His Heartbeat

God is funny.

I was on the Metro and started thinking about how I hadn’t blogged in a while. Several topics had crossed my mind in the last few weeks (e.g., horoscopes, giving, the heart - all of which I plan to write about later) - but right at that moment a young woman around my age plopped down next to me. At the time, the Bible I keep in my purse was in my hand.

“Do you read the Bible a lot?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Do you read it?”

“Yep,” she said.

I continued dialoging with her candidly, noting this was an opportunity from God – perhaps to meet another Christian or to share the Gospel.

We talked about some of our favorite verses. I brought up a passage, Psalm 139. She mentioned Proverbs 3: 5-6 and announced that she was a Jehovah’s Witness.

“I know those verses as, trust in Jehovah with all your heart…and Jehovah will make your path straight,” she said.

I listened, to learn more about her and have an opportunity to share The Gospel. At a point in the conversation I was able to ask her what she believed about Jesus – just one of the many distinctions between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians. She provided an answer focused on His earthly ministry, then asked me what I thought. I shared about Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. And then it was her stop. I gave her my card – she had mentioned relocating to D.C. for an internship just a week ago. She said she’d contact me.

This entry easily could be about sharing The Gospel, but that’s not the angle God brought to my attention that day (although after the encounter I went online for a refresher on Jehovah’s Witness’ beliefs and tips about sharing The Gospel with them, this article being just one of the useful resources I found).

What I really felt convicted about – after lamenting that I had not blogged in a while and then having a “blog worthy” encounter a moment later – was just the need to give God all of me.

The Word of God says that we were made for His glory, and even creation declares it – up to the heavens. I believe that when God uniquely made each of us, He gave us passions that we can use to communicate with Him wholeheartedly.

Personally, I may read my Bible and pray daily, but I feel closest to God when I take the time to reflect on what He is teaching me with strokes of the pen – or clicks of a keyboard – and through memorizing Scripture. Whether it is a journal entry for His eyes only, or a note for this blog, mediating on the promises of God through writing helps them stay with me that much longer; I am more challenged to set my mind on things above. And when I memorize His Word, I am most challenged to live it. Yet this summer I have spent too little time communing with God in those ways. In that Metro “moment,” I was reminded to recommit to making those means of communicating with Him a priority.

God wants to hear from all of us. Psalm 51:17 says that the sacrifice He honors most is our hearts, broken and contrite. We can all consider the ways He has given each of us to help open our hearts to Him – to feel His heartbeat – and sustain ours with His. Let’s not allow anything to keep us from using those avenues to experience that closeness with Him.

There is nothing better than feeling His heartbeat.