King of the World

As a Splankna Practitioner, I start my sessions by asking the client, “What’s going on with you? What would you like to work on?” I often hear people questioning God. “Why did he allow this?” “Why hasn’t he healed this?” Sometimes the questions are genuine desires to understand. Other times it’s a complaint and a lack of trust in God. Is God sleeping on the job? Has he forgotten about the person’s problems? Does he want them to suffer? Is he punishing them? Is this part of a bigger plan? As I listen to the client, I often wonder those things too. Thankful that I don’t actually have to come up with the answer, I suggest that we take it to prayer. This is when the session truly begins. We lay it all out before God. We ask him to lead us and offer insight and wisdom.

It sure seems that we all have a tendency to think, maybe if I was in control, things would be different. By different, we actually mean better. I would have healed my client the first day she came in… if it were up to me.

At some point in my contemplation, a song kept repeating in my head. I kept noticing myself singing this song in my head. It’s a catchy tune, but it seemed like maybe God wanted me to get a message.

Here are the lyrics to the chorus… what do you think?
When did I forget that you’ve always been the king of the world?
I try to take life back right out of the hands of the king of the world.
How could I make you so small, when you’re the one who holds it all?
When did I forget that you’ve always been the king of the world?

On the one hand, I’m extremely thankful for the luxury of not having to come up with the answers. With the Splankna Protocol, we are completely dependent on God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. But on the other hand, I tend to be frustrated by my limitations. I want to be able to help everyone, save everyone.

After about a week of this song playing in my mind, I had an interesting experience at Praise in Motion. (PiM is a place where we move through worship music and worship God in body as well as heart. It’s a place where I feel closest to God and he often reveals things to me during this time. The results are similar to the creative work we do in Splankna.) That particular week we were discussing wisdom. During the chorus of the song “Good to me” by Audrey Assad, we do a move that feels like you are on a swing. Whenever I do this move, I look for God. I’ve had some really interesting Jesus encounters during this time. This particular time, I saw God in the clouds. He was up above me looking down on me. I felt like I was his child and he was watching over me. We did some other moves and then when we went back to the swing move, I felt Jesus behind me pushing me on the swing so I could go higher. The third time, he was in the swing next to me and our arms were linked like when I was a child and I would swing arms locked with a friend. I had never had such a clear detailed vision during this song before. As I lay on the mat at the end of PiM, I asked God to help me understand. As soon as I asked, that song, “King of the World” by Natalie Grant, began to play in my mind. I instantly understood that God was showing me the order of our relationship.

• First, he is above me, he is the king of the world. He is in no way dependent on me. He is higher, he is superior. We must always remember that first!
• Second, he is the driving force behind me. He is the one who energizes me and gives me the strength, wisdom, skills, opportunities to be who I am and to do the things I do.
• Third, he is my friend. He is with me, beside me. I get to partner with him.

I believe that the order is important.  Sometimes I hear people talking about Jesus as their friend, and he is.  But first and foremost, he is our LORD and GOD.  We are not on equal ground with God. It’s also important to remember that we need him to push us in life.  We need him to be our driving force.  When we remember that he is Lord and we are not, we find true peace. Peace in knowing that he is greater than us; we don’t have to have the answers or the solutions. Then we can truly embrace him as our friend with reverence and gratitude.