For several years retailers have offered pop up events. My trusty Google AI says these events are temporary, unexpected, in-person affairs, held in unique spaces for a limited time. We find them in malls, tucked away in the nooks of stores, and in boutiques, often along with an assortment of wines and snacks. They’re quite effective for targeted sales.
A recent invitation to one at a favorite store sent a flash through my brain about how God interacts with us that led me to a forehead slap. God has been holding pop up events since day one!
What would we call God summoning Noah out of the blue to build the Arc other than a pop-up God thing? It wasn’t as if Noah built the ark on his own believing, “If I build it, they will come,” and then asked God to provide animals and the flood. While this might work for baseball fields, it’s not God’s usual way to get things done.
What about Moses stumbling upon the burning bush out in the middle of nowhere? Talk about a God-sized pop up! The last thing Saul of Tarsus expected on his way to Damascus that day was being knocked to the ground by the risen Christ. Each of these encounters changed both the persons and the trajectory of history forever. Such is the power of God’s pop ups.
While those who’ve experienced God in a seismic pop up of this magnitude seem to be few and far between, all Christians do experience God pop ups. So, the issue isn’t if they will occur. They will. The concern is whether we’ll recognize a Spiritual pop up when it happens and how we’ll handle it when it does.
In thinking further about our encounters with these pop ups it occurred to me that three types of pop ups are in play.
The first one I call the “throw you off your horse” pop-up (think Paul). Although the rarest type, many have experienced a time when God broke through all known natural laws and came to them. This happened to me in the ‘80’s. I was in a deep, dark place. The doorbell rang. It was Jerry, the senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church and a Rotary friend of my husband, Bud’s.” As we were neither Methodists nor attending church at the time and assuming the visit was Rotary related, I told Jerry I’d get Bud. “No, I came to see you.” He listened as I blubbered out what was going on, he consoled me, asked me if we could pray, and left. Later, I asked Bud if he’d called Jerry about me. He hadn’t. The next day I went to Jerry’s office and asked him why he’d come. He said, “I knew I needed to.” God had popped up, knocked me off my horse, and it changed my life.
The second type is the “get back on the path” pop up. This is when you’re off course. Maybe you know it, maybe not. Nevertheless, you need a correction, and something happens out of the blue that puts you back onto it. Maybe it comes in the form of a book. A friend recommends one that sounds interesting. Soon after, you see it in the NYT book reviews. Hmm. Then it pops up on your Amazon recommended reading list. Bingo! Thank you, God!
This raises a question. How do we know when something is a God pop-up or merely random? Paul called the ability to judge the gift of discernment—of understanding God, God’s ways, and what God wants for us. We develop the gift as we draw ever deeper from the well-spring of understanding the nature of God within us. The more you study, pray, meditate, and read Scriptures, the keener you become. A couple of days ago I noticed I was seeing lots of blue cars. It went on for blocks, the whole time I was out shopping, and all the way home. Certainly, they got my attention, but was it a God pop up? Could it have been? Maybe. But was it? Not likely, for there was no emotion attached to it or feeling that I was being encouraged by the Holy Spirit to pay those cars any mind. This is a silly example, but it speaks to the question. Not everything that is coincidental is a pop up. You’ll know it when it happens.
Sometimes it’s not a matter of trying to decide if God has popped up, but of getting the message. Fortunately, God will keep popping up until we do. The Old Testament is full of characters who needed lots of prods. Then there’s Peter. How many times did Jesus have to ask him, “When are you going to get it?” Being a Peter myself, I’m grateful that God will pop up often and tirelessly. In a few cases, God’s had to prod me for years. This was the case when God called me to seminary. I didn’t want to go. “No thank you, I don’t have time.” “No thank you, I already have three degrees.”. “No thank you, I’ve been out of college for twenty years and am rusty as an old nail.” No thank you, we’re saving for retirement. No thank you, no thank you. When I finally answered the call and enrolled, it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Praise God for persistent pop-ups!
I call the final type of Spiritual pop up “guidance and counseling.” This is the one with which we’re most familiar. The old hymn goes, “Savior teach me every day, love’s sweet lesson to obey.” And Christ does teach us. In the song we ask God to pop up in all things, to be with us and to bless us! Yet even we who are seasoned to living with these pop ups still need to act on what God teaches us through them. Simply being aware that God can and will pop up at any given moment to help is along our way isn’t the point. It’s not even that we must thank God when it happens (which we do). As the song implies, we’re asking to be taught God’s lessons so we can take them to heart and act on them. Examples abound in the four Gospels of Jesus trying to get this across to the Pharisees, temple leaders, members of the Sanhedrin, and even to his closest followers.
I hope you’ll begin to take time to recognize God’s pop ups in your life. Listen to them. Act on them. And in every way, thank God for them.
Until next time, be blessed.
Karen
Karen Kaigler-Walker, PhD
HTC UWFaith Spiritual Growth Coordinator
