I want to see

I was recently reading the passage of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) again and I was encouraged to put myself in the shoes of Bartimaeus.  I was moved by this experience and felt that I should share it.  My hope is that you find it useful in drawing near to God.

I've heard his name before and his reputation as a healer and teacher, yet I have never met him.  Day after day, I sit by the gate hoping that he'll pass by.  Then one day, I hear his name whispered.  A great crowd is passing by, I begin to shout, "Son of David, have mercy on me."  Some laugh, others tell me to be quiet.  I don't care.  I shout all the louder.  I hear his voice for the first time.  He is calling to me.  My heart leaps.  I've dreamt about this for months.  Could it be that my time has finally come?  I can feel my heart beating in my chest.  I spring to my feet and start sprinting toward the sound of his voice.  I can't see where I'm going and I run into someone and fall to the ground.  The laughter around me is drowned out by the sound of my own heartbeat.  I hear his voice calling me to him again.  I continue to run towards him.  I know that there are rocks in my path and I stumble over a couple of them.  As I begin to fall, I feel two strong arms catching me.  It is him!  He is holding me.  I feel his embrace, its full of strength and grace.  He calmly lifts me to my feet and holding me close he whispers, "What do you want me to do for you?"  My mind races.  What do I want him to do for me?  I've dreamt about this moment for so long and yet now that I'm here there are so many things that I desire.  Being able to leave the beggar's life, to be free of shame and guilt, to have the ability to avoid rocks in my path, to no longer have the condemnation of others, or being entirely dependent on others, or to have friends and a family of my own.  Yet now in this moment, all I can think about is the majesty before me.  Even in my blindness, I behold a splendor beyond comprehension.  Oh to see that splendor undimmed by my lack of sight.  Oh to view it, even if just for a moment.  Certainly this is what my heart aches for.  This is what I have longed for for so long.  "Lord," I respond, "I want to see."

What's your story?

The other day I was talking with my mentor and we got on the topic of preaching.  He told me a story about this time that he preached and had given this incredible talk on theological truths and the deep need for Jesus in our lives and then ended with a story from his personal life that helped to illuminate those truths.  Following his talk, the people came to him and commented on the story far more than the truths that he had talked about.  The lesson I was to learn here was that stories are always easier to remember and that if they help your talk, they should be included.

Stories really are fascinating.  We are entranced by them and often get caught up in the plot, eventually becoming part of it.  Many who know me, know that I have an extensive DVD collection.  I also have the ability to see a small scene of a movie and know exactly what movie it is, what its about, and how this particular scene will add to the movie.  The reason why is because each part of a good story adds to the story as a whole.  If you take out the beginning, the story doesn't make sense.  If you take out the middle, you're left confused and wondering how you got to the end.  If you take the end away,  well... you have the makings of a great series... to the chagrin of those in the audience who need some form of closure.

It's interesting though, because as great as my memory is in remembering scenes from movies, I often have the hardest time remembering names of people that I've met.  Sure I can make the argument that I'm simply bad with names, but is that really the reason that I don't remember their names?  I don't think it is.  You see each person lives a story, whatever that may be.  Just as a good movie requires each piece to be integrated to the overall idea of the story so too does each detail of your life.  Whenever you meet someone, your interaction with that person becomes integrated into part of your story, but the person does not necessarily become a part of it.  You have to choose to allow them to be part of your story.  A case in point.  I've been going to the same church for years.  There are many people that I've seen plenty of times, to the point that I say hi in the halls and occasionally ask them how they're doing.  The problem is that I can't remember their name.  I know I've been told it before, and that I've heard it several times, but I've never deemed it important enough to remember, because I haven't deemed them worthy to be part of my story.  Why is that?

I think its because we are generally afraid to be vulnerable with others.  We know that if we allow someone to be part of our lives and therefore part of our story, then they have the ability to change our story for good or ill.  By allowing someone to be part of my story, I give them the ability to hurt me deeply.  I give them the power to speak into my life and make changes, changes that I may not enjoy.  By allowing someone to enter into my story, I give up part of my control.  Yet this is exactly what we are called to.  We are called to bring people into our lives.  Hear me out here, I'm not talking about becoming an extrovert.  In fact, extroverts are just as guilty of this as introverts.  We need to break through the superficiality that has become commonplace in our relationships.  If we are able to invite others into our story then we are given the privilege of speaking into theirs.  We need to follow the example of Jesus who stepped down into our story and offered us a new one.  We are given this same opportunity when we enter the story of others and have the chance to have their story shape our own.  May we have the boldness to ask, "What's your story?"

Everything in Common

The Sun had just begun to set over Jatibonico.  The sky ablaze with colors of orange and red.  The beautiful sunset matched well with the breeze running through the town.  Each of us were headed for different house churches.  As we walked through the dusty streets I began relaying to the worship leader that I loved the song "Te Alabare" which we had sung at church the previous Sunday.  It was a song that I had heard in the States a number of times and knew the words to in Spanish.  He then decided to pull out his guitar and began playing the chords to the song.  We began singing as we walked through the town worshiping God.  It was such a beautiful time.  An unashamed and unhindered love that just overflowed into worshiping of God in song.  How amazing it was to just sing and give praises to God without any sort of thoughts for self.  We continued walking and he taught me another song in Spanish and I just continued to sing with him.

Later that night two other people were leading worship and they began singing a song.  The tune was familiar but I was still struggling to figure out what it was until they began singing, "Here I am to Worship."  I smiled and joined in as those of us who knew English began to sing.  As we continued singing there were several other songs that I knew in English and so we began singing in both Spanish and English for the rest of the time.  It was here that I just started thinking about what it would be like to worship around the throne.  With every nation and tongue singing praises to God.  What an amazing image.  To see the throne of God with each person worshiping God with all they have in their own unique way.  While we were singing words that were unfamiliar to each other, we were singing in the same spirit.  We were all singing for the glory of God and the languages of our hearts were saying the same things despite our inability to communicate with each other.

