Perhaps the greatest thing to treasure in our lifetimes are so called "God Moments." These are the times in your life that you feel the closest to God. It's actually incredibly difficult to put into words exactly how that feels, or even the experiences that come from those moments. But whatever the situation, you come away feeling invigorated, motivated, passionate. For a lot of people, this may be a certain song that suddenly stirs something within their soul, or a certain piece of art that resonates with them, or perhaps the most popular, a ministry/mission event that completely changes their perspective. I know for myself personally, especially at the end of a weekend retreat spent solely surrounded by friends and fellow believers dedicated to learning more and more about God, you always come away feeling different.
The interesting thing about these God Moments is that sure they may get you off your feet and ready to go for the Lord, but that rarely lasts. It's almost like the fire burns out, the light vanishes. Until, another God Moment arrives, and all of a sudden, your energy reappears.
Really, our lives should not be like this at all. We should have that fire that continually burns, that passion for the Lord that drives us forward each and every day. There realistically shouldn't be a single moment in our lives from the moment we accept Jesus as our personal Saviour to the moment we join God in heaven where we are not passionately pursuing His mission, in whatever capacity that may look like for each different individual. But, the reality is, it isn't like that. Again, like so many other things in life, the problem is the curse of sin, the curse of our human nature.
We really don't understand the extent of the results of the curse of sin. Humankind has been drastically impacted by the curse, to the point where certain things are unavoidable, even though we claim that we can change things. WE CAN'T! I know it's cliche, but it's true, only God can. This rollercoaster of energy or focus, this wave of passion stems from the issue that it's within our nature to be distracted, to easily forget, to fall away from God. It's not like as soon as you accept Jesus into your heart, that your whole nature is completely fixed. It's not like that at all. Being a Christian takes work, real, hard, effort. We have to put all our focus on drawing closer to God. We have to understand that falling away from God is the easy path; we have to remember to continue to pursue what we've been called to.
On a related topic, Remembering the Gospel, Beau Hughes from the Village Church stated that there are a few ways we can tackle this problem. One is by putting constant reminders all around us. Whether it be sticky notes of Bible verses, or pictures of stunning creations, or quotes focused on the heart of the mission, really anything to remind us of our God Moments, and to keep the spark ignited. A second thing to do is to continue to chase God Moments. Search for times and places to draw closer to God, and continually revisit them. Don't limit yourself to simply having these times twice a year on your weekend retreats. Find ways and times to embrace these moments every week, even every day!
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