(It’s guest post Friday! Here’s one by Joanna Miley King . You can check out her blog here. If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here’s how!)
The Bourne-Again Identity
Is God disappointed that Matt Damon isn’t in the new Bourne movie? Probably not. He’s God, after all. He’s probably pretty excited for that other guy, too. Hard to say. The Old Testament and New Testament do very little to clear up those kind of issues. But I do find myself thinking about the Bourne movies a lot, especially when it comes to prayer.
Some people seem to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that it’s like they’ve got some kind of signal booster giving them the inside track on the Trinity’s conversations. Are they wiretapping or something?
You know the type I’m talking about. They’re the people that sit up in bed at 3:22 in the morning with a name or a face on their mind. They sense an urgency to pray. They are like the Jason Bournes of Christianity, like there’s some kind of secret fraternity of Treadstone-like prayer assassins.
Here’s a very recent example. My husband and I had a seminary friend call a few weeks ago. The conversation went something like this:
“Hey Joe, this is John David. I know we haven’t talked in a while, but God laid you on my heart early this morning [which is Treadstone code for: “I received a small safety deposit box containing a manila envelope with your name and phone number on a 3×5 notecard, along with a passport, $1,200 in unmarked bills, four language translations of Gideon New Testaments, and a 45 Springfield 1911 with three full clips]. I just felt like I needed to give you a call. God is telling me to affirm your gifts of leadership. Let’s get together and do lunch soon.”
Later that afternoon, our pastor walked in and told Joe (the youth minister) that he would be resigning. From now on, Joe would be taking over responsibilities regarding our building project for a new education building, to begin the month after the pastor leaves.
How did that friend know to make that phone call? How did he know to encourage my husband to be sure of himself as a leader? Did he know our pastor was about to resign?
The answer, OF COURSE, has to be that he has an acetaminophen soft-gel sized tracker lodged near his spine, which imports information from headquarters. God’s up to date on these kinds of things. He kicks it on in during those times between waking and sleeping where the host is less likely to refuse or rationalize away the instinct to pray or act specifically and spontaneously.
I wake up some times in the middle of the night and think: “Do I have to pee? Or is Julia Stiles trying to upload a file to my subconscious?” I close my eyes and press on them with my thumbs until I see white flashes. “Anything? A name, a face, a situation?”
Question:
Have you ever been the recipient of such a message, as either the agent or the target? How did it turn out?
For more great writing from Joanna, check out her blog.