Throughout the week, I was always struggling to keep up.  I could understand bits and pieces of the conversations and could occasionally offer a sentence or two in Spanish.  The thing is though, that none of that mattered.  Each person, both Cuban and American, were worshiping God using the gifts that they had been given.  Not just in song, but in acts as well.  It was a great portrait of what God has envisioned for his church.  Yes there was a language barrier, but there was something more that connected us.  We were bound by one purpose and one goal.  To always give glory to God.  It was much like the passage in Acts 2 where the early church ate together and shared everything they had and had everything in common.  I now understand what they meant by that.  When the church is focused solely on glorifying God, then they have everything in common, no matter their differences.  May we begin to glorify God with every fiber of our being.  May we overcome our differences by focusing on that which binds us together, our faith in God.  May we learn what it means to have everything in common

Undignified

One of my favorite passages in scripture comes from 2 Samuel 6:22 where David says that he will become even more undignified than this.  He is saying this in response to his wife's criticism of how David worshiped before the Lord.  David's heart though is so captured by God that he doesn't care what those around him think about him nor even those in his own family.  He cares only about how he can worship God with every part of himself.  His dance before the Lord may have been an embarrassment to his wife, but the slave girls and servants enjoyed it.  These are the thoughts that I had in my recent mission trip to Cuba.

I walk out on the stage to the gleeful sounds of 500 kids.  I grin widely and begin my performance.  As soon as I begin trying to juggle, the guavas hit the ground.  I look over at Kyle and notice that his guavas are still in the air.  I know that this wasn't part of the plan, but my heart remains focused on my purpose here, so I sell it as a planned mistake.  I pick them up and try again.  This time they take a couple of seconds before falling to the ground.  Again, I sell it to the crowd.  All 500 kids remain in laughter and excitement.  I gesture prominently as I take a gulp of water and spit it at Kyle.  The giddiness apparent in the kids boils over to all out laughter.  I pretend it wasn't me and go back to juggling which I'm finally able to do at this point.  Kyle quietly picks up a bucket labeled "Agua" and begins chasing me with it, dumping the contents of confetti onto me and the kids that I'm hiding behind.  I can hear the giggles and laughter coming from kids all around.  I run off the stage and out into the street, our skit is over.

As I walk back to my room to cleanup the makeup and the costume, I take time to really take in what has happened today.  I'm in a place where the buildings all around are falling apart with the slow decay of time.  Where, with every heavy rainfall, the streets flood and smell like feces.  I take in the sights and see the emaciated animals that are the only source of nourishment to these starving people.  What Kyle and I offered these kids was a moment to step away from all of that and just enjoy a few brief moments of joy and peace.  How amazing it is to worship God by being a clown.  Sure, I may have acted like a fool, but just as David did in 2 Samuel 6, I did it before the Lord.  To paraphrase David, "I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.  But by these children, I will be held in high honor."

Love Well

Over the last number of months I've been taking a leadership class at church.  It has been a thought provoking class, that has really been instrumental in forming me for my work in ministry.  Recently the question came up, when is it ok to simply back off from a person?  We've all been there.  Someone you interact with is constantly disruptive or constantly trying to subvert you.  Perhaps they're simply not getting it and won't listen to your advice.  When is it ok to stop casting pearls to swine?  Is this not what Jesus said in Matthew 7:6?  When is enough enough?

This is such a hard question to answer.  If you've been in this situation, you know how difficult it is.  Someone is constantly trying to subvert you, constantly seeking to work against you, and hindering you from your work.  The only thing you can think to do is either fight back or avoid them entirely.  Maybe it's that person that you've been trying to invest in and nothing is happening.  You continue to get beaten back and you just don't know how to get through to them.  You've tried everything you can think of and nothing is working.  They're still in the same place that they were and you can't think of anything else to do.  There's a book by Henry Cloud that talks about this situation and he puts people into three different categories, wise, foolish and evil.  The wise person is the one who listens to you, takes the good advice and works to enact it.  The foolish person is the person who constantly disregards instruction, who just doesn't "get it" and no matter how much you invest in them, nothing seems to work.  The evil person is the one who is out to get you.  Who will actively try to go behind your back and impede your vision.  Cloud's plan of action here is to invest more time into the wise, stop wasting time with the foolish and avoid the evil person entirely.

This serves as a great reminder for us.  Not because it is good advice, but because many of us have actually done this.  You see the idea of writing someone off as foolish or evil and thus not worth your time or investment is as far from the teachings of Jesus as possible.  Certainly you don't cast pearls to swine, but you do throw food to them so that they grow and mature.  This statement comes in the same passage that says, "Do not judge, lest you be judged." and goes on to say that "with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Cost of Discipleship makes a great point on this passage and says that those who live without Jesus are totally depraved, incapable of real good.  They do not need our condemnation.  They need our love and to be shown hope in God's restoration.  If we condemn them by the world's standards then we suggest that all they have to do is change that behavior and they'll be considered good.  This misses the point entirely in that the restoring work of Jesus in your life is the only way to be considered righteous.  When Jesus says, "don't give to dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs."  He is not saying that you can just leave them alone and never talk to them.  He is saying that you must meet them where they are.  Give to them what they need first.  Him.

I can't tell you how many times I've written someone off and simply ignored them because I found it easier than to put up with them.  I had figured that my own vision was more important than dealing with them.  The problem is that when I did that, I had lost my purpose that God had given me.  While Jesus was on Earth, he healed those who were sick, he tried desperately to point out to the Pharisees their sin, and he died on a cross for those who mocked and beat him.  Jesus spent his life restoring creation, in particular the brokenness found in people.  You see your purpose in life is to join in Christ's restoring work in this world.  Everyone is broken.  You, me, we're all broken people.  We must realize just how important this is.  How deeply it impacts our lives.  In Romans it says that all of creation groans as we wait for the future redemption.  Those you write off as fools and enemies are broken people who are in need of restoration.

C.S. Lewis once pointed out that you have never met a mere man.  Things in this world are mortal, kingdoms, companies, etc. but those we work with, laugh with, or snub are immortal.  As he puts it "Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."  That is a haunting statement for anyone who has ever disregarded someone.  You have the opportunity to bring restoration into the soul of anyone you meet.  Even if its just a smile or putting up with their poor attitude.  You have an impact on them.  The way you interact and deal with someone that is difficult can make the difference between them being an immortal horror or an everlasting splendor.  Each person has potential.  Sometimes that potential is deep beneath their brokenness and you have to draw it out.  In most cases, it is hard and you won't feel like doing it.  As a Christian though, we are to follow Christ's example.

One of the most famous lines that Jesus ever spoke was "Love your enemies as yourself."  Unfortunately, I think we only pay lip service to it.  We acknowledge that is what we are called to, but too often we simply comment that it is hard and therefore we'll get it next time.  I know that that is how it has most often played out in my life.  If things get hard or difficult, I simply ignore the person or just work around them to accomplish the task at hand.  I don't take the time to truly love my enemies.  Now certainly, if Christ didn't love his enemies then how could he possibly call us to do the same.  So did he?  The answer is simple, of course he did and who were his enemies?  We were.  The entire human race is plagued with sin.  Because of our sin we are in active rebellion to God.  We put him on the cross and tortured him.  Yet Christ endured it for our sake and demonstrated perfectly how to love one's enemies.  To do everything and then some.

