K.I.S.S.

One day in 1996, going about my daily routine yet interrupting my thoughts, was a gentle whisper of the word, “KISS.” I just kept hearing the word, “KISS”, resonating over and over in my heart. I would see it as a banner in my mind.  Although it was softly spoken, it was loud enough to get my attention although not audible.  I have never heard the audible voice of God while awake, just in "night visions" as the Bible calls them.  We call them dreams.

I was on a new journey and the uncertainty of each new step was a test of my faith and willingness to take risks.  This was a road I started to walk when I was in High School, but one in which I allowed myself to get distracted and ultimately derailed while in college.  In fact, although I loved God and thoroughly enjoyed learning His Word at youth bible studies and camps, it only took two weeks at a liberal, private college to become totally absorbed in the party scene and forget the building blocks of the new composition which was my life.  In college, I was exposed to things never to that degree before and it was thrilling!  I didn’t see it as destructive on the surface, but truly, I must admit, deep down in that very quiet place of my spirit, I KNEW it was wrong.  But I just didn’t care because it FELT good, and I seemed to be a part of something typical and certainly acceptable.  Having come from a dysfunctional family which resulted in social awkwardness and extreme low self esteem, this explosive new attention was a stroke to my damaged self concept. I was constantly asked out on dates and was nicknamed, “Date Queen” by some of my sorority sisters.  Of course, alcohol was always involved with the express purpose of lowering inhibitions, and I found myself doing something I said I would NEVER do…partake of alcohol and get drunk.  I grew up with the damage indulgence of alcohol caused and never wanted to give it an inroad into my own life.  However, once in college, I abandoned my rescue and didn’t pursue God and His Word again until much later and after much destruction resultant from bad decisions I made.

Having had enough of what I caused being my own “lord” and having made the excellent choice to hand over the reins to my life, I was now at a new point in my life, a fresh start, forgiven and picking up where I left off.  This gave me a child-like faith, trusting in the One who knows me more intimately than the best lover, I was now thrilled with the new experiences I was having in Him.  These beautiful experiences in Him did not offend my mind and body but instead succeeded in making me stronger and victorious, not weaker and defeated as my independent choices had done. I now knew enough even from this baby stage of my new journey that I needed to take heed to the constant quickening that kept whispering, “KISS”.  It was important enough to Him to interrupt my thought life with a continual tap on my mind, “KISS.”  It was time to seek wisdom from the One who is WISDOM.  What was my Lord trying to say to me?  What does KISS mean?

I began asking Him to show me.  Teach me Your Ways Lord.  Make me sensitive to Your sweet Spirit.  What do You want me to understand in this experience of hearing You say, “KISS?” 

I knew enough of the Word and had enough common sense to know that if we want something, we need to ask.  I wanted to know what He was really saying to me so I asked.  I then thoroughly expected to hear the answer as easily as I was hearing what started this quest…yet nothing happened.  I asked again, waited, nothing.  I kept asking.  In my puzzlement, I reflected back and thought I had heard someone once say that the “Ask and you will receive” scripture meant to keep asking until you get the answer; so I kept asking…and asking…hearing nothing!  Now I found myself getting a bit annoyed and wondered why the Lord would tease me this way by His repeated whisperings. I passed the stage of annoyance and quickly excelled into full blown frustration, yet I continued to hear, “KISS.”  The tone of the “KISS” I was hearing was still sweet to my soul and I knew I needed to calm my emotions of the anxiety of feeling I was going to “miss” God.  After all, I reasoned that God had good rationale for this action, which I knew was motivated by love.  I gave myself an attitude adjustment through worship of the One who is always worthy of it regardless of what we are going through at the moment.  I asked again, and didn’t hear anything deep in my gut, the heart of where we hear God’s voice, nor did I have any impression of any kind on my heart.  I decided I’d just take matters into my own hands and use what I’ve got at my disposal.  Spread out on the floor before me was my Webster’s Dictionary, thesaurus, Bibles with cross references, concordances to get exact meanings of words in Hebrew and Greek and other various tools.  I got out a notebook I decided to use to begin chronicling my experiences on this new journey and wrote the word “KISS” at the top of the first page.  This would be my project and I was going to treat it as I would have any assignment of utmost importance.  

The research began and prevailed for three solid days as I poured through books, starting out at one point and bunny trailing off to another point.  I found that frustration beginning to grow again, but I kept pressing through.  I loved God and by golly…I was going to grit my teeth, bear down and get this!   Not one thing on the page after page of research and ideas seemed to hit “home” in my spirit.  Nothing seemed to be turning on the “light bulb” of revelation where you reach that point that you just KNOW, “Yes!  That’s it!” 

I sat back having exhausted my resources and myself, and just got quiet.  I forced my mind to obey and be still.  I turned off the incessant thoughts, refused to be angry or resentful over my valiant attempt to understand yet to no avail, and just surrendered to peace.  All of a sudden, it was as if I could hear God’s laughter, not like He was laughing at me in a condescending way as there is no evil in Him, but it was if He was laughing in the way we laugh when we delight in the adorable things our children do which are precious to our hearts.  I immediately heard, “Keep It Simple, Sweetheart!”

WOW! LIGHTBULB!  Looking down at my spread of papers and books and writing utensils; I realized that was the LAST thing I had done…I took something simple, and turned it into something complicated.  This was so typical of my behavior; dive right in without much forethought and give it my all!  My Father just stepped back and let me pour myself into my way of obtaining what I wanted.  

I smiled.  Then I laughed.  I really am such a silly child sometimes, but Daddy God adores me! I realized from that moment on, that we are not to give it “our all” but seek God first, seeing how He wants us to accomplish what He gives us to do.  Sometimes we are to pour all of ourselves into something, but His GRACE IS SUFFICIENT to accomplish the task and we won’t be wearied in carrying a burden too heavy to bear.  Sometimes, He truly does have a much easier way of doing things and we just need to receive our job description from Him.  We need to do this for each task, as what worked for the last one may cause total defeat in the next one.  In this, we are not in the sin of presumption and will continue to seek our Lord instead of being reliant completely on our own resources for which we could then take full credit.  In all of this, God’s ways may be difficult at times yet truly are SIMPLE.  We have an instruction manual in the Bible, and we have an interpreter and helper in the Holy Spirit who brings revelation when we ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to be poured out on us, (Eph. 1:17,18; 3:16-19; Col. 1:9-12).  I prayed those very powerful prayers every night before going to bed for several years.  My husband and I still do oftentimes as part of our bedtime routine.

I relate to Peter in the Bible, the fisherman who had been fishing all night and yet caught nothing.  He was weary from his effort.  I’m sure the LAST thing Peter wanted to hear was to go fish some more and from a Carpenter at that!  The Carpenter was instructing him, a professional fisherman, in the ways he could successfully catch fish.  Nevertheless, something in Peter’s heart knew truth when he heard it and he just had to surrender.  In his obedience and humbling of himself, he succeeded in catching such a haul he couldn’t bring it all in by himself!

 KISS from God:  Keep it Simple Sweetheart!

Be still and know that I am God, Psalm 46:10.