Spiritual Nudges

We all get them from time to time.
People call them by different names.
Some people call them promptings.
I call them nudges.

To be perfectly clear, they are spiritual nudges.
The nudges are whispers to your heart.
The nudges are quiet and almost not discernible.
However, the nudges are there.

I am sure that people talk about nudges to justify bad behavior and wrong choices.
Those are not the kind of nudges to which I refer.
I am talking about the kind of nudge that can only come from God.
It is the kind of nudge to which you must pay attention.

I had two such nudges in the past week.
I had the strong nudge to text a young mom that has come to my home with her children.
I enjoyed our time together.
I enjoyed meeting the youngest of her four children.

I had the strongest sense to text this young mom.
I have prayed for her since our visit.
I decided that I would text her and let her know that she has been on my mind.
I wanted to let her know that I was praying for her.

Then, a few days later,  I saw a picture that told her wonderful news.
Baby number five is expected to arrive later this year.
I immediately sent her a text.
No wonder you were on my mind and I was led to pray for you, I wrote.

It happened again a few days later.
I was led to text a woman who lives near me.
She has been on my mind.
We have been trying to get together for tea for a few months now.

I sent her a text.
About an hour later, she called me.
She had major surgery and has been home recovering.
The spiritual nudge to call her just would not go away.

I will be going to her home to visit and have that cup of tea we have been planning.
All because of a nudge.
All because of a spiritual nudge.
God is relentless when He nudges us; we will not have any peace until we see it through.

Thinking about those nudges, I remembered one from over forty years ago.
Every time I think of it, I am so grateful to God.
Every time I think of it, God’s tenderness is so clear.
Every time I think of it, I love God even more.

I took a SEPTA bus to high school every day.
There was an early bus and a later bus each morning.
I preferred the early bus, since the later bus smelled like cigarette smoke.
Those were the days when people could smoke in public places.

One day, I missed the first bus.
I had to take the later bus.
I got on and sat on the bench seat in the front.
There was a haze of cigarette smoke wafting in the air.

None of my friends were on that bus.
I sat there on the front bench seat looking out the window across from me.
A thought made itself known to me in a powerful way.
I now know it was a spiritual nudge.

Your mother is going to die.
Those words were as clear as if someone had spoken them right in my ear.
I looked around the bus, certain that everyone heard what I heard.
Everyone was talking or sleeping with their head against the seat.

No one heard what I heard.
The words were spoken to my heart.
I did not know what to do with them.
I did not know what to do.

I was adopted; my adopted mother had rheumatic fever as a child.
That left her with a weakened heart.
It was something I knew but it was not something that was ever noticeable.
It was knowledge tucked away, to be pulled out if necessary.

That day, the knowledge that was tucked away down deep, came to the surface.
Your mother is going to die.
There was no one I could tell.
There was no one who would understand, since I did not even understand.

For the rest of that day and for many days after, my mood was quiet and serious.
Maybe I heard wrong.
Maybe I was mistaken.
Maybe I imagined that still voice to my heart.

Less than a month after I missed the bus that morning, my mother died.
When everyone else was surprised, I was not.
I was terribly sad, of course.
I was not surprised.

When a bit of time had passed and I got used to my new normal, I reflected on that morning.
God’s tender mercy prepared me.
God held me before I knew that I needed to be held.
God knew what I was going to face and He was right there with me.

Many would say it was coincidence.
Many would say I imagined the whole thing.
Those that know me, know that is simply not true.
It is my testimony to the sweet, tender mercy of my God.

And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power? (Job 26:14)

God’s power often comes in a whisper.
The world will dismiss His whisper away.
The world will have all sorts of reasons attempting to explain it away.
I know what happened that day when I missed the bus.

The whisper of God prepared me for something that was going to change everything in my life.
Some could be cynical and say, God could have stopped it.
In His sovereignty, God allowed my mother to die when I was fifteen years old.
Where was God? They might ask.

God was with me on the bus.
God was with me when my mother died.
God was with me in the days and months after her death.
God is with me now.

I take the whisper of God very seriously.
I take God’s spiritual nudges very seriously.
I can give testimony to God’s nudges in my life.
How grateful I am for the tender mercy of my God.