Made to last (5)

Doubtless we can all remember “watershed” moments in our walk with the Lord: Some sermon that spoke powerfully to our need, a hymn that broke through our understanding and captured our hearts in some profound way, a testimony that moved us, a gift that brought us to tears, some new insight to the depth of Christ’s suffering and love.

These are experiences that will stay with us forever. They have had a lasting effect on our lives because they create a stirring within our souls – how we think and feel, and what we value. Such experiences point us to yet another guideline in thinking about what makes for words and deeds that are made to last.

Things last that penetrate to the very depths of another’s soul, creating a shift in thinking, summoning up powerful affections, overhauling priorities and values, and, in general, creating a seismic rearranging of the terrain of our inner being.

Think of Nathan’s “Thou art the man!” to David. Or Peter hearing that rooster crowing. Luther had such a moment in the midst of a thunderstorm, and Wesley experienced one when he feared he would be drowned at sea.

Things that reach us in the very depths of our being can have real staying power. Very often these come from people we know, whose words and deeds penetrate our souls with lasting effects. If people can exert such an impact on our lives, it’s possible that our words and deeds might affect others in lasting ways as well.

Let’s look at three examples of people who experienced something in their souls which was life-changing, so life-changing, in fact, that we can identify with their experience, and may even have had similar experiences of our own. The people we’re going to consider were smitten in the depths of their souls. Reading about their experiences we can relive them in powerful ways, because we can identify with what they must have felt, and how it impacted their lives.

Reading about their experiences might help us in thinking about how we can reach others in ways that can have truly lasting effects.

Hearts on fire

We’ve all had experiences of a sudden rush of affection – our hearts all at once becoming ignited with joy, or fear, or hope, or excitement of one kind or another. Not all such affections are lasting. I can’t remember, for example, the first time I set foot on the turf of the University of Missouri football field, wearing a Tiger uniform. I’m sure I felt tremendous excitement, but I can’t conjure it any longer.

However, I do remember the first time I saw my wife Susie, and I can and do experience that quickening of my heart to this day. And more than that, I can remember the exact moment that I committed myself to follow Christ wherever He might lead – I can remember what was said, how I felt, and how that affected my priorities, my thinking, and my entire life.

Those two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a similar experience: “‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” (Lk. 24.32). Deeply-felt affections of surprise, astonishment, and joy, or the sudden coming together of widely-disparate thoughts and insights into a comprehensive pattern of understanding – such powerful experiences make a lasting impression on us. They can lead us to reinforce decisions already taken or to commit to new paths in life.

These are positive, joyous, uplifting, inspiring experiences, and God can use our words and deeds to help others know such watershed moments in ways that, if not quite on a par with how Jesus affected those two disciples, can nevertheless have lasting influence on the people around us.

Cut deeply

Equally powerful to leave a lasting effect is the feeling of conviction that leads to a dramatic change of beliefs, values, and life choices.

Conviction may not be as positive an experience as inspiration or sudden insight, but it can be just as powerful and important.

Those people who heard Peter’s first sermon were “cut to the heart” by his powerful words of conviction proclaiming Jesus as Savior and Lord (Acts 2.36, 37). Their response indicates that they had come under a sense of urgency, a desperate need to right some wrong in their lives or to amend some suddenly-discovered errant way.

Such times can be fraught with guilt, shame, or fear, but they typically lead to repentance and a new course in life. This is what creates their lasting impact: We cease being the people we were, if only in one area of our lives, and we begin to be someone new.

Whatever brings us to such a place of conviction and transformation – the power of a sermon or the chastisement of a friend (and I’ve had them both) – will create a lasting impact and endure in our memories as a watershed moment.

Refresher of souls

Finally, whatever brings comfort, encouragement, hope, or peace to our souls will also be appreciated for a long time to come. Certain kinds of music can do this. I find an afternoon spent in a favorite art museum can also be a context in which I gain refreshment for my soul and a new perspective on different aspects of my life.

Neither inspiring nor convicting, such watershed moments have the feel of a Mozart second movement – peaceful, melodic, a little sad though hopeful, a welcome interlude between what has been and what comes next.

Such moments come some times out of the blue – a phone call or letter from a friend, an unexpected word of kindness or appreciation, a prayer or choral offering during worship, a word from Scripture reminding us that it is well with our souls in Jesus. Suddenly our cares are lifted – or at least, momentarily set aside – and we feel the weight of the world being replaced with the weight of God’s presence and glory.

These times of refreshment can be so affecting that we might save the card we received, make a note or state a resolution in our journal, or share our experience with a loved one, just to savor it all over again.

Paul felt this way about Philemon, saying that Philemon had refreshed the souls of many and calling upon him to extend that refreshment to his own soul. Paul was in prison, his future uncertain. He had sent back the runaway slave Onesimus in the hope that, since he had now become a Christian, Philemon would receive him not as a slave but as a brother in the Lord. Paul was anxious but hopeful and, I think, confident. He seems to have believed that Philemon would not let him down but would relieve the pressure on his soul by receiving Onesimus with love.

What word or what deed might we extend to the people around us to help lift the burden of their day and offer them some rest in a simple gesture of love? We cannot know the lasting effect such words and deeds might have, but we can be sure that, for many people, these will be watershed moments to revisit again and again.

Things last that reach to our souls – to thrill, arrest, or soothe. God can use us to make a lasting impact on the lives of others, if we will look for ways to stir the souls of those we’ve been called to serve.