At a recent Lumunos Men’s retreat, I asked the question
“Have you ever been saved by God?” Not
in the altar call, conversion, ask
Jesus-in-to-your-heart-and-he-will-save-you-from-your-sins kind of way. I meant more like an answer to the cry of the
Psalmist:
Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me. (Ps. 69)
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect—I had never asked this
question before on a retreat. I wasn’t
even sure how I would answer it. But the
guys jumped in with lots of responses that touched me deeply.
A few told stories about being in the grip of addiction. For them, God’s help came in the form of
someone inviting them to an AA meeting.
One man talked about the death of his 12 year old son. In the midst of his grief, a mom in church
simply invited him to hold her infant son.
Healing came as he and the baby locked their eyes on each other. Most of the stories involved a combination of
acts of caring and compassion by fellow humans, the timing of which was more
than just coincidence. It was, as I once
heard it put, more like a ‘God-incidence.’
I am probably not quite ready to get a “Jesus Saves” bumper
sticker for my car. But after hearing
these stories, I am more convinced that he does. More often than not, through a person responding
to a nudge, calling or intuition.
“God is hiding in the world. Our
task is to let the divine emerge from our deeds.” ~ Abraham Heschel, I Asked for Wonder
