerable times I have been forgiven… the people who love me. I see God’s smile in the eyes of a child. God’s face is all over the work of creation. Just check out one sunset. I see God in these things and people. But these are just glimpses of God… flashes of God. They are not as clear as I would like for them to be. My problem is that I don’t see all that well. In every eye test I have taken since the second grade, I have yet to see even the big E on the eye chart. I know it is there, I just can’t see it.

My inability to see is even more acute when it comes to spiritual things. I am, by nature, not a very spiritual person. So, for me, these God glimpses are a bit blurry because I don’t see well and they pass by so quickly.

Glimpses are good. I am appreciative of them. But, have you ever thought about gazing into the face of God? Spending a little time looking God in the eye? Do you think you would like to? Sometimes I think I would. And then I think again. It sounds like it could be just a tad uncomfortable. I have no doubt that it would be, if not a life ending, a life changing experience.

Isaiah tells of a rather amazing encounter with God. He never forgot it. And it changed his life forever.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8 NIV)

From Isaiah’s description of his God encounter, some things are clear. When God shows up, He fills the place. Despite our attempts to whittle Him down to size, we do not serve and worship a small, insignificant God. Where God is there is a whole lot of praise and worship going on. The place is shaken as things get loud, smoky and hot.

How did Isaiah feel about seeing God? Obviously, it was a frightening experience. He felt unworthy, unholy. He figured he was going to die. He got smacked in the mouth with a hot coal. I wonder what he expected. I wonder what we expect.

It certainly changed his life. He opened himself to God’s cleansing and changing. He answered God’s call to be a messenger to the people.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2012, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved