ENCOUNTER: DAY 14

SCRIPTURE READING - DAY 14


Psalm 63:1-3

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek
you; my soul thirsts for you, my body
longs for you, in a dry and weary land
where there is no water. I have seen you
in the sanctuary and beheld your power
and your glory. Because your love is better
than life, my lips will glorify you. (NIV)

MEDITATION BY Jim Caya


While living in San Francisco, I spent time working for a large brokerage firm. One evening on my trip home from the office, I had no choice but to take the 31-Balboa bus line. Translation: a bus ride through one of the roughest, dirtiest, most defiled sections of the city—the Tenderloin. I did not want to see it, I did not want to hear it, but most of all, I did not want to smell what would soon engulf me—the liquor, smoke, and grunge of the homeless. I sat quietly, facing forward, eyes closed, listening to my iPod, wanting nothing more than to be anywhere else.

A sudden jerk of the bus caused me to open my eyes. There I was in a suit and tie surrounded by men and women who perhaps had not bathed in days. I gazed out the window and saw a middle-aged man huddled in the entryway of a run-down hotel. I made eye contact with him, gave a quick smile, and nodded my head to acknowledge his presence.

Then I saw something in his eyes. Though shaded by his greasy beard and ratty, long, grayish hair, his eyes lit up as if to say, "It feels so good to talk with someone." He smiled back at me, then looked around with an almost giddy, youthful exuberance. I honestly thought that he was going to get up and dance down the street. It was at that very moment, in encountering his joy, that the account of Jesus' return in Matthew 24:37-46 came to mind. I understood then the passion and yearning for God with which David wrote Psalm 63.

The next 20 minutes through the Tenderloin were perhaps the most conflicting yet empowering moments of my life. Was working for wealth in the Financial District of San Francisco earnestly seeking after God, that I may be a man after his heart? Was I truly desperate for my Savior and dying of thirst for “water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14)? To experience his redemptive power and glory and to love him more than life itself came alive in me and became my personal calling. In response to the cross, for me it is as simple as one question: how am I going to spend the rest of my life encountering and serving Christ?

Two years ago, I left that job in San Francisco and began serving with Enterprise International, CRM's division which focuses on business for mission. My passion to continually seek God and my desire for involvement in commercial ventures meet here. Through economics and entrepreneurship, I have the opportunity to integrate my business acumen within my pursuit of holistic Christian transformation.

REFLECTION


How are you fully able to encounter God's love and presence? In what ways have you experienced him unexpectedly?


Are you truly thirsty for Christ? What other things fill your life in place of him?


Psalm 63 makes it clear that David is passionate for God. How can you make experiencing God's love the most important thing in your life?