Years ago, when I read George Harrison’s description of India, it connected to something I felt deeply about God. He said, “India is an assault on the senses.” God Himself is that to me—and then some—but definitely in a good way! I had often (and pardon me John Denver fans) lamented that the love song “You Fill Up My Senses” was so mellow and sweet because it actually expresses this for me—minus a few million watts of power! To be filled with God is to have a window open inside (in the software metaphor, not the house one) that is continually taking in the grandeur and beauty of the simple, daily processes of life and living with worshipping wonderment. From childhood, I have carried that sense of awe regarding the created world—molecule to mountain—and it has never left me. I suppose that is why, in my own creative endeavors, it is that kind of sense-assaulting moment that I seem to be going for! For instance, even the simple act of placing a group of art objects on a wall, for me becomes the creation of a mini-panorama which will richly drip inspiration for its viewers! (OK, at least some viewer…) After I have hung them all according to my inner vision, I walk away with my back turned, placing a good distance between myself and the wall, and then suddenly spin around as if to take it in visually for the first time. If the beauty of the arrangement does not meet some inner threshold value, I’m back tweaking until the effect has passed from a good idea into an inspired one! (My friend, Ben Hodgson describes this personality as “helplessly creative.”)
One day before our recent (and first) New York City adventure, in which we had only 48 hours to take in the capital of the world, a college professor we met at Jack and Trish Groblewski’s church in Pennsylvania said to us, “I’m not a big fan of the hubbub of the city, but I do recommend that you sit on the lighted steps in Times Square at night—it is a must see.” I filed the comment and thanked him, with a disclaimer flagging it as coming from someone who did NOT want to imbibe New York City through their very pores like I did! Besides that, Jack, who was giving us a ride to our NYC hotel, also gave us a very generous orientation session to the city, complete with inspirational AND realistic advice for our impossible 48-hour task! We needed nothing more but a spirit of adventure and a large supply of cash! However, when we got to Times Square, we did remember the professor’s advice and I laugh now to think that his understated endorsement for the lighted steps turned out not just to make a memory, but create a living metaphor.
We arrived in NYC mid afternoon and did a very classic thing first, seeing that our upscale air-miles-paid-for upper west side hotel was just a block away from it: we strolled through Central Park! I had dreamed about it as a little girl and even wrote a song about at the age of 8. It fully delivered! Then, after dinner at a pub on Amsterdam Avenue, where we were partaking and purchasing as much of the “vibe” as the actual food, we embarked, following Jack’s tutelage, on our first New York taxi ride. Proudly sporting our Texan naiveté, we hailed a cab, plopped in the back seat and stated, “Times Square, please!” The driver spoke back some clarifying words about our choices of intersection for drop off, but failing to understand him, we just said, “Yes.” The route he chose that provided me my Times Square first view turned out to mimic my wall arranging technique. He must have driven past Times Square on the street we were already on which was a few blocks away and then turned and approached it from the side, so that when we came upon it and I turned my head, the view would register on my senses all at once, just as if I had had my back to it and suddenly spun around! I was fully unprepared for what followed as tears began to roll down my cheeks in response. I held Paul’s hand as if I were personally being given all that I saw to be my own—without any questioning or analysis of the emotion I felt! (I think Paul may have felt it too, but I was taking up all the oxygen in the cab and there was none left for him to express his response!)
I cannot explain what this man-made festival of power, commerce and technological expression made me feel in that moment. It both overwhelmed me and called me into it. I wanted to both run away and run into the very middle! And I really thought there were probably no lumens available back home in Texas at that moment, as it seemed that all the light energy of the very planet had been pulled by the sheer force of corporate desire right into midtown New York! (And all the while, in the deep space of my heart, I was marveling at a Creator who had made such power available to man—a Creator whose generosity in sharing Himself, even unacknowledged, with those made in his image was the only thing that had facilitated this display!) I was pretty sure that I had just challenged the cab driver’s affinity for Texans if he had any, but I could not help myself nor did I care!