Now hear me out, I'm not suggesting that you should be a doormat and simply let them walk all over you.  You're not drawing out the potential within them and you're not restoring brokenness by doing that.  As we said earlier you need to give to the dogs and pigs what they need.  Being easy to trample over is not what they require.  You may need to show them tough love, but that love never comes with neglect and is always done in a way that seeks to draw out their potential and restore the brokenness in their life.  Can you imagine if Paul had never received the aid of Ananias after his conversion?  Paul was actively against the church and exterminating them one house at a time.  If ever there was an enemy to be avoided by anyone in the church it was Paul.  Yet Ananias was called by God to show love and compassion on Paul.  If Ananias had refused, Paul may have continued to not eat and drink and we would have never had many of the epistles found in the New Testament.  What if that person that you consider to be foolish or worse is hiding behind deep brokenness that once restored will unlock in them the potential to change the shape of the world?

In The Lord of The Rings, Frodo notices the creature Gollum in the Mine of Moria.  He says, "It was a pity that Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."

Gandalf replies, "Pity?  It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand.  Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.  In my heart I feel that Gollum has some part left to play in this story for good or evil."

I think this statement speaks to this idea very well.  Will we neglect and write off people who deserve restoration?  Or will we do the exact opposite of what our culture says to do with troublesome people?  Will we love them and draw out their potential?  Will we look past their brokenness and see in them the once beautiful image that they were made to reflect?  Will we endure their persecution and hate and overcome it with compassion and love?  Will we love well?

The Rebel King

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog that talked about Bartimaeus and his famous encounter with Jesus.  He was the blind man who Jesus met along the road and Jesus called him over and asked him one of the most poignant questions of all time, "What do you want me to do for you?"  I was thinking about that passage while I was in one of my classes the other day when it occurred to me what those around him must have actually thought concerning him.  They watched him as he performed miracles.  They saw his generosity to beggars and how he radically changed the lives of those he came into contact with.  They witnessed the moments in which he silenced the Pharisees and exposed their false teachings.  They were amazed at his teachings and the authority that he seemed to have as he drove out demons.  I can imagine that rumors would have started to spread throughout the crowds.  Whispers could have been heard all around asking the same question, "Is this the Messiah?  Is this the King we have waited for?"

You see people had an idea of what the Messiah would be like.  They felt that he would be a new king, one that would restore the Jewish nation and establish an actual kingdom.  Their idea of king would have been based off of the kings of Israel and how they led.  The idea that the Messiah would serve wouldn't even enter their mind.  For Jesus to ask a blind beggar the question, "What do you want me to do for you?" would have been hard to understand by his followers.  To go one step further and actually do what the beggar asked would have been Earth-shattering to them.  It would have destroyed all of their preconceived ideas concerning the Messiah and in most cases, they probably would have simply assumed that Jesus couldn't possibly be the coming king.

As I thought about this, I realized that my concept of a king did not match up at all to Jesus.  If I'm honest, I don't think I really grasped the idea that Jesus was king, only that He is my friend and Savior.  King seemed like such a distant concept, but it was simply because Jesus was not a normal King.  He is a Rebel King.  He rebels against the social ideas about kingship and declares a totally different idea.  He is not constrained by our notions of king, but instead conforms our ideas to his.  We are in the midst of Holy Week.  It begins with Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry.  Looking at it in scripture, you can just sense the excitement.  Here is the new King riding into Jerusalem to ascend the throne.  Yet Jesus's throne is not the same as his followers thought it would be.  Rather he scandalously chooses the cross.  He trades in his throne for the cross and asserts his kingdom by making the ultimate sacrifice.  He is the Rebel King and offers us the opportunity to share in his kingdom, by picking up our cross and following him.  May we follow the King wherever he calls.  To him alone who gave up everything may we swear our allegiance.  May we take up our cross and follow the Rebel King.

Eternal Perspective

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about making better choices and how to live before God.  As I was pondering this idea, I started thinking about making choices that matter.  We often talk about making good choices and how to have a good life but what does that really look like?  We say in Christian circles that it isn't about the money or the car and all of that, but do we really mean it?  It becomes a different situation I think when someone offers you money to compromise your purpose in life.  Recently I watched the movie Courageous.  It's a really good movie and one of my favorite parts is the story of Javier.  During the movie we see Javier's difficulty in finding a job and his struggle with providing for his family.  Eventually he finds a job that has some consistency to it.  He's called into the office one day and he's offered a promotion with the condition that he do something for the manager that would compromise his integrity.  Can you imagine being in that situation?  Here you are struggling to put food on the table with the chance to do exactly that and do it well, but it would come at the cost of sacrificing your integrity.  You see it is easy to make the statement that money doesn't have a sway over you when you're not in a situation like this.

Money isn't the only thing that vies for our attention however.  In America, one of the most cherished things that we strive for is happiness.  Our interactions with others seem to always demonstrate that fact.  We put up walls and boundaries to ensure that we don't get hurt by someone else.  We protect that happiness with everything that we have and look at vulnerability as a weakness.  Is this really how God intended us to be?  To protect our happiness at the expense of those around us?  How is that we can justify this way of living?  We need a shift in perspective.  We're too focused on our present situation and how it can be improved, we keep forgetting that this is temporary, we don't have an eternal perspective.

What does it really mean to have an eternal perspective though?  My dad tosses that term around a lot.  I find that it means that the actions and choices we make here on Earth need to be made in a way that shows what we're really living for.  We are here to give glory to God and to tell others what He has done for us.  We are not here to make lots of money and have a nice house and a nice car; those things may happen, but they aren't our sole purpose in life.  You see those things aren't bad by themselves, but when they become the purpose for which we live, then we have missed out entirely on our real purpose.  To live with an eternal perspective is to seek to glorify God in all of your actions.  It is to live knowing that real rewards and treasures are only attainable by doing the will of God.  I've only begun to process this and to understand what it would look like to live like this, but I have realized that the things in this world that really matter  tend to deal with people.  Showing love to others and serving them is at the very center of the heart of God.  We need to move our perspective from one that focuses on our current situation to one that looks to eternity and the things that are on God's heart.  We need to stop worrying about how helping someone may harm us.  We need to move away from this safe and comfortable lifestyle and move into one that is as radical as Jesus.  We need to move away from living for this world and into a living with an eternal perspective.

