Last week I noticed that our daughter Anna (age 7) was having a hard time. She seemed very sensitive and like she was trying to get my attention in all the wrong ways. Finally, on Sunday afternoon I asked, "Anna, what is wrong? What do you need?"
She started to cry. "Daddy, I just think I need a date with you. I miss you."
Well, that's all it took...big, firm dad became a sap on the spot...My heart melted. I pulled her close and said, "We can have a date tonight."
A few hours later I was opening the door for her at the, always classy, and her favorite place for a date with me, Taco Bell. She reserved "our seats" and for about an hour I stared into the big brown eyes of my baby girl as she downloaded everything that she felt like she had not had time to share with me. We walked out of Taco Bell, she squeezed my hand and said, "I love you, Daddy." All she needed was a little time.
Friends, I am eating that up for as long as I can get it because I know full well that time is growing shorter with every second. But in the past year I have experienced a similar need with my Father in heaven that one will never outgrow.
The past year, for me, has had some very dark days, but in the midst of some bouts of tears, hurt and anger, it is almost as if I could hear the Father asking a question he already knew the answer to: "What's wrong? What do you need?"
About a year ago, I cried out, "I just need you. I need to feel your presence and hear your voice again. I miss you." God has honored that cry by allowing me to be deprived of sleep. Whether I have been awoken in the middle of the night or hours before what is necessary, the Father keeps inviting me on dates with him. He gives me time to download all that is whirling around in me. And like the psalmists teach us in the Bible, we can share it all with him and I have. I have found myself engaged in uncensored prayers that would surely make even mature believers squirm, but not my Father. He listens and then he leads. I have been amazed at how he leads me to and through his Word gently speaking exactly what I need to hear.
I met with a new person to our church family this week. She has this awesome story of how God has been courting her. She said the other day she had been asking God how she could know his voice and she "randomly" opened her Bible to 1 Kings 19:11-13:
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
The new person to our church family said she read this and then she knew..."God is in the whisper."
If we can hear him in the whisper, we can hear him anywhere; right? But to hear him in the whisper, we have to set aside the time to "date" him. Time just to BE with him. In the book named after him, the half brother of Jesus, James, says, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."
Do you feel disconnected? Weary? Frustrated? Discouraged? Alone? May be what you need more than what you think you need is to simply, but desperately cry out,
"Daddy, I just think I need a date with you. I miss you."
And friends, if I, as a wicked earthly father, will answer that cry immediately for my daughter, how much more is the Father in heaven willing to answer that prayer for you, his child. Go ahead. You have the time and if not, then its worth making the time, ask the Father out on a date today. I know he would love to share more than a taco with you.
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