A Surprising Story

And one from the "Way Back Machine"...

There are some things I thought I would be ready for and some things I had no idea that I wasn't ready for. In the last week we have spoken with two people who said things to us that completely surprised us...knocked us on our proverbial heels. There is so much more to the stories than I will share here, but here is the highlight. (Ask me and I will love to tell you more!):

At the playground with S.:

A week ago today we decided to make it a special day and meet at the playground for lunch. I didn't realize that people could be outside at the park on a beautiful day and eat lunch. I looked around wondering if I was doing something wrong and if i was about to get caught.

We have asked the Lord to send our way someone we had met at the playground before and He decided to answer this day. S [not his full name :)] was there with his two girls, one of which is my daughter's age. After a short time, we started to talk about the things that mattered most to us- our view of the meaning of the world and human existence. S is a very intelligent and thought-full man whose ideas on why were are here are sophisticated even if they would be seen as unorthodox even for around here.

After a significant amount of time where he shared the narrative of his view of life, I asked if I could share an alternate view- very briefly. Genesis One is more than an account of how our God created the world with the power of his voice, it was also written to share an alternate (and true) account of the dawn of an age where something existed in the universe apart from him (God) to a world that couldn't (and wouldn't) understand that.

I told S that the world was fashioned by an uncreated Creator (trying to get to Jesus and what his death and resurrection mean), but he had to stop me there. His face changed because he seemed to be confounded by a new thought. Interrupting me, he mirrored my words back to me: "An uncreated Creator? A Creator?!)

Then I was the one with the confounded look on my face. The realization of what was happening washed over me: S had never thought that the world might have been created by a personal Creator. In all his reading and searching and struggling, he had never once thought that the universe might have been designed by a God who is a person. My assumption was that he had heard the "alternate story" of how the earth was created and rejected it. I was wrong: never once had it entered his mind.

We did eventually get to the meaning of the cross and resurrection. I did get to finish (most of) the Grand Story. As we were leaving, he said he wanted to get together again and talk...but he needed some time to process what we talked about. I look forward to meeting with my friend again. Who knows how we will both be surprised next time.

My Moment of Pagan Worship

We spent the afternoon outside of Moab, Utah at Arches National Park. The short story is that there is way too much to see in the park and around Moab for one afternoon. ​Way. Too. Much. I kept telling my wife how much I wish I was bigger to be able to understand all of the beauty we got to see. God forbid that we ever get bored with the glory reflected in creation!

I wonder if we will have the "bigness" to understand God's beauty in things like Arches National Park in the new heavens and the new earth. 

There was something else that rose up in me too: covetousness. I don't like that word because I'm not exactly sure what it fully means or how to say it. (covet-chus-ness?)

On the trail to the "Delicate Arch" in the Park, I was overwhelmed with a desire to have the means to buy stuff to play like this all of the time. We hiked along the same path with people who bought expensive stuff to go exploring with their family. I longed for that too. I longed for it too much. I longed for lesser things (like a high end hiking backpack to carry my daughter) in a weak moment.

At that moment, I tasted how easy it would be for me to treasure the things of the world at the expense of the Creator of those things. Being outside, playing in God's world seems to breathe new life into me, but it can also be the path to pagan idolatry. Subtly exchanging the treasure of the Beauty of Christ in his creation for a (falsely) beautiful Lesser thing. (See Romans 1:24-25 for more on that)

So, for a few moments I was a pagan today. Or at least I felt like one. 

I often try to force out this type of sinfulness by doubling up my resolve against it. That doesn't work. It never has, but I will foolishly keep trying, I'm sure.

What does "work" is something only the Spirit can do: give us a deeper, broader love for something (ahem, "someone") more beautiful. I long for the day when we get to play on earth as we were meant to, but with no desire to worship creation.  Those will be days when we will be "big" enough to see and grasp the Source of all Beauty as he plays alongside us in his Creation.

There, by the Delicate Arch and thousands of other breathtaking places, we will love him for the beauty he created and for the scars that remind us of the beauty of his heart.

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." C.S. Lewis

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Colossians 3:1-2 ESV)