Swing on the Swing

As I type this I'm sitting in the small room of my townhouse at the Seminary.  I have my window opened and the gentle breeze is blowing in the cool night air.  The crisp air brings with it the smells of early spring.  It's been a while since I've been able to walk around in sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt.  It feels good to enjoy this moment and just relax.  Despite the mountain of books beside me, I'm content to simply sit here and enjoy the night air.  There is something peaceful about it, something sacred.

This weekend, I spent much of my time reading and writing a lengthy discussion on Ephesians.  I had several commentaries spread out on the table along with several different translations of the letter of Ephesians.  I was investigating every verse and how it related to the book as a whole.  I would read one commentary's viewpoint and corroborate it with another.  I would look up the cultural context behind the passage and figure out the purpose behind Paul's statements.  I had never looked at Ephesians this in depth before and I relished in it.  Being able to pick up on the subtleties that had previously gone unnoticed was energizing.  Understanding Paul's use of the original Greek and what he meant by his choice in words was all incredibly fascinating.  Though as I sit here and just enjoy the simplicity of the evening and notice the peace in this moment, I'm content in a very different way.  You see it was great to be able to investigate Ephesians to the extent that I did, but it is equally as great to simply enjoy this moment as the breeze flows through my window.  You see sometimes we do need those moments of intense investigation, where we go through the scriptures and just mine it for all that it has to offer.  But then there are those other times where we need to simply BE, before scripture.  Sometimes we need to slow down and just enjoy the beautiful words it has to offer.

Have you ever gone out to the store, bought a DVD, put it in the DVD player, and watched it for the very first time with the commentaries on?  To be honest, I've never watched a movie with the commentaries on with any of my movies (Except Monty Python and the Holy Grail and that's just because the commentary is actually selected scenes from Henry VIII.  Even then, I got bored after about 15 minutes).  I can't imagine watching a movie, getting involved in the story, and all the while listening to some running commentary about how they made the movie.  It would drive me crazy.  Sure I'd learn tons about how they made the movie and how many takes it took to get a well choreographed fight scene perfect, but I would miss out on the entire movie.  I would have deprived the movie of its ability to move me whether to laughter, or to tears, or to inspiration.  By having the commentary, I would have lost focus on the beauty of the movie and the purpose behind it.

When I was studying math in graduate school, I was taking an applied math course.  One day my professor told us to come up with a list of things we would need to take into consideration if we wanted to create an equation that modeled the movement of a swing.  We came up with all of these ideas and talked about what an equation like that would look like.  Then someone suggested that we would need to account for the force exerted by the person who was actually swinging on the swing.  Most nodded in agreement, but one of the engineers responded that that was impossible, that the only way a person could swing on a swing was by being pushed by someone else.  Now this engineer had a wealth of knowledge concerning mathematics and engineering.  He had proven his abilities in the class time and again.  Yet here he had missed one critical part.  Having never swung on a swing, he could not fathom the idea of the person on the swing having the ability to make it go.  I wonder if we do this to scripture sometimes.  I wonder if we stare at it so long, analyzing it from every angle, figuring out the meaning behind every phrase, and yet in the end we miss that one thing.  The simple beauty that lies within the scripture.  Sure there are great things to be said for using a commentary with scripture.  There are many times where it clears up confusion or adds additional insight.  I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Ephesians better through the use of the commentaries.  But I feel that there is also a danger when we get so wrapped up in the commentaries that we forget to enjoy the scripture as it was meant to be enjoyed.  We miss out on the love story between God and His people.  We miss out on the invitation that He gives us to respond in love.  We miss out on the poetic nature of the Holy Spirit as He whispers gently to us concerning His love.  Somehow in our confusion we try and describe the swing instead of swinging on it.  May we always remember to swing on the swing.

Desiring Best Things

One of my favorite passages in scripture is Jesus' encounter with Bartimaeus, the blind man.  This is found in Mark 10: 46-52 and can also be found in Luke and Matthew.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus' question is quite possibly one of the most profound questions encountered in scripture, "What do you want me to do for you?"  I mean that is a deep question.  Most days I have a difficult time determining what I want for dinner, let alone what I want God, the creator of all things, to do for me.  Bartimaeus, however, knows exactly what he wants.  He has desired it all of his life.  His lack of sight has been with him every day of his life.  Every time someone mentioned how beautiful the sunrise was or how beautiful the flowers were, he was only reminded of his inability to appreciate those moments.  Can you imagine going through life without the ability to see and constantly being reminded of that by those who are around you?  Now what if Bartimaeus had asked for something else?  What if instead he had asked Jesus for bread or riches?  What if he had chosen some other desire of his heart?

I'm currently taking a leadership course at my church and it is all about being intentional, strategic, self-aware, and surrendered to God's will.  It is certainly challenging at times and really makes you think about who you are, what you're doing, and what your motives are behind it.  My dad was teaching one of the classes when he started talking about desires.  He said that your desire for the best thing needed to be greater than your desire for something else.  He used the example of losing weight.  He said that if he really wanted to lose weight then his desire to do so must outweigh his desire for that extra Five Guys burger.  That got me thinking.  What desires do I have that are distractions and am I really desiring the best things?  What is my response to Jesus when he asks me what do I want?  Sure there are moments where I do desire the best things, but unfortunately I still seem to demonstrate a desire for lesser things quite frequently.

I came to the conclusion that the reason why I desire the lesser things is because on the surface they seem more appealing.  For instance, when I get home from a week at school I have a number of options.  I can go for a mountain bike ride, I can watch some TV, I can get some work done on my papers, or a variety of other options.  Most days, the appeal to sit on the couch and watch TV is rather enticing.  It requires little thought and energy and unfortunately, has often been the option that I go with.  The problem is that I'm settling for a lesser thing when I do that.  The surface appeal of it attracts my attention and keeps me from desiring the best things.  The other options often require a great deal more work and in some cases appear to offer very little rewards.  The importance, however, is that I must begin to look at the best things and begin to realize the beauty inherent in them.  For instance, if I choose to go mountain biking, I'll be doing a healthy activity that offers a great deal of excitement and adventure, not to mention that I would have a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me.  If I choose to do my studies, I'll be less stressed during the weekend and more than likely do better on the assignment.  If I'm to desire the best things, I must begin to realize the beauty inherent in them.

