Spiritual Slide Shows

You know the feeling you get when you sense that others don't appreciate your vacation photos quite as much as you do? Where maybe you've just returned from this amazingly incredible trip, and the only thing friends seem capable of saying is, "Gee, looks like you had a nice time." And you think to yourself, "A nice time?! Are you kidding me? It was sensational! Can't you see from my pictures how great it was?!"

I think the same frustration can sometimes hold true when trying to share with others the incredible things the Lord is doing in our lives. We may find our words (like vacation photographs) falling painfully short of the actual experience, and folks around us merely nodding their heads in polite agreement. It's like showing a spiritual slide show that no one but you is really interested in. We expect others will jump up and down with excitement upon hearing the news of our spiritual revelations, but they don't. For they did not experience the lesson as we have.

It is in these times that we should remember that just as all vacation photos need not be shared, not all spiritual lessons need to be proclaimed from the rooftops. There are many lessons the Lord intends for us to treasure privately. For example, this week there was an important lesson the Lord taught me, one that I originally thought I would share on this blog. But after a few minutes of typing, I realized I could not adequately put into words what the Lord was doing in my heart, so I abandoned the project.

Posting my spiritual lesson would have been like posting all the photographs of our Grand Canyon vacation. It would have cheapened the experience, and most likely bored you to tears. What was important to me this week, most likely would have been inconsequential to others. And that's okay. It actually should comfort us to know that our God is such a personal God, and many times has customized lessons just for us.

So I have chosen to keep this particular lesson to myself, something I'm sure I will privately review over and over again in my mind...kind of like families watching slide shows of their own vacations...something only they could truly appreciate.