We exited the taxi and began to walk, taking in the Letterman theatre and stopping to post evidences of our presence there on Facebook, to which our very clever friend, Matt Summers, promptly replied, “Is this anything?” We then rounded a corner and found Times Square church and stood outside and read the poster that outlined its history: In the 60’s, David Wilkerson had walked around the Times Square area, crying out to God about the gangs, drugs and prostitution, declaring that someone must do something about it. God responded, as He often does to the person feeling the need, “How about you? You know the city!” And the rest is history. That theatre-like church, like a Mars Hill sermon declaring the altar to the unknown God, now stands amidst a place radically different—radically cleaned up—from the one that first troubled David Wilkerson! The Gospel—the one proceeding from the Creator of the lumens and the ability to harness them—had changed the place—whether or not the place knew it! Though Times Square Church is not ancient or even pretty at least from the outside, it felt as if we were honoring a beautiful holy place of the past.
After that “selah” moment, we made our way back to the center of Times Square and followed the professor’s instructions. We came upon the lighted steps from behind and at first couldn’t see the red layers inviting everyone upward. Once in front, we turned and climbed them almost the top and, though the steps were full, found a little clearing just for the two of us—and we sat! (It seems you have to sit.) And in that moment, the full force of the first viewing of Times Square began all over again. I could have sat for hours and, though I am never in want of dialogue with my husband, there was no need to speak. In all the hubbub, noise, color, and crowd, the lighted steps were an amazing island of peace—just as Central Park had been earlier in the day. I began to realize that I was sitting in a place I had only seen images of all my life: in movies, on New Year’s eve, and outside the morning shows’ studios where people from all over the world gathered with signs in an effort to get on camera. All my life, I had viewed Times Square second hand, but now I was sitting there taking it in with my own eyes and letting it be a DIRECT assault to MY senses—and it was filling them up. The distance was removed and I sat emotionally naked before a greater view of man’s mixed bag of dreams, desires and even some debauchery, than I had ever been before. Ironically, I looked to my left and one of the HD message boards—a huge one, but weren’t they all—was sporting a ticker tape of poignant inspirational quotes about facing fear and overcoming the hesitance that keeps us from really living!
Only later, on a Sunday morning, did the lighted steps moment come fully home to me, providing a “story” for my journey (and perhaps yours) that I will never forget. My husband was proclaiming, as he is gifted to do, the huge scope of redemption that Jesus purchased for us. It is, Jesus said, the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom! This is not a one-day promise reserved for the other dimension of existence we call heaven, but rather a promise for all times, for the Kingdom comes in appropriate form on both sides of that life and death line! Because He gave us the Kingdom through Jesus and the redemption He provided for us, the Kingdom is ours to interact with right now! It is ours in every time and every space! With that thought, suddenly I was back in Times Square on the lighted steps, only it was not the glaring lights of man’s arranging that I was taking in, but rather, I was realizing that there are some lighted steps for each one of us to sit on that have nothing to do with NYC!
Inside our hearts, God is guiding us to a place where he wants to simply sit us down and assault our senses with all that the Kingdom is—all that was provided for us through redemption. He wants to unroll in high definition grandeur a panorama so vast and blinding that it will take many, many sessions to take in! He wants to focus so much of his heavenly illumination energy upon our spirits that we can’t accommodate the view standing up! And in that moment, peace will inform the chaos and we too will see inspirational words scrolling through our inner world—words telling us we can be free from fear—or any other limitation that threatens to dull our zeal or sharpness! There are lighted steps in our hearts and God wants to give us sessions that assault our senses with the panorama of redemption and perhaps bring us to tears!
I realized that, related to the Gospel, so many are like I was before I visited Times Square—they are living through someone else’s ability to record or report the experience! They’ve heard from a pulpit, perhaps even on television, that they are “supposed” to be impressed with God and amazed by what He did in Christ. They have accepted and yearned—and maybe even dreamed about visiting in person. But God wants to remove that distance and give them a face-to-face exposure –filling up their senses in some way—or multiple ways--with Himself. The gentle advice of the professor who didn’t even love NYC was so prophetic. You MUST go to the lighted steps, he had said. Our heavenly Father promises the same fulfillment on a level a million times more intense!
Franz Kafka said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” I believed Kafka’s words years ago when I first heard them because I know the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus proclaimed as the One who would be a tour-guide into, not just the world, but ALL truth! I believe them today because I have lived them. You don’t have to go to Times Square to find lighted steps with a view—just go to your room and expect God to do by His Spirit what he promised to do. If you feel that your experience of God’s power and greatness and your view of redemption have been somewhat second hand, know that change is available. If the spiritual realm for you has been more a performance than a panorama, it is time for an assault on your senses. You will never be the same. A window of awe will open inside you and inform the rest of your living. Your seat awaits. Let me be the professor who not-so-calmly gives you the important travel tip!
