Encounter

 

(Photo: Lukasz Szmigiel @unsplash.com)

“Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with Him.”—Acts 4:13, Passion

One day this week, when the morning air became cool and refreshing, I took my coffee and Bible and notebook out onto the porch, listening to the birds and watching the sun ascend over the woods. It was like camping. A perfect setting for a God moment.

And there were definitely some. Except before long, I became strangely restless. It wasn’t like I wasn’t sensing God out there on the porch and someplace else instead, but I still felt drawn like a magnet back to my usual morning encounter spot inside. And when I went there, it felt like home, and for some reason, I could see and hear better there.

What’s with that? Isn’t God everywhere? Aren’t prayers in the car just as powerful as prayers in church? Aren’t the scriptures read on the porch and those in that special place the same, yesterday, today, and forever?

“He spent His days in the Temple teaching, but His nights out on the mountain called Olives.” (Luke 21:37)

In the middle of the week on His way to the Cross, Jesus didn’t just teach during the day, He also taught us about the special places of encounter by His actions every evening. The gospels indicate that though Jesus prayed everywhere, the Mount of Olives was His “go-to” place to get away, to connect, to refuel. During this final week, the Mount of Olives was home base. It’s also where He descended from on the joyful Palm Sunday processional, where He prayed in agony and would be betrayed, where He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection, and where He will return at His second coming.

For sure, “Make your life a prayer,” as one translation puts 1 Thessalonians 5:17. And "...you, the Church, are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells permanently in you, collectively and individually" (1 Corinthians 3:16), so most definitely, pray and minister to others “as you go” (Matthew 10:7-8), not just at church. But if Jesus had a Mount of Olives place for regularly connecting with God, to pray, to listen, to praise, to rest, maybe there's a good reason why that familiar spot inside proved better than the porch the other day. Being disciples means following Jesus all the way, including into finding those places where we know we regularly are able to encounter God in a mysterious yet special, deep, eye- and heart-opening way—a woodland trail, a woodworking shop away from it all, a window seat at the kitchen table...wherever.

Because the Mount of Olives places in our lives are not just beautiful, or peaceful, or energizing; they are, as they were for Jesus our Lord and Savior, sacred places of Encounter. And those places have been designed just for us, before we were in our mother’s womb, when God knew just how we would be wired...to best connect with Him every day.

And that, after all, is what really matters.

“The most powerful thing that can happen in the place of prayer is that you yourself become the prayer. You leave able as Jesus' hands and feet on earth. This is what it means to pray continually, to see with the eyes of Jesus and to hear with His ears with every waking moment.”—Brennan Manning