"Why not be changed at this time?"
The microwave screen scrolled this message in front of my astonished eyes. I was heating up lunch in the work kitchenette, which is in an open alcove. Meaning, everywhere could hear what I would loudly exclaim next: "The microwave is talking to me!!!!!!!" (Pro tip: when appliances start sending you messages, don't announce it to your entire office. You'll be very startled and not thinking clearly, but resist the urge. I don't think I have to spell out why.)
Luckily, most everyone was engrossed in their work, I heard a few chuckles, and one colleague followed up with a question or two. At this point, I started to walk back my story. "Ha ha, I must need glasses!"
Turns out I did need glasses. I was celebrating 40 years old that year, and everything was changing. Not only my physical body, but my spiritual soul. I had started a journey a year or two before that day, a time where I reconnected with God and the source of all love. It was puzzling at times and not easy, but I had begun the trek and there was no going back. Once God taps you on the shoulder and asks you to take walk with them, if you say yes, even though you have no idea where it will lead, you'll never be the same again.
I was still at the beginning of the journey when the microwave asked its question. Not "Will you be changed at this time?" or a commandment "Be changed at this time," but "why not?"
Why not, indeed? I was ready for new way of being, a new way of living. I said yes that day to the gentle invitation.
This is how God works. Tenderly, with hints and suggestions. If a message is truly coming from the source, it won't clobber your over the head or insist on making you do something you don't have the capacity to do. You'll get guidance if you are willing to listen and look for God. Even in the microwave at work.
In the decade since I've heard from the microwave, I've changed in more ways than I could have possibly imagined. I've also come to a complete halt and had periods of being stagnate and unmoved. But the big picture is I've grown closer to God, closer to myself as God knows and made me, have met many spiritual friends and allies along the way, and recently even became a spiritual director through Oasis! And yes, I did get glasses, too.
I wasn't sure what I was saying yes to, but I did. And I will keep saying yes. Even when I don't want to change, or when I think I don't need to.
Perhaps you might want to ask yourself the same question the microwave asked me, and sit with it in prayer. What stirs for you? I hope the invitation is gentle and sweet, and if I helped anyone not having to question their sanity by hearing it from an appliance, I am truly grateful to have helped.
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