Sabbatical Surprise: A “Sneak Up on You” Moment from God
Last year, my wife and I received the delightful gift of an eight-week sabbatical. A week after taking off on a road trip from our home in Pennsylvania, we were in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I rose early one morning to catch the sun rising over the mountains. After parking my car, I found a quiet spot on a large rock at the edge of a lake. Towering mountains surrounded me. It was still dark, but the dim amber color of the soon-to-be bright orange hue painted the sky behind tall peaks. I gazed around at the pine trees and the pristine lake, taking in deep and soul-satisfying breaths of the cool morning air. I felt giddy! I was on sabbatical! No emails, meetings, expectations, or planning – it was time to rest! For months I had been anticipating a moment like this. Here it was surrounding me like a blanket.
As I waited for the sun to begin its magnificent appearance, I glanced to my left over the lake. I was surprised. An elk with a large rack of antlers was swimming across the lake -- in my direction! Before I could plan an escape route, the beautiful creature was out of the water. He shook the water off his massive body, turned and gazed at me for about 5 seconds, then slowly walked away. I didn’t move.
In that moment, I sensed these words deep in my soul from God, “I am this big. I am this big to sneak up on you, and surprise you. I am this big to meet you, I delight in doing these things.” It was a goosebumps moment like I haven’t had in years.
“I am this big. I am this big to sneak up on you, and surprise you. I am this big to meet you, I delight in doing these things.”
It was as if God was saying to me, “There are things I’m going to plant in you during these eight weeks that would not have been planted had you not taken this time away. I will speak to you in the quiet and in experiences that are as sacred as this moment. Get ready for them. I want you to relax and laugh and sing in ways that you would not have experienced if not for this time away. It’s a time to do things you have only dreamed of doing - not big, lofty, strategic things. Rather, this is a time to be surprised, to celebrate, to rejuvenate and reconnect to the joy life with Me brings.” I was enveloped in that sacred moment.
“I am this big” is what my soul needed to hear that day by the lake. God’s “big-ness” is still with me five months after my sabbatical has ended. My time away from work was a surprising reorientation to a new way of seeing and living. I continue to savor the surprise by the side of the lake.
Sabbatical slowed my soul. It opened my eyes to new patterns of seeing. It focused my attention on the reorientation God was calling me toward for post-sabbatical thriving.
Is it time for a “sneak up on you” moment from God for you?