Lightning In My Bones!
Sometimes in life it’s hard to adequately describe something new that you have never experienced before. Perhaps it’s something so remarkable, exciting, amazing, deep, or powerful that even when you reach way down into the depths of your vocabulary…the words just aren’t there.
That’s where I found myself not so many years ago. As I gave God access to my life, He started doing things in my life that were exciting, amazing, deep, and powerful. And I wanted to share with everyone what God was doing in, around, and through me. But I didn’t have the words. 1
At times I tried to tell people, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to look at me like I had two heads. And honestly, years ago if some guy had told me the same things, I would have looked at him the same way. But there I was, babbling on like a crazy person. I felt like a fool until…
A Preacher and a Biker walk into a room.
One Sunday morning John Riggin, my rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, was preaching on how God works in our lives. 2 He told us how the Holy Spirit moves on, in, and through us. Then God spoke through John…directly to me.
When you can’t find the words to describe the things God is doing in your life and how the Holy Spirit is working in your life, that’s normal…because there are no words! Immediately a feeling of relief and empowerment washed over me. I wasn’t crazy! And that was indeed God!!!
Sometime later I was standing in a gravel parking lot with biker R.J. Tanner. 3 We talked about faith and God working in our lives. I tried to explain how I felt when God would show up and the Holy Spirit filled the room and my soul. But I admitted, “I just can’t find the words to describe it.”
And God moved in them to light up a life.
RJ jumped in and enthusiastically said, “Man I can. It’s like…Lightning in my BONES!” If I live to be 100 years old, there will never be more accurate words to describe the feeling I get when God shows up. RJ was absolutely right. It is like…Lightning In My Bones!
John and RJ are about as far apart in personality and life experiences as two men can be. But God used them both to make profound statements in my life, to strengthen my Faith, to show me that I was indeed on track, and to encourage me in my Faith walk through this world.
It makes perfect sense to me now that God would use a preacher in a pulpit and a biker in a parking lot—two men on opposite ends of the spectrum—to speak His truth to me. I am a redeemed and repurposed man, who bounces around in this life somewhere between them both. That’s how it works.
Get In The Boat! Do Your Part!
Lightning In My Bones…From Nose to Toes!
Shane
PRAYERS FOR R.J. On August 20, 2022, RJ had a terrible motorcycle accident
that left him paralyzed from the neck down. By all accounts he should have died.
Yet God had a different plan. Since then, RJ has been learning and re-learning.
Some days are hard, some better. But God gives him strength!
Shane Hale is a redeemed & re-purposed professional baseball player and former corporate sales executive. Shane, his wife Michelle, and their three sons live in Mobile, Alabama, USA, where he works as a Realtor. While seeking God’s plan for his life in the summer of 2014, God told Shane to start writing. Today he shares his faith to encourage and inspire others to seek His plan for their lives as well. Check out his blog at http://www.the1sixproject.com.
Footnotes: (1) My experience has been that it is very hard to describe these events, or the physical feeling, in human terms. (2) St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located in Mobile, AL. (3) R.J. Tanner is a fella from my hometown of Lucedale, MS. And for the uninitiated, a “Biker”, as used here, is someone who owns, rides and almost idolizes a motorcycle, and is often a member of a motorcycle club or gang.
Pictures: Banner: Lightning Over Cayman, awesome photo by Paul Tibbetts, 10-17-2021. (1) (2) Sometimes There Are No Words, original image created by Joanne Fink. (3) The Way, The Truth, and The Life, image created by SalvationCall.com.
