… There’s Something More …

(circa 1971)

It began as a whisper – nearly imperceptible, but nevertheless, persistent. As time progressed, its volume and intensity increased until it became overwhelmingly, undeniably God speaking to us: “There’s something more”.

Beside our jobs, church had become our life. Everything revolved around it. We were a young, energetic, childless couple, free to get involved with everything at church: youth work, committees, Board of Deacons (Bill), choir (me – you wouldn’t want Bill in a choir), young married class leaders… We were so busy and loved doing it all.

Church was traditional, predictable, sedate, and comfortable. This is where we were raised. This was our foundation. This is where we learned how to “do” church.

Then one day God whispered: “But … there’s something more” – and everything changed.

WHY, GOD?!?!

There were many wonderful couples in our young married class and we became very close with most of them. John and Jorja was a couple that we were particularly close to. They had such a heart for the Lord and wanted to become missionaries. They had one little girl and Jorja was 8 months pregnant with their second child. John worked the “graveyard” shift at Lockheed, just like Bill did. One morning he came home from work and got ready to go to bed. He kissed Jorja “good night” and fell asleep. He never woke up. The autopsy recorded his death as encephalitis.

WHY??? God, WHY? Our heart-wrenching cries only fostered more “whys”. John was only 23 years old. He was a loving husband and father and loved Jesus with all his heart. Yes, there was no doubt that he was doing fine in heaven and for that, we rejoiced, but WHY?

Is that all to the Christian life – to die and go to heaven someday? Why not just end it all and go to heaven right now?

And God whispered a little louder: “There’s something more”.

A DAY THE EARTH SHOOK

Early in the morning on February 9, 1971, I awoke to a frightening sensation: the entire house was shaking and rattling. I threw off the blankets and ran to the bedroom doorway. The first thing I saw was our big hanging living room lamp swinging back and forth and I cried out, “Jesus, are you coming back right now?” It was kind of exciting – but terrifying too. Bill wasn’t home from work yet and I was alone, except for our two very frightened dogs.

I grabbed both dogs and the three of us huddled under our dining room table as I watched our cupboard doors fly open and some glasses crash to the floor. Then the electricity went off and we were left, shaking, in the dark.

Bill had been at work, operating gigantic, 60 foot machines that make airplane parts. When the earthquake hit, those behemoths were actually twisting in time to the earth’s movements while the 25 foot steel hanger doors swung as if they were paper blowing in the wind. Massive lights crashed to the floor from the 60 foot high ceiling.

As dawn began to break, the lights came back on and, after a wild ride home, Bill ran through our door, frantically praying that I was all right. We raced into each other’s arms, clinging to each other, grateful that we had survived. We surveyed the damage and, other than a few broken glasses, everything in our house was okay.

So, after the earth was relatively calm again, our day progressed as normally as possible. Bill went to bed and I went to work (albeit, a little late). However, for the next few days Southern California had to endure the inevitable white-knuckle-producing aftershocks. Those aftershocks delivered quite a ride, especially at my workplace, in the round Capitol Records Tower building, on the 7^th floor. Every time an aftershock hit, the building would sway back and forth. Thankfully, the building was built to handle earthquakes so the only damage it endured were a few cracks in the walls.

We watched Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show that night, which was filmed at the NBC studios just a couple of miles from our house. The normally sophisticated, refined, and undaunted actor’s face turned a sickly white every time he dove under his desk whenever an after-shock hit during the show. His facade was momentarily stripped away as he faced his own mortality. That’s what earthquakes do. They bring you to your knees and make you face the power of God and your own mortality in its rawest form. It did that to me – and made me fall a little deeper in love with Jesus.

And God whispered a little louder: “There’s something more.”

AN ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

One evening a few weeks later I took Bill to the church for his monthly deacons’ meeting. After I had done a few errands, I came back to pick him up. I was a little early so I walked into the church lobby and peered into the sanctuary. Sunday mornings the sanctuary was always full of people but on this night, it was dark and empty. I ventured into the cavernous sanctuary and stood, facing the cross on the far wall; the only light streaming through the back door was from the lobby.

As I faced that cross, suddenly the presence of God enveloped me in the hollow darkness and I fell to my knees. I cried out, “Lord, what do you want?”

And again, God whispered even louder: “There’s something more.”

OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s was a tumultuous time in the US with people protesting the Vietnam War, the hippie movement, psychedelic drugs, free love. But God was at work too. In the midst of all the madness no longer could people stuff God into their neat, little religious boxes. He is so much bigger than that. And so more contemporary churches sprang up like wildflowers in a meadow and introduced a Jesus that was free from the bonds of religion.

We discovered one such church: a small Calvary Chapel gathering in Glendale. As we sang some of the new, contemporary worship songs, true worship bubbled to the surface from our hearts and we fell even deeper in love with Jesus.

During the summer of 1971 we even invited a couple of the Calvary Chapel “Maranatha” worship teams to our church in Burbank to lead worship in our youth outreach program (“J.C. & Sons”). We would sit outside on hay bales, under the stars on warm California nights, and sing our hearts out to Jesus. However, when word of our unconventional “misbehavior” reached the ears of the church leadership, we got into trouble. (I’m sure they regretted ever placing us in leadership positions.) And so we canceled the Calvary Chapel worship teams at J.C. & Sons and got back into line with the church leadership – but never forgot the sweet taste of worship we had experienced.

And, yes, God whispered again: “There’s something more.”

… and that summer our lives were changed forever …