WAKING UP

Jacob was a man on the run.  He was running from his brother, who had vowed to kill him.  He was anxious, frustrated and afraid.  He had no thoughts of God in his mind that night as he pulled up a rock for a pillow and went to sleep.  Little did he know that God had designs on his life, and that He was about to invade his dreams.  In his dream he saw a ladder that reached from the earth to heaven. He saw the angels ascending and descending, and he saw God standing in the heavens above the ladder.  He thought he had stumbled upon the very house of God and so he said, ‘Surely, the LORD is in this place and I did not know it.’

What Jacob failed to realize, is that God had already been working in and around his life prior to this experience.  The problem was, he just didn’t have eyes to see. I read somewhere that The beginning of knowing about God is learning how to pay attention, learning to be fully present where you are, and waking up.  We realize, like Jacob, that we have been asleep.  We do not see what is happening all around us.  For most of us, most of the time, the lights are on but nobody’s home. 

The Psalmist said, ‘Where can I go God, that you aren’t there?  If I go to heaven, your there.  If I make my bed in hell.  You’re there.  If I sail on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. And if this is true, that God is in all places at all times and He’s working in and around our lives always, then we should be able to see evidences of his work in every circumstance of our lives.  Jesus walked in this reality.  And so Jesus is walking down the road and he doesn’t just see a farmer scattering seed, but he sees a kingdom parable and the seed becomes a type of the word of God.  He sees a woman searching for a coin and He turns to His disciples and says, that’s like the Kingdom of God.  And He sees the lilies of the field and the birds in the air and in everything, He is able to discern the movement and handiwork and the voice of God.

And when we get this, what happens is the divide between the secular and the sacred gets smashed.  But when our lives are so fractured and fragmented because we’re not living in the present, then we miss what God is doing all around us.  The trick is to pay attention to what is going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep.  There is another world, right here within this one, whenever we pay attention. As author David Geotz writes, 'Even in suburbia all moments are infused with the Sacred.  You don’t have to hole up in a monastery to experience the fullness of God.  Your cul-de-sac and subdivision are as good a place as any.'  And like Jacob, you’ll fid yourself saying, ‘Surely the Lord was in this place and I didn’t know it.’  

--Daniel

Clarity

Over the years, I’ve talked with a lot of people who have said in one way or another, ‘I’m supposed to be happy.  I’ve got everything that this world says a person needs to be happy.  And yet I still feel like I’m missing something.’

As one author put it, ‘We learn through all of life there runs a ground note of cosmic disappointment.’  Haven’t you found that to be true?  Everything falls apart.  Most of the time it seems like the life we’ve always dreamed of, the one where we’re completely content and happy, always lies just beyond the horizon.  It’s always just beyond our grasp.  Just out of reach. Perhaps nobody has ever made this point better then C.S. Lewis who in his book Mere Christianity wrote, ‘Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.  There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise…

Each of us knows this to be true. We all realize that we haven’t attained.  That we’re not there.  That there’s something missing.  And so we look to different things to make up for that. And the inescapable conclusion from this endless search we’re all on is that nothing can scratch that itch in our souls.

The truth is, in the absence of God, we will inevitably look to other things to give us hope, meaning and fulfillment in life. Some look for these things in success or power, others look for them in beauty or being accepted.  Still others find their sense of worth in their children or in the way they are viewed.  Basically, whatever we look to to give us a sense of meaning value and worth, is our god.  In his book Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller speaks to this point when he writes, ‘Every human being must live for something.  Something must capture our imaginations, our heart’s most fundamental allegiance and hope.  But the bible tells us, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, that object will never be God himself.’ And the point is, God always attacks the idols that we erect in our hearts.  He will not share space in our hearts with rivals.

And the whole process of growing and maturing into the fullness of Christ is all about giving God access to our hearts.  That's the key.  The principal thing that God is after is our hearts and only in yielding and surrendering our hearts to Him will we be truly satisfied.  

--Daniel