Mtr Mary Trainor

Shackled by a heavy burden
'Neath the load of guilt and shame
Then the hand of Jesus touched me
And now I am no longer the same.*

Dear friend,

I have a confession—and you may never see me the same way again. My secret is that for all the years I was unchurched, I nonetheless had a deep yearning for God in my life. How I went about finding God was this: I listened to my several albums of hymns by Elvis Presley.Over and over. And I cried.

Those Gospel hymns, hearing them in repetition, year in, year out. That’s how of the word of God came to me.

Where has the word of God come to you? Maybe you don’t know—yet. I believe that God finds us wherever necessary and, whether bidden or unbidden, finds a way to meet us where we are.

For John the Baptist, it found him in the wilderness. (Luke 3:1-9) In prior readings of our Office Gospel today, I’ve been so focused on his “brood of vipers”-bashing, I just never gave much thought to the origin of John’s call.

Now, though, I can picture him in the wilderness, maybe cozied-up to a fire, eating whatever constituted dinner, and gazing into that middle-distance where we can become lost in thought.

***

While we know where the word of God found John, we don’t know in what way. Whatever form it took, from the text it certainly feels quick-acting. The word visited and the next sentence reads, “He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins  ….”

***

I suspect that when the word of God is visited upon each of us, it will probably look different in your life than it does in mine. In some cases, we can do things to facilitate encounters with the word of God. Prayer, worship, Bible study, a long walk, staring at the beauty of nature, journaling. 

For me, it is putting on my headphones, sorting through my music library, finding Elvis Presley, hitting play, lying back, listening to those old hymns. Not always, but sometimes, I can feel it. Something happens, and I am no longer the same.

Mtr Mary

He Touched Me, performed by Elvis Presley, words by William Gaither.