I'd wager that I'm not alone in my pursuit of lesser things.  Thankfully, God has given us the ability to desire the best things.  He has shown us what is really important in life and has given us the opportunity to pursue that. Each decision we make demonstrates the desires of our heart.  When we desire the best things, it becomes evident through our lives.  We begin to make time for the things that matter and begin to notice the things in our lives that simply aren't important.  Our hearts begin to yearn for the things on God's heart and we begin to move into transformation.  May we, like Bartimaeus, choose to desire the best things.  May we desire God's purposes in our life over the pursuits of this world.

I Give you my eyes

Last year during my trip to Chile, my host would always talk about a Muslim friend that he had that would always tell him "Setsow" (pronounced "Serchow").  As he described it this meant, "I give you me eyes."  It expressed his friend's willingness to do anything for him no matter the cost.  I've been thinking about that a lot lately.  God wants us to have that same willingness to give up anything for others.  At a moment's notice we are to give of ourselves at any point.  Unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that anything short of a grand gesture will be unacceptable.  That in order to serve, one must leave their country and be martyred for Christ.  This belief often forces us to the sidelines and keeps us from doing any sort of serving.  This is such a tragedy.  We have somehow looked at serving and decided that we simply don't have the gifts that are required for such an action.

Next week starts the Global Missions month at my church which is often a great time for people to hear and see what we're doing as a church around the world.  We often have guest speakers who are missionaries who serve in various countries.  Hearing their testimonies is one of the highlights of the year for me.  The passion that they have in demonstrating the love of Christ and in building up the church is such a testament to God's power in his people.  In all honesty, it fires me up, but also reminds me of my own shortcomings when it comes to serving others.

I bring that up because next Friday the worship team is putting on an "Encounter" which will serve to introduce the Global Missions month.  The theme that is being used is "Give me your eyes."  This is the title of one of my favorite songs by Brandon Heath.  It's such a powerful song about our need to open our eyes to the world around us.  He makes the observation in the song that we encounter people every day and we don't even think about it.  We're so focused on our own world that we don't see the needs in front of us.  He says, "I want a second glance, so give me a second chance to see the people the way you've seen them all along."  This is the important thing, that we begin to look around us through a new lens.  Through a lens which sees people, the hurt in their lives, and the love that God has for them.  This new perspective gives us the ability to serve in our daily lives.  From talking to the person who cleans your office to cheering up a gloomy cashier at the grocery store as she rings up your groceries.  Serving can be done in a multitude of ways and is not restrained to taking a trip to the inner city and passing out meals to the homeless.

There is of course a danger here.  By serving in our daily lives we may become complacent in other areas that need attention.  Feeding the homeless and taking care of the poor is something that is very near to the heart of God and should not be ignored.  My urging to serve in your daily lives is the first step to having a missional lifestyle.  In all that we do, we are to serve others and put others' needs in front of our own.  In 1 John 3:16, it says, "Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."  At first glance it looks like John is telling his reader to die for someone else, but he elaborates further and says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" (v.17)   He is saying here that our daily lives are to be lived in surrender to the desires and needs of others.  We are to put others before ourselves in all things.  So as we cultivate a missional life through regular day to day actions, we begin to transform ourselves and move away from the selfishness within.  We move into an others-centered life.  This is what God desires for us.  God is telling us "Setsow, I give you my eyes."  May we respond:

Give me your eyes

So I can see

Everything that I've been missing

Give me your love for humanity.

Exhausting heaven's resources

During my Old Testament class last week we were talking about David and his infidelity with Bathsheba.  My professor got to talking about Nathan's rebuke of David.  Nathan is delivering this message from God telling David that God has given him his house, his wives, and all of Israel and Judah, but then he goes on from there and says, "And if this had been too little, I would have given you even more." (2 Samuel 12:8)  It seems that God is disappointed that David hasn't appreciated the gifts that he has been given.  My professor began to break away from our original topic and focused in on this one point.  From a personal standpoint, my professor believed that despite all of his infirmities and illnesses that he has had to deal with over his life, that God was ready at a moment's notice to exhaust heaven of its resources to bless him.  Such a powerful illustration of God's desire to give good gifts to His children.  God wants to bless me more than I can possibly know or understand.  Then he took it one step further and claimed that God already has blessed us beyond our imaginations.  He imagined having a conversation with God about the things that God had given him during his life and just hearing God say that the things that were given to him were perfect for him, that God had taken great pains to find the perfect gifts suitable for him, and that no other gift would do.  That all of heaven had worked together to find the perfect gift for him.

I really thought about all of this for quite a while.  The thing is that I was wrestling with the possibility that God was calling me away from my home church.  After becoming more and more involved in my church lately, I couldn't understand God asking me to move on.  This discussion really made me stop and think.  God knows the perfect gift for me and is constantly seeking to give it to me.  His plan for my life is far better than the one that I have planned.  He knows me far better than I know myself and is able to bless me in a way that far surpasses that which I could even hope for.  So if God called me away, then who was I to say no.  It certainly wasn't an easy place to be in and clouded my path substantially, but something in me said to simply hold to God and know that He has a plan better than mine.  To my delight, I later found out that God was not calling me away from the church, but had opened up new opportunities for me within the church.  It appears that God simply wanted me to acknowledge that it is His plan that we are following and not mine.

There is the age-old expression that the grass is always greener on the other side.  We say it tongue and cheek knowing that if we go to the other side we'll find that it really isn't better than before and in some cases its much worse.  We look at the things we have and become discontent and think that something else is better for us.  If we simply stop and think about it though the things we have are far better than what we realize.  They are gifts granted to us by God for the sole purpose of blessing us.  They were carefully selected to fit who we are and who we were made to be.  If we can stop looking over the fence, perhaps we can begin to marvel at how amazing the gifts are that God has already blessed us with.  My hope is that as we continue to look at our lives, we will begin to see just how perfect are God's blessings.  That we will begin to appreciate in a new light the people in our lives, the abilities that we have, and the opportunities that God has blessed us with.  May we realize that God continues to exhaust heaven's resources from a desire to display His incredible love.

Please sir, I want some more

The now famous line from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist has become the cry of the American nation.  We seem to resonate with young Oliver who stands up and simply says, "Please sir, I want some more."  Unfortunately, in most cases we bear little resemblance to the hunger burdened Oliver.  Instead we are plagued by our insatiable consumerism and want for more.  Over the last several decades, consumerism has risen to alarming levels and in many cases has driven people into financial disaster.  The rampant spending habits of our culture is fueled by this constant desire for more, but where does it come from?

