Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a probing thought.  But where most people would describe that experience as a “lightbulb” moment, I would describe it more like a big fluorescent question mark whose on-off chain was just pulled.  The light goes on, but I’m left questioning the thought.  Is it a thought from God?  Is it something He’s trying to teach me?  Is he changing my perspective on something?  Is He illustrating a truth that I had never grasped before?  The answer is YES most of the time.  To any or all of those.  If I can’t remember the thought in the morning then I figure it either wasn’t from God, or that He’ll remind me of it later when I have more time to ponder it.

It happened again two nights ago.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  I had just come off of a big, fabulous weekend with lots of extended family paired with lots of travel and a different bed every night.  I tried to get a head start by sleeping on the plane on the way home.  I fell asleep just long enough to have just a hint of the lit up question mark.  Planes and sleeping don’t go hand in hand for me.

I came home and went to bed.  I woke a lot during the night, but the chain on the question mark kept getting yanked and the light kept getting brighter and brighter in my mind.  Which meant, I guessed, that I should do something about it.  Process it through writing.  I’m a little wary, but here goes…

I just finished reading a book written by a neurosurgeon.  I know…I can hear you snoring.  But this wasn’t just a book about medical science.  It was about the author’s journey to heaven while he was in a seven day coma caused by a deadly virus. Here’s the catch.  Up until the time that the disease wreaked havoc on his body, this neurosurgeon had always given the credit of near-death experiences to hallucinations of the brain (my over simplified phrase) and the trauma that it was experiencing. He was well aware of the intricacies and responses of the brain.  During and after his experience, his perspective on NDE’s was completely different.

Without going into the all the details of his journey (Get the book.  It’s fabulous! Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander) this man discovered something that went beyond what his non-functioning comatose brain had the ability to create.  His went on a journey of the soul.  Truths were revealed to Him not by calculating logic or piece meal  tidbits of information.  His heart and soul took everything in without the luxury of a working brain.  He experienced God’s presence and love in a way that his human mind would not have been able to contain.  He had visited heaven and miraculously, beyond all odds, came back to tell the tale.

The book impacted me greatly.  Not just because it was a well written, awe-inspiring story, but because it mirrored what I have, in a smaller, less dramatic way, experienced myself.  A journey of the heart and soul that have taken me to the presence and love of God.

I am convinced that we don’t come to “know” God by gathering bits of information for our brains to process.  The mind allows us to know ABOUT God.  But it’s the heart and soul that draw us near to God.  To His heart and soul.

Think about a relationship that begins online.  A person can gather information and facts about another individual through the internet.  They can know ABOUT them that way and choose to leave it as just that.  But until they allow conversation and interaction there will be no connection or relationship.  The only way for them to get to KNOW each other is to communicate. To open up and share with each other.  That is where the personality, character and the heart of a person begins to be understood.

Where our minds help us to learn the truth ABOUT God, the heart and soul allow us to experience the truth OF God.  It goes from book knowing to fully, experientially knowing.  I can read that God is love, but it takes me to a whole different realm when I experience God’s love.  It deepens my trust and invites me to discover more.

When I see a picture of something chocolate on Pinterest, it plants a seed of desire.  It looks good.  But I’ll never know its flavor, its sweetness, its richness until I try it.  Once I’ve tasted it and found that it truly is delicious, the craving for more begins.  That’s not because of the brain knowledge I have of the list of ingredients.  Those are the facts of the chocolate decadence.  Tasting it, experiencing it is KNOWING the decadence.

I could go on and on on this thought.  I hope that for you, as it has for me, a seed has been planted that invites you to experience all that you know.  That that seed stirs in you a discontent in just KNOWING ABOUT God and prompts a curiosity to KNOW God experientially.  That indescribable, deep, intimate place that connects our hearts to His.  It is, literally, other-worldly…

Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your HEART.

Luke 10:27 – Love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your strength and with all your mind…

Lamentations 3:25 – The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the SOUL who seeks him.

Deuteronomy 4:29 – But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your HEART and with all your SOUL.

Psalm 63:1 –  O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my SOUL thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 119:10 – With my whole HEART I seek you…

1 Chronicles 28:9 – And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole HEART and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all HEARTS and understands every plan and thought…

Jeremiah 33:3 – Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.