When your spirit awakens
After Karen went to sleep a few nights ago, I kept on watching Sleepless In Seattle. We’d started it at about 10:20 and I figured going into it that she’d be zonked by the time Meg Ryan gets on the plane to Seattle to try and meet Tom Hanks. Karen went up to bed, but I wanted to see them get together on the Empire State Building.
The director teases you the whole movie long. Obviously these two are fated to get together, but they spend the whole movie just trying to meet. And at the very end they almost miss each other yet again, one going down the elevator as the other goes up.
But in all good romances, there’s this concept of kismet. Call it fate or destiny. The eight year-old son, Jonah, knows it and everyone in the audience knows it. The only two people who seem to be oblivious are Ryan and Hanks. And when they do get together, even though we all know they’re going to hold hands and stare at each other with the, “Where-have-you-been-all-my-life” look, still we cry (yes, it’s ridiculous I admit – me with Karen now in bed, having seen this predictable movie at least twice already, and crying anyway).
And I’ve been wondering, “Why does this happen?” What makes me, a grown man perfectly in control of his faculties, respond like that?
Certainly there was my own harrowing near-miss in courting Karen (recounted here) when she got engaged to another guy. It was a narrow escape that can still send a chill down my spine like the scene in The Lion King when the one hyena says “Mufasa” and the other hyena responds, “Oooh. Say it again!”
But I think there’s something more spiritually visceral going on here. When a person finds his or her perfect fit in life, with a person or a calling; when that person’s destiny clicks in, it’s like a kingdom exchange just took place. Something in the heavenlies got restored, set in its proper order, and creation knows it. Our spirits inside us sigh with recognition. Something inside says, “That’s the way it was supposed to be.”
Too many of us, especially us guys, have lost all touch with that spiritual sense of shalom, of right-fitting. It’s the impulse to unity that Jesus prayed for us to have. Tears are but one symptom that we’ve recognized the kingdom coming.
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Tears happen to me all the time during worship, both corporate and private. Could it be …. perfect fit, a kingdom exchange, our spirits sigh, and the impulse to unity? Yes, oh, yes, that IS what it is. The Kingdom is Coming! Thank you, Seth
I remember when Ashley and I started stumbling through our own romance. I had sworn off girls, she had convinced herself that she didn’t like me, and we only had half of a summer left together. Nonetheless, I heard God one day telling me to pursue her. So, I did. The inevitable distance between us only solidified our friendship, building a great foundation for our future marriage. I remember the first night I told her that I had feelings for her – it was July, we were lying on our college football field, staring at the stars, and I told her. I helped her get up and didn’t let go of her hand for the next hour, it seemed. Yeah, shalom. It’s a good feeling.
I’m a 16 year old girl from New Zealand.
I went to a Christian youth camp around 4 months ago and I don’t know why, but just being there, especially the speakers & music, made me incredibly emotional. The first time I started to cry was when a woman was speaking about being stuck in this life and not being able to free ourselves from sin &c. She prayed for us all (4000 people !) and i felt this amazing emotional surge, which at the time really scared me. i have never cried in front of people, let alone with 4000 others ! I have since started going to youth group &c but .. almost every time I go, something makes me cry. i don’t know why and it’s quite distressing, not to mention embarrassing ! I wondered if anybody could help me .. i feel like I want to become a part of christianity & let God into my life .. but i’m afraid of losing my life as i know it, and i don’t know how to go about it .. i really don’t know what to do, and i’m too shy to ask my youth leader because I know i’ll only start to cry.
please help me !
molly