Imagining the Abundant Joy of Eternity

Five Minute Friday:  Imagine

1.  Write for 5 minutes flat - no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2.  Link back to Five Minute Friday

3.  Visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them with your comments.  The one unbreakable rule.

I haven’t written a Five Minute Friday for awhile.  I haven’t blogged for a few weeks either, come to think of it.  I’ve barely gotten online to leave a comment here or there, but at least I have done that over the last few weeks a time or two.  It has been nagging at me to sit down and write something more than a journal entry, a homeschool test, or something work related.  

"Ah, it’s Friday, I’ll check in and at least write for 5 minutes,"  I think.  So I checked in to find the word “Imagine” was the prompt for the day.  Then I was immediately summoned to perform mom driving duties.  The word "Imagine" hummed in my head as I drove.

Upon return:  Five minutes begin.  

GO!

I couldn’t help but immediately think of one of my favorite songs, “I Can Only Imagine.”  

Image source

Every time I hear it, my heart turns to praise.  I can’t help but meditate on the concept of being in the eternal presence of God.  The sense of abundance, not of lots of stuff as in the physical, but of abundant filling of the Spirit, with a satiation that leads to sense of satisfaction and sanctification that is palpable.  I can breathe it, feel it, bask in it:  the abundance of joy that overwhelms me as I imagine.  The song often moves me to tears of joy, and I love to just sing along, and then think about it when it is done.

I drove along and thought about the song.  I thought about the words and the concept on my way back after dropping the kids.  Then I turned the radio on.  I confess I usually listen to talk radio in the afternoon.  There was a commercial on; so I switched the channel to the Christian radio station.  Just as I turned it on, “I Can Only Imagine” began to play.  I couldn’t help but well up with tears of joy at the realization that my God was speaking directly to me.  

Five minutes up:  Stop.

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I also can’t help but think about Team Hoyt every time I hear the song since when I first heard it, it was in conjunction with a music video about this amazing father and son duo.  Their story is quite incredible.  Son, Rick Hoyt was born with cerebral palsy which left him paralyzed with minimal mobility.  Medical personnel held out little hope, but the Hoyts, Dick and Judy, would not give up on their son.  As he grew, they grew too ministering to him as loving parents might.  Along the way, they discovered that young Rick Hoyt got a tremendous sense of freedom from being out with his dad in racing events, Father Hoyt pushing his son in some kind of chair or bike, or carrying him along in some way.

After the initial 5 mile benefit run in 1977, the Hoyts went on to participate in more and more races including marathons and triathlons.  In 1989 the Hoyt Foundation was started to raise awareness of the challenges of people with disabilities as it, “aspires to build the individual character, self-confidence, and self-esteem of America’s disabled young people through inclusion in all facets of daily life...”   One of the ironic and quite poignant vignettes of their larger story came when Dick Hoyt had a heart attack after years of racing with his son.  The doctor’s told him he wouldn’t have survived had he not been in such tremendous physical condition.  Here the Dad had been thinking he was helping his son all these years, and it turns out the son saved his dad’s life.

There is lots more of the inspiring story, and the music video is worth watching again and again.  I hope you’ll take the time to visit Team Hoyt.