Now the obvious answer could of course be that our culture has imposed on us this buy-more mentality, but I think that this has only added to the already existing condition.  I have seen hints of this desire in my trips to poverty stricken Ethiopia.  After giving away things to the children there, there is often a communicated desire for more.  I think that this desire for more is something that is part of what it means to be human.  Or more accurately, the desire for more is the soul's awareness that something is missing.

If we go back to Genesis, we see that Adam was made in the very image of God.  Just imagine that.  Adam is made in the image of God!  Not only that, but he has this intimacy with God that is incredible.  He actually walks in the Garden with God.  Communicates with him face to face.  Adam doesn't desire anything else.  It is God who acknowledges that man needs something else, so He creates Eve.  After the fall, we see this immediate desire for more through the story of Cain and Abel.  This desire for more permeates the rest of human history.  We see it in the reign of Solomon and how eventually he fell into idol worship because of his desire for more gold and wives.  We see it in the conquests of empires and kings.  Then we see one man confront this desire for more and offers us a solution.  He calls it the "living water."

One of the most poignant moments in the ministry of Jesus is the conversation that He has with the Samaritan woman at the well.  He discusses this idea of the living water and that if you drink of it you will never thirst again.  Here is this idea of our need for more.  No matter how much water this Samaritan woman takes from the well, she will need to go back another time to get more.  She can't draw enough to satisfy her for the rest of her life, yet Jesus speaks of a water that does exactly that.  He is of course referring to himself here.  This is what I'm trying to get at.  The desire for more is really the desire for more of God.  Whenever we attempt to fill our desires with something else, it always leaves us wanting.  It can't satisfy because our soul knows what were made to be, that is the image of God.  Our soul tells us that we simply aren't satisfied and so we want more.  The amazing and joyful thing is that when we desire more of God, God grants that desire and continues to grant it.  Our soul rejoices in finding that which truly satisfies and freely drinks of it.  This constant filling up of our soul through God is what we were made for.  Let our desire for more be correctly oriented towards that which our soul truly craves.  May we look to God and merely ask for more of Him.

Galileo was Wrong!

Long ago, many people believed that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth.  After many calculations and observations, however, the famous physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei determined that the Earth in fact revolves around the Sun.  This idea of course has been accepted as fact for quite a long time, but I offer new evidence that this in fact false.  Yes that's right, the Earth does not revolve around the Sun, but rather around me... Or at least that is what my actions and behavior would suggest.

Okay so I don't actually believe that the Earth revolves around me, but the way I act sometimes would suggest otherwise.  These actions may be subtle to the point that I don't even notice them.  In fact, just yesterday I had to correct my selfish behavior over something that was rather trivial.  I was driving back to school and had to make a few stops along the way.  As I pulled into the bank to drop off a check, three other cars pulled in in front of me.  I couldn't believe that 3 other people would need to stop at the bank at the exact time that I was.  I finished at the bank and noticed that I was beginning to run a bit later than I had expected.  I started to get onto Rt. 30 when I realized that I had gotten Rt. 30 West rather than Rt. 30 East.  Clearly the city planning hadn't consulted me on where best to put the ramp.  Finally getting closer to Lancaster I got onto 501 behind slow moving cars.  Didn't they know I was in a hurry?  I was sure they were moving slowly on purpose.  Of course the traffic lights were all red, in their attempts to delay me.  Stopping at Giant I picked up some snacks (I was in charge of bringing snacks to the class that I was beginning to run late for) and realized that the person who stocked the shelves hadn't put everything in one nice spot for me.  Upon leaving the parking lot however, a car who clearly had the right away let me go in front of them.  It was at that point that I realized how selfish I had been up to that point during the day.  I hadn't stopped to consider other people.  My entire morning had been all about me and what I needed.

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend the entire day in silence and solitude before God.  Something that kept coming up was my selfishness.  I began tracing back over my life and began seeing subtle traces of being self-centered.  Even in serving, I have tendencies of honoring myself over others.  Things as simple as picking up my bag from a car full of luggage before helping others with theirs. It was a hard thing to wrestle with especially since the vast majority of the things I do, I don't even realize I'm doing them.  I would wager that this problem of selfishness is not unique to myself.

The idea of selfishness is entirely contrary to the bible.  Jesus was the antithesis of selfishness.  Everything He did was for the glory of God.  He always looked out for the well-being of others and constantly sought to encourage those He came into contact with.  He even demonstrated this others-centered life by laying down His for the world.  In His beautiful statement from John 15 He discusses what it really means to be unselfish.  He says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13).  To be so concerned with other people that you are willing to lay down your life for them is the true sense of love.  This doesn't just refer to dying on a cross for your friends, but to die to your needs and wants for your friends.  This is what it really means to die to yourself.  To be able to put others' needs and desires above your own on a moment by moment basis is to truly die to yourself.

Recently I've been doing a lot of self-examination and analyzing why I do certain things and not others.  It has been a great time of learning yet has certainly led to some challenging growth opportunities.  Having established that I am a selfish person, I have begun to realize the gravity of what that means.  It has forced me to be more intentional about my actions and more thoughtful in how I help others.  By always grounding my thoughts and actions in Christ, I am able to have small victories over my selfish nature and my desire to be in control.  While I have certainly gained some valuable insights into my character and have made small victories over my selfishness, there are still times when my actions demonstrate a belief that Galileo was wrong.

Counting the Cost Part 2

Last week I talked about the movie "Money Ball" and counting the cost.  I kind of want to add to that post this week.  A few weeks ago I read the beginning of 1 Samuel and I read the story of Hannah.  Now I've read it before and have always appreciated it, but something in this reading just struck me differently.  Hannah was married to Elkanah who had another wife named Peninnah.  From the text we see that Peninnah has many children, but Hannah is barren.  In that culture, it is a huge disgrace to be unable to have children and Hannah was often the target of ridicule from Peninnah.  She was so heartbroken over this that it says "...(she) wept and would not eat."  There was nothing she desired more than to have a son.  Hannah is so distressed at one point that Eli, the high priest, thinks she is drunk.  She responds to him saying, "I am a woman troubled in spirit.... I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.  Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation."  Of course Eli realizes he has put his foot in his mouth and blesses her and encourages her that God will grant the petition.

The fascinating and startling thing here is that Hannah, in her prayer, told God that if He gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord to be used in the Lord's service.  Isn't this incredible.  Here is a woman who has endured ridicule and condemnation for not having a child.  She has been in a deep state of depression over this one thing and she tells God now that if she is blessed with it she will give it back to God.  This is real sacrifice.  It isn't just the scraps of the table being sacrificed to God here, it is the very thing that she desires most.

