The Stone Altar

I can't believe we're almost to the end of January and I'm just now telling you about this. Shame on me!

This journey began for me back in 2003. I received an email from Janet Paschal (a southern gospel singer...it was a mass email...I don't have that good of a connection with anyone) in which she shared about some people she had met at recent concerts. This paragraph caught my attention, and following the excerpt is a portion of what I wrote about it:

"I met Crystal, who promised herself she wouldn't cry when we talked, but who cried anyway, as she recounted a dark period in her life when the music had sustained her. She kept apologizing, but I knew what she felt. She thought she was emotional because she was talking with me, but I knew it was much more than that. Our conversation was taking her back to a place of remembrance. She had, unknowingly, erected an altar of remembrance, much like those in the Old Testament when the Israelites piled stones in places where God had delivered them out of dire circumstances. Years later, they would bring their children and grandchildren back to these altars, pick up stone after stone, and recount God's deliverances. Last night, Crystal was picking up stones, and it had little, if anything to do with me."

After reading that portion of her e-mail, I did a mental inventory of the stones in my own spiritual altar. As I thought about those moments that were so pivotal that they became another stone in my altar, I found myself thankful that I love to journal. So many of these times have been captured and preserved among the various ramblings in my prayer journal.

There are many stones...some just pebbles...that make up my spiritual altar. But I wanted to share these with you, because these are the rocks...the ones I can see from a distance. I'm hoping that this week maybe you will spend some time picking up stones from your own altar and recounting the blessings God has given you in your life. And I hope that as more stones are added to your pile, you will give them the honor they deserve...that you will document them in some way so that the generations that come behind you will be able to see God's faithfulness on the altar of your journal...your box of index cards...scribbling of notes on random sheets...

...and eight years later, I'm taking my own challenge to heart. One of my goals for this year was to begin to construct an "altar." I committed to journal about a moment or event each day that can be considered a stone in the altar of my 2011. Some are rocks and some are pebbles, but working together, they make an altar I can look back upon and say this is when God worked in my life.

I have just under twenty pages of memories that comprise the month of January. Beautiful moments when God met me...taught me...provided for me...comforted me...disciplined me...revealed to me...and reminded me of my place in His heart.

And because I love the tangible...I also have a jar...with an actual stone in it for each day...something I can watch to be reminded of the work God is doing in my life.

If you're looking for a way to see God at work in your life...give it a try. You might be surprised at the pivotal moments hidden in a month. Even in a day.