An Intimate God

I consider myself a treadmill philosopher.  My deepest thinking seems to take place when I am working the treadmill.  It takes most of my gumption to get on it by around seven each morning and to stick it out for 45 minutes or so.  Once I'm on, it's not too hard to stick with it. So long as I have my MP3 player charged and filled with motivating playlists.

I am a music lover and I always have been.  I appreciate all types of music from country western to the hair bands to opera (in limited amounts).  I can't say I have a favorite genre, unless we're talking 80s pop music.  All those one-hit wonders are still pretty wonderful to me.  I often think that, like a movie, my life has a soundtrack.  Music just takes me back to different times in my life, and can be the signature of a particular moment or a whole season.  Some I love to remember, some I'd like to forget.  It's got a  power over me.

I've always loved movie soundtracks, filled with songs you don't always hear overplayed on the radio.  Evocative songs. Songs that make a moment in a movie last forever in your mind.  It's the song that can make you laugh or make you cry.  It's no different when the reels are turning here in my life.

This morning as I pounded the treadmill pavement, one of the newest additions to my life soundtrack came on.  And my deep thinking led me to just praise the Lord for his wonderful intimacy with me.  I know there are books out there on intimacy with God.  Intimacy is a close familiarity and friendship.  I'm not sure what the books say about how to get it with God, but this morning the Lord taught me something about it first hand.

I listened to this song as I walked.

Hold on to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

These are words that just a few weeks ago I felt whispered in my ear as I did all I could to hold on to some illusive shreds of hope.  It was a rough morning, filled with emotion, one of those moments that I try to avoid because I desperately don't want to break down. I want to be a woman who is filled with faith and doesn't lose hope, but the truth is that sometimes I do.  But thankfully, it's often short lived.  God, in his kindness, whispers to me words of hope.  He reminds me of very specific promises he has made me.  He speaks scripture.  And in his very sweet way, he also whispers to me words like the ones in this song.  As I cried so hard I thought I might choke, this is what He said to me.

Just know you're not alone. I'm going to make this place your home.

This is sacrilege to some, to think that God can speak to you outside of Scripture.  But to me this is intimacy.  The God of the universe speaking to his beloved little girl, whom he created as a lover of music, a lover of simplistic words, using those very things to comfort my heart.  To remind me of how deeply he loves me. How real he is. How very close he is to me and how deeply he knows me.

I heard this song during the summer Olympics, It was used to highlight some of the personal stories of the ladies gymnastics team.  It's a catchy song.  I know it's popular and probably overplayed because the artist is the winner of American Idol.  But I haven't heard it too many times.  Just enough to recognize it.  And I know my Savior enough to know it was him speaking to me.

We all have this passion in our lives with which God can reach us and come close to us.  For some it is the poetic verse. I think of Ann Voskamp and her deeply personal, poetic writings.  I quickly become overwhelmed with her style and her way of expressing intimacy with God, but others are ushered into His presence as they read her words.  This is their way of being close to him.  For others it is physical exhilaration as they run or work hard with their bodies. As Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell said, "God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure."  He found intimacy with God this way.  For others it is the beauties of nature, the study of science, the enjoyment of creation.  Some meet with God as they create with their hands, with paints, clay, wood, metal, or any other medium.

I meet with God in music and the simply written word. He made me a promise about a year ago as I read the book Amos Fortune, Free Man to my children.  For my husband, it is in working with his hands and being out in the wilderness.  I think we are all meant to find God in the Scriptures and in prayer, but then we develop an intimate, and one-of-a-kind friendship with him in other ways too.  We are all a reflection of God, made in his image, and he is the God of art, music, the universe, the landscape, the physical body, the written word, everything under the sun.

He knows me so well.  He spoke to me, through a song, exactly what I needed to hear.  And I cling to these words as a promise.  I am not alone. He will make this place where we are our home.  And he knows what a home means to me.

The most intimate relationship I have on earth is with my husband.  He knows me, the good, the bad, the ugly.  He knows my love of music and has added songs to my soundtrack.  One year on my birthday, he blindfolded me and took me for a ride to a surprise dinner.  On our way, he played "our song."  For our 10th anniversary he created a slide show, set to a song that reminded him of me.  He knows how to reach my heart.  It's not with flowers.  It's with simple words written in a card. And a song.

Whatever you may love or be passionate about, I just know God wants to meet you there.  If you love music, like I do, he's got some new songs for your soundtrack. If you love words on a page, he's got a book for you. If you love movies, he's got one for you.  If you love food... he's got a dish for you.  If you love to run, he's got a race for you.

I am blown away, simply blown away, sometimes, by how close the Lord of the universe will get to me.  He truly rejoices over me with singing, just as Zephaniah said.  He truly draws near to me as I draw near to him, headphones on, pounding the treadmill pavement.