Now you may say that God is going to provide her with sons and daughters later for her sacrifice.  This may be true however, from her standpoint, there is no guarantee for that.  Even Elkanah seems a little skeptical that God will give her another son afterwards.  She tells him that she is going to wean the boy and then take him up to the temple and he responds with, "Do what seems best to you."  Hannah doesn't know if God will give her any other sons, but to have Samuel and to be able to offer him up to the Lord is enough for her.  The cost to follow God ended up being the very thing she desired most.  Not only did she count the cost, but she was joyful in offering it as shown by the praise filled prayer she prays after giving Samuel to Eli.

So what do we do with this?  There is a song that I really like called "I will follow" by Chris Tomlin.  The chorus of the song says:

Where you go I'll go

Where you stay I'll stay

When you move I'll move

I will follow you

Who you love I'll love

How you serve, I'll serve

If this life I lose, I will follow you

I will follow you

I think Chris Tomlin hits in on the nail here.  Whatever God does, whatever he asks us to do, we should follow, even if it costs us everything.  Being that full of hope and faith is what our hearts should be.  Too often I notice in myself that if the cost is more than I am comfortable with I back away.  I follow God right up until it becomes inconvenient for myself.  I want a faith and hope that can say, "If this life I lose, I will follow you."  After counting the cost, I want to be able to pay it joyfully.  

I think many of us are in the same boat.  If we take an honest look at our faith we say that we follow God, but not to this degree.  Yet at the very same time, we watch movies like "Money Ball" and something in us stirs saying that's the kind of faith I want.  Something tugs at us when we see someone sacrifice everything.  When Frodo and Sam, in "The Lord of the Rings," believe that they won't be returning home they continue on faithfully and the audience watches in admiration.  Movies like this demonstrate our society's desire to be courageous and lay it all on the line for something greater than ourselves.  Our hearts desire it, but our flesh is weak.  May we learn to count the cost and offer it jubilantly. 

Counting the Cost Part 1

I recently watched the movie "Moneyball".  The premise is simple, the GM for the Oakland A's, Billy Beane, is employing a tactic for recruiting players that doesn't make sense to anyone who is just looking at the organization and also very little sense to most of those within the organization itself.  The coach of the A's even refuses to play certain players because he thinks the moves are illogical.  About half way through the movie, things come to a head.  The A's are on a huge losing streak and Billy can't get his coach to budge on how to play the players.  So he finally decides to trade away some of the big name players in his roster to ensure that the team would be played the way he knew it needed to be played.  As he is making these trades, his assistant Pete, the one who taught him the system, begins to think that it is a poor choice and that he should rethink these trades.  The exchange that takes place here however is something that really blew me away.  Pete explains that these trades that Billy wants to make are really hard to explain and so they shouldn't do them.  Billy replies by asking the question, "Why does that matter?"  The conversation continues and Billy begins making the trades.  Pete again reminds Billy that if the system doesn't work and he goes through with these trades, that it will be career ending.  Billy begins telling his assistant all of the things that will happen if this doesn't work out.  He has clearly weighed the consequences of his decisions, but then he asks a very poignant question.  "Do you believe in this thing or not?"  He makes Pete look into himself and see if he truly believes in this system.  He then adds that he is going to see this through for better or worse.

During this conversation something really stirred within me.  In this scene, Beane has realized what it will take for him to really implement this system.  He knows that if he follows through with this decision and it fails, then he will lose everything.  After counting the cost he makes the decision to follow his beliefs whether it works out or not.  This faith that he shows is exactly the kind of faith that we need as Christians.  We should have the bold kind of faith to make the decisions that are unpopular or completely rejected.  After counting the cost we should be able to offer ourselves wholeheartedly to God's purposes.  I know that in my own life I haven't been able to truly offer all of myself to God.  I have counted the cost and often I find it to burdensome to bear.

Why is it that we hold back so often?  We seem so afraid to throw ourselves into our faith and so we hold back just enough.  I'm not saying that we need to quit our job tomorrow and go be a missionary in some foreign country, but even in the little things we hold back.  Instead of volunteering an hour on a Thurs. night helping to feed the homeless, we sit in front of a TV losing ourselves in some show that we find interesting.  We are afraid to stand up for Christ in public because we might get ridiculed or talked down to.  God is calling us to deeper levels of surrender.  He calls us to lay down the things that cloud our relationship with Him.  It is not a demand to us but rather a gentle invitation that we would be remiss to decline.  We look for satisfaction in things of this world, yet real satisfaction comes only through Christ.  It is my hope that as we count the cost we'll realize that what we're laying down is nothing compared to what we are gaining. 

Fall Away

As a ropes course facilitator my job was always to enhance a group's ability to work together.  It was my responsibility to guide the group in team building activities that were designed to promote teamwork, strategies, and leadership.  One of the foundations of team building activities is trust.  If you don't trust your teammates, then it is impossible to work together.  In particular, whenever a person would be on a cable element we would have the other people help spot the person, protecting them should they fall.  To help practice this we would do two person trust falls.  This required one person to be in a good spotting position while another person fell back into their hands.  Right before the person would fall back we would run through several commands to ensure safety of the participant.  One series of commands would have the person who is falling say "Falling," while the spotter would reply "Fall away."  You could always tell which people really trusted and which did not by how they would fall.  Some people would begin to lean back and then put a foot back to stabilize themselves rather than wait to be caught in the arms of the person behind them.  Others however would simply fall back without any hesitation.  It was these latter people that were truly trusting their spotter.

I got to thinking about this a bit the other day in my bible study.  We were discussing trusting in God and were working with the passage that talks about how the doves do not reap and sow yet they are still well fed and do not worry about where they will find food.  It also talks about the lilies of the field and how they do not make clothes for themselves yet they are clothed in greater splendor than Solomon.  The point of the passage is to not worry.  My initial reaction to the passage is always the same.  I have always felt like I'm pretty good at not worrying.  I'm naturally a laid back person and so I rarely worry about most things.  I had to ask myself though why it was that I don't worry.  You see while the passage deals with not worrying, the overriding principle is trusting in God.  Was I really trusting in God and just falling back into his arms?  Or was I trusting in something else and taking a step to stabilize myself before falling?

