I stuck my feet on the ocean today - and it was amazing.
Sometimes I just need to get away. Many days that is just not possible. Today was one of those days. It was a very busy day filled with many commitments and responsibilities. A day when there was barely time to sit for five minutes, let alone get away. Trying to push the fatigue and over-exposure to people out of the way I loaded up our church van with 12 exuberant teens and headed for the beach. There we were met by another ten teens. After about an hour and a half scheduled there, we were off to a home for dinner and a devotional. All this after leading a training session for 4 ours on Frday night and 8 hours on Saturday. I was spent and in dire need of a break.
Don't get me wrong, I realize that if taking a van load of teens to the beach for volleyball and "hang out" time is my greatest burden, I am a pretty blessed guy. Nonetheless, I was tired, emotionally and physically. When I feel that way, about the only thing that recharges me is down time alone. That was not in any way going to happen today.
When it was almost time to leave the beach for our next destination, I left the volleyball courts and headed for the water to retrieve the handful of kids who were in the surf. It was a beautiful Southern California afternoon. The water was a brilliant blue green as it rose and fell in softly crashing waves on the shore. I stepped in the edge of the oncoming tide and shuddered at the first touch of cold water. Then it was as if everything in me relaxed. As the tide rose and fell around my feet and ankles, rising up as high as my kness and then soflty falling back down all my fatigue seeped away with the tide. Refreshing peace and renewal washed over me. For five minutes or less I just stood there taking in the sights, being massaged by the pulsing tide. Little children and parents played and laughed all around me. My own youth group kids were out diving and swimming in the waves, squeezing everything they could out of these last few minutes. In that breif time it felt like a full week of stress and fatugue washed away.
Thank you God for the healing power of your creation. But most of all, thank you today for the ocean as it touched Zuma Beach and renewed my weary soul..
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Rat Theology
Recently I jumped in and started up the car to head across town. Unknown to me, there was a large rat that had briefly taken up residence inside my engine compartment. I'm sure he was more surprised than I was when the engine kicked on.
There exists in life, a tension between the unbelievable and the undeniable. I see it sometimes so clearly. Take the example of this rat, for instance. If you could have told him as he crawled up around my engine that this conglomeration of metal and rubber, which he found so interesting and alluring, would soon roar to life and eat him, he might have thought you were crazy. To him that would seem utterly unbelievable! Once I turned the key, however, the roar of the engine became an undeniable fact - complete with belts spinning, fan blades whirring, heat rising and the earth moving below. All of a sudden, I think this rat was a believer. Only for him it didn't work out so well.
The same tension exists when we talk about faith in God. For some the idea of a loving Creator who has set the world in motion is crazy and unbelievable. The concept that He pursues us with loving passion and wants to guide us into relationship with Him seems even more ridiculous - especially when we look at all the poverty, pain and destruction in the world around us.. It's no wonder that so many see faith in God as completely unbelievable.
Now don't stop reading here, I am not going to flip the coin over and say that one day God will roar to life and destroy them like a rat caught in an engine. While at a certain level this may be true for some, I don't find it to be a very helpful image!
Rather, I would say that for me, faith in God is more undeniable than unbelievable. Those who deny Him do not know of the peace I feel in His presence as I pray. They do not know of the countless ways in which He has guided me through tough decisions and difficult days. They know nothing of the wisdom He slid into my heart while I cried out in times of darkness. How can they know about these things if I don't tell them?
Many of those I know really don't want to sit still to listen to my words. Words don't impress them. The only strength I have to show them the undeniable Truth of "God is" is through my actions. Is God undeniable in the way I treat those around me? Is He clearly evident in my views toward poverty, or homelessness or those who have been unfairly made jobless by our current economy? Is He undeniable in my life to those who I casually connect with in my neighborhood, on the job, at my kid's school?
God becomes undeniable when his people live out their faith in unbelievable ways. It is unbelievable that we would find peace in the midst of crisis. Yet, it is undeniable when we reach out to those in need. It is incredible that we can stare death in the eye and hold out hope for life after terminal cancer. Yet it is undeniable when those of us who are left behind treat death differently because of Christ. It is amazing and irrational when we reach out in compassion to those who seek to injure us. Yet it is undeniable how lives are changed when forgiveness leads the way. These are the things that cause the unbelieving world to look at us and sincerely ask the question "Why?" For them it is unbelievable that anyone could react this way, yet undeniable that we do. They can't help but ask why. It is then that they are ready to hear about the ONE that is.
Let us live lives that are undeniable, hold onto a faith that seems unbelievable and give testimony to the One who makes both possible!
There exists in life, a tension between the unbelievable and the undeniable. I see it sometimes so clearly. Take the example of this rat, for instance. If you could have told him as he crawled up around my engine that this conglomeration of metal and rubber, which he found so interesting and alluring, would soon roar to life and eat him, he might have thought you were crazy. To him that would seem utterly unbelievable! Once I turned the key, however, the roar of the engine became an undeniable fact - complete with belts spinning, fan blades whirring, heat rising and the earth moving below. All of a sudden, I think this rat was a believer. Only for him it didn't work out so well.
The same tension exists when we talk about faith in God. For some the idea of a loving Creator who has set the world in motion is crazy and unbelievable. The concept that He pursues us with loving passion and wants to guide us into relationship with Him seems even more ridiculous - especially when we look at all the poverty, pain and destruction in the world around us.. It's no wonder that so many see faith in God as completely unbelievable.
Now don't stop reading here, I am not going to flip the coin over and say that one day God will roar to life and destroy them like a rat caught in an engine. While at a certain level this may be true for some, I don't find it to be a very helpful image!
Rather, I would say that for me, faith in God is more undeniable than unbelievable. Those who deny Him do not know of the peace I feel in His presence as I pray. They do not know of the countless ways in which He has guided me through tough decisions and difficult days. They know nothing of the wisdom He slid into my heart while I cried out in times of darkness. How can they know about these things if I don't tell them?
Many of those I know really don't want to sit still to listen to my words. Words don't impress them. The only strength I have to show them the undeniable Truth of "God is" is through my actions. Is God undeniable in the way I treat those around me? Is He clearly evident in my views toward poverty, or homelessness or those who have been unfairly made jobless by our current economy? Is He undeniable in my life to those who I casually connect with in my neighborhood, on the job, at my kid's school?
God becomes undeniable when his people live out their faith in unbelievable ways. It is unbelievable that we would find peace in the midst of crisis. Yet, it is undeniable when we reach out to those in need. It is incredible that we can stare death in the eye and hold out hope for life after terminal cancer. Yet it is undeniable when those of us who are left behind treat death differently because of Christ. It is amazing and irrational when we reach out in compassion to those who seek to injure us. Yet it is undeniable how lives are changed when forgiveness leads the way. These are the things that cause the unbelieving world to look at us and sincerely ask the question "Why?" For them it is unbelievable that anyone could react this way, yet undeniable that we do. They can't help but ask why. It is then that they are ready to hear about the ONE that is.
Let us live lives that are undeniable, hold onto a faith that seems unbelievable and give testimony to the One who makes both possible!
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