Phoebe Palmer
When we meet God, we want it to be magic.
We expect a mythical, supernatural quality to God moments. Specifically, we’re looking for a feeling, a powerful emotional encounter that takes us from the black-and-white boredom of daily existence into the HD color of God’s reality. The early Methodist movement and the Great Awakening spurred this belief that true faith must be rooted in a felt experience. From John Wesley’s heart “strangely warmed” to the moving testimonies today of former drug-addicts turning their lives around, we have a strong precedent for amazing, magical conversion.
Everyday Magic
I recently returned from a truly wonderful mission week with 33 students and adults. We repaired and replaced unsafe homes in Eastern Tennessee through the Appalachia Service Project. I’ve been on many similar trips in the last two decades, and was familiar with the end-of-the-week circle of sharing, where one by one everyone is given space to talk about where they encountered God during the week. My work group anticipated this and spent the entire week discussing what we should say when it was our turn to wow people with the amazing ways we saw God show up.
But most of us were at a loss for God moments.
We didn’t have any blinded-by-the-light moments. We barely saw our homeowner. Our finished product was okay. We had great team-building time. Our community grew stronger. But none of us transcended. We worried that other people would have these magical Jesus-sightings that we just weren’t seeing. We worried that when it came our turn to share a God moment, we’d have to “pass” because God just didn’t show up with signs and wonders this time around.
But then we began to talk about our belief that whether we “felt” it or not, God was within and among us.
In the boards that we swore we measured correctly but still seemed to come up short. God was there. In the smell of the septic tank that permeated our entire work environment, which was another person’s backyard. God was there.
In the slipping of curse words when hammer hit thumb. Hey, God. In the all-out group jam session to “Thunderstruck” and “Great Day to Be Alive,” God heard praise and responded with delight. In the miracle of teenagers actually doing camp chores, God was a little surprised. I mean, God was there.
We learned a truth that is almost as surprising as teenagers gladly repairing the tin roof of an impoverished mountain man:
Saving faith doesn’t require Disney magic.
“Earnest prayers, long fasting, and burning tears may seem befitting, but cannot move the heart of infinite love to a greater willingness to save. God’s time is now. The question is not, What have I been? or What do I expect to be? But, Am I now trusting in Jesus to save to the uttermost? If so, I am now saved from all sin.”
-Phoebe Palmer, Memoirs, Oct. 5, 1873
Phoebe Palmer grew up in the Methodist faith. A firm believer herself, she always felt like she was missing what other Christians had. She never had a big emotional conversion experience, and so she thought she must somehow not be a true Christian, not fully devoted to God.
But as she studied scripture, she made a discovery that would shake the Church and start a new movement (The Holiness Movement). Phoebe said, “I now see that the error of my religious life has been a desire for signs and wonders. Like Naaman, I have wanted some great thing, unwilling to rely unwaveringly on the still small voice of the Spirit, speaking through the naked Word.”
Phoebe discovered that with or without an emotional conversion, faith is enough. You can’t make God love you any more than God already does. No amount of frantic praying will make God closer to you than God already is. The tiniest mustard seed of faith is more than enough.
Believe that Jesus is who Jesus says he is.
That is the faith. That is salvation. That is your God moment. That is your assurance that God has got you.
For Phoebe Palmer, Christianity is a three-step journey…three steps we take pretty much every day. First, you resolve to give all of yourself to God. Then you trust that God’s got this, God makes it good and holy. Third, you live it out. You talk to others about God’s goodness and freedom through Jesus Christ as you live out what you believe.
This would become a new way of understanding Wesley’s teaching on Christian perfection. It’s no longer a mythical legend reserved only for the holiest saints of old. It’s just regular folk plugging away with their daily lives, trusting all of themselves to God. Believing that God’s the one who makes it good. Noticing that God is always with us, never far, ever-ready to make all things beautiful.
So thanks, Phoebe Palmer. You helped give me words to describe what I experienced. “God’s time is now.” I don’t need special 3D super-Christian-goggles to see it. I just need my own eyes, and a heart willing to take Jesus at his word.