I began recognizing safety nets all around me.  In terms of finances, I have my parents and my savings account to fall back on.  In terms of jobs, I have always been welcome to work at certain camps during certain seasons.  Even in social situations, I have always made sure that there was someone in the crowd that I could talk to or hang out with in case I found myself on the outside of the group.  I have always had something to fall back on.  It isn't that these things are naturally a hindrance, but rather that I have made them the foundation of my trust.  I haven't trusted in God to be there to support me, I have trusted in my own ability to be comfortable and secure.

This was made startling aware to me by a recent financial struggle.  Due to a small miscommunication, I was short a good deal of money for my next semester in seminary.  This happened to coincide with several repairs that were required for my car.  I was thoroughly stressed and concerned.  My parents again came through to help me with repairs as part of my Christmas present, but I was still unsure how I was going to afford Seminary.  Sure I had loans, but they weren't enough to cover the discrepancy in scholarships.  I was at in impasse.  It made me realize that my carefree attitude had nothing to do with my trust in God and everything to do with my comfortable lifestyle.  It was God's subtle way of reminding me who is sovereign and where my trust should truly be.  Since then, the error has been rectified and I can afford seminary again, but I have also learned a valuable lesson about myself and seen something that needs to change in my heart.  Despite my laid back personality and my charmed life, my trust still rested in myself and my circumstances and not in my relationship with God.  It is my hope that as I continue to process this lesson, and as I hear God say "Fall away."  I will throw caution to the wind and simply fall back into his loving arms.

How much are you worth?

Lately, I've really been wrestling with these questions:  What am I worth, what is my value, and how is it measured?  It is certainly a penetrating question that should not be simply glanced over.  In my attempt to answer these questions I was thinking about all the things in my life that I have accomplished or done that I'm especially proud of.  In particular I focused on the things that would be most impressive to others.  I began feeling pretty proud of how much I have accomplished in this life and all the cool adventures and experiences that I've had.  At one point, I even had the feeling that if people knew all that I had accomplished, they would think extremely highly of me.  Then I began to realize the seriousness of my situation.  I was boosting my view of myself by focusing on the achievements in my life.  By valuing my successes so highly, I had begun to base my worth on what others thought of me and the experiences that I have had in my life.  I had inadvertently traded the value I have in Christ with the worth that I perceived in my accomplishments. 

I would wager that there is a tendency in all of us to find our purpose in the things that we do.  It is a constant struggle for Christians to keep God at the center of our lives, as there are many things in our lives that continue to vie for our attention.  I know personally there are many things that I will often place before God rather than keeping God at the center.  I think this is why God detests pride.  Pride makes us find our value and worth in things that we can accomplish and achieve.  It creates in us a selfishness that makes it impossible for us to think of others.  Pride creates this false-self that roots itself in our own accomplishments rather than rooting ourselves in Christ.  There is a huge danger in this way of thinking.  If we root ourselves in our accomplishments and abilities, then when we fail to succeed in those areas our self-worth is affected drastically.  I think this is exactly what Proverbs 16:18 is referring to when it says, "pride goes before destruction."  If we are proud of something, we begin to base our value on that thing.  Then, if we fail to succeed, it is only natural for us to feel our value begin to diminish.

I think that this mindset of defining ourselves by what we have accomplished is widespread.  One of the most common questions that people ask is "What do you do?"  It is as though, by answering that question, one can know who you are.  It is apparent that as a culture we have tied the things that we do to who we are as a person.  We define ourselves by our accomplishments and our jobs.  There is a great commercial right now where someone asks this guy what he does.  The man begins thinking about what it is that he does.  There are several scenes of him fishing, picking up lumber, having a good time, and finally ends with him never really giving an answer.  This is exactly how we should be thinking.  The things that we do certainly tell something about who we are, but they do not define who we are.  Our accomplishments and activities should not be the things that give us our purpose in life.  Our worth should be based solely on the love and adoration given to us by Christ.  We are image bearers of God.  We were bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus.  We have been called coheirs with Christ and adopted sons and daughters of God.  This is where we should find our worth.  Anything less is selling ourselves short.  When we find our worth and value in other things we are trusting in things that simply will not last.  Being rooted in Christ and finding our worth in Him is not as simple as an on/off switch, but it is a constant struggle and a daily surrender.  Personally, I must daily remind myself that my value is rooted in Jesus and cannot be found in the accomplishments of my life.  It is a matter of confidence in Christ rather than pride in myself.

Breathe in Deeper

The other day I was listening to a song by the David Crowder Band called "Do Not Move".  It is probably one of my favorite songs of all time.  The song begins by saying, "I don't want to move and I don't think I could."  After this refrain, the song beings to crescendo, building into the verse that declares, "Breathe in deeper now.  Breathe in deeper now.  Breathe in deeper, breathe in now."  Whenever I hear this song, I imagine myself looking out over this beautiful landscape with the sun beating on my face as it begins to set.  I imagine myself with my arms spread wide and witnessing the holiness of this place.

Every time, I consider just taking a drive out to some remote place and breathing in the beauty of it.  To stand on a mountaintop looking out on God's creation, what can possibly compare?  There is certainly something inspiring about those, "out of the ordinary" experiences.  Those times in life where you can look out and see God's beauty feeling almost as though you are in Eden itself.  It is so inspiring in fact that I find myself often daydreaming about going somewhere remote and beautiful and having some incredible adventure.  Then I'm reminded that the Christian journey is not simply these mountaintop experiences, but rather a moment by moment surrender to God.  You see while these moments are great and can deeply inspire us, God asks us to stay in each moment.

When God created the world, He said, "It is good."  What He did not say was, "That's good, but that's really just ordinary."  He called all of creation good.  I get so caught up sometimes in wanting to be somewhere that takes my breath away or have some grand adventure that I miss out on the beauty right in front of me.  I miss out on the opportunities that God has for me that are all around me.  I wonder how many times have I done this.  How many times have I take my own situation for granted? How often have I told myself that the grass is greener on the other side?  This isn't to say that mountaintop experiences aren't useful, but rather that if we begin to gain a new perspective on our lives that we will begin to appreciate the beauty in the ordinary.  We are constantly filled with the presence of God.  He surrounds us, comforts us, listens to us, and hears us even when we don't think He does.  What we call ordinary, He calls beautiful.  It is amazing that we don't constantly go through our day in awe and wonder at creation.  That we don't wake up with a song on our lips and a constant joy in our hearts.  Being constantly filled and sustained by God, that is the real mountaintop experience.  When we live in an intimate relationship with Christ, we are constantly in His presence.  May we breathe in deeper.