Catching my breath only to lose it

Can you remember the last time you had your breath taken away?  Perhaps you were peering out over the Grand Canyon and experiencing the grandeur and majesty of it.  Since it is close to Christmas, perhaps you saw a spectacular light display that just amazed you.  Maybe your church service was so moving that it simply took your breath away.  All of these moments move us in some way that we can't explain.  It moves us beyond words and we simply appreciate the moment.  One of these moments that come to mind was while I was on the 7th floor of the Semien Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Looking out over the sunrise and being so caught up in the moment, it was simply breathtaking.

But think about that moment a little more and think about how you were so overwhelming happy and satisfied that you forgot to breathe.  Or maybe it isn't so much that you forgot to breathe, but rather you held your breath hoping to stay in that moment forever.  If you could simply hold your breath, it seemed, the entire world would standstill, time would stop, and this moment would never leave.  These kind of moments are the things that you live for.  Just being so lost in the beauty of the moment that you can't see anything else.  The movie Hitch says something to the effect that life is not measured in the breaths that you take, but rather the moments that take your breath away.  There is a lot of truth in that statement.  I believe firmly that when I look back on my life, these are the moments that I will remember.  The moments where my breath was taken away and I was simply content to stay in that moment.

This leads me to my next question though:  When was the last time that God took your breath away?  Were you moved beyond words by His character or love?  In your quiet time, sitting by yourself, praying to God, have you seen God's awesome majesty and been so wrapped up in it that you feel this peace just flow through you?  These moments where God reveals part of Himself to you should be cherished.  It gives the greatest opportunity for growth and maturity, but moreover it gives us the chance to experience God's presence in our lives.  It is that tangible feeling in our hearts that allows us to see God and simply bow in adoration of Him.

I bring this up, because God has become to me completely breathtaking.  Through His beauty, love and grace, He has completely captivated me.  The more I learn who He is and the closer I draw to Him, the more I sit in awe and wonder of God.  During this first semester of Seminary, I was absolutely blown away by the heart of God.  It was so much to take in that I just wanted to sit in that moment and never leave it.  It is only now that I'm beginning to catch my breath.  Yet even while I breathe in and process the semester, I catch glimpses of God that leave me at a loss for words.   I"m mesmerized by His love and moved into quiet contemplation and active devotion.  Thomas Aquinas was once asked to continue writing his Summa Theologica, to which he replied he could not for he had caught a glimpse of God and considered all his previous work to be as straw.  So taken by God, he could no longer find the words to express it.  I wish all of God's people could experience God like this.  Imagine what this world would be like if each person were so captivated by God, so entranced by who He is and the work that He is doing that the only reasonable thing they could think to do was to offer themselves fully to God.  May each of us gaze upon the breathtaking God and be moved to deeper love for Him and His people.  May we live in the moments that God takes our breath away.