by Lana Roberts
As I made my way into town recently, the radio started sounding kind of fuzzy and strange. The distortion got worse until I could barely understand the broadcast, so I punched the button to get a different station. The increasing interference was definitely a problem. Have you ever experienced that? When you want to hear what's being said but the static makes the message unclear, you know you're missing out on something
Spiritual static is a good metaphor for what I was experiencing before my sabbatical. I was regularly "tuning in" to God's voice, but the usual spiritual practices had lost their effectiveness. Nothing worked like it used to. Having a fuzzy and hard-to-understand connection to God didn't feel good, and I knew I was definitely missing out on something. Taking a sabbatical gave me the time and space to let God clear up the static. And God is so good! Here's one example of how he began to meet me right away.
In the first two weeks of my sabbatical, in mid-September, we had a camping crisis at Silver Lake: one sleeping bag for two people with a brisk forty degrees forecast overnight. As the sun wheeled behind the mountain and the air chilled, we knew we had to solve our problem before nightfall. We were running out of time. There were several stores in Mammoth, fifteen minutes away, but the tiny Silver Lake Resort was just across the highway. It might be worth seeing if they had a sleeping bag we could buy, so I went in.
There were no sleeping bags for sale, but the woman behind the counter asked me what had happened. I told her we hadn't camped in a while and had missed packing one very important piece of gear. She smiled, thought for a second, and then said, "I have a couple of sleeping bags that I'm not using. Let me go get one for you. You can just borrow it for the next few days." I was taken aback by the kindness of her offer. We were complete strangers. She explained it was just a $10 garage-sale sleeping bag, but that didn't matter. Her unexpected generosity touched me deeply.
When we went into Lee Vining for dinner, I bought a card to write a thank-you. The next morning during my quiet time I carefully composed a note telling her how much her generosity meant. I wrote that God had used her to bless us, and that I was praying He would bless her for her kindness to us. I signed it "Brian and Lana Roberts, Clovis CA", and added my usual swoopy flourish. Two hours later we were unexpectedly called home. I returned the sleeping bag, delivered the note, and we were on our way. I kept thinking about how we had received kindness that felt so much like God's love first, as in before the emergency phone calls started coming in.
It seemed to me that God had filled me to overflowing with gratitude in preparation for a difficult time that He knew was coming. He was at work on the East side of the Sierra, making sure I got his message before the static kicked in. It turned out to be the message I got over and over again on my sabbatical. Everywhere I went I sensed God's presence. I kept hearing him say, "I am right here with you" in so many ways. Over time I became more quick to hear. The Holy Spirit was shutting down the interference so I was no longer missing the message of God's presence for whatever lay ahead. Since I've been back, I'm grateful for the reduced interference provided by my sabbatical. And I'm continuing to listen and take notice of all the ways that He continues to say, "I'm right here with you."
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