Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Loveland

Tonight I read Genesis 16 & 17, Psalms 8, and Mathew 10. I should probably focus on Mathew 10, but I'm too tired to really concentrate tonight so I'm going to leave it alone.

I'm going to talk about Psalms 8 because it gives me an opportunity to tell a story. As I read David talking about how moved he was and how insignificant he felt looking at the stars I'm reminded of a ski trip I took to Colorado like 6 years ago. It was one of the funnest trips I've ever taken, 5 guys driving 21 hours to ski for 1 week. I love the mountains and have spent a good bit of time in the Smokies, but nothing prepared me for what we saw out there.

The first place we skied was Loveland mountain. Its right on I-70 west of Denver. The peak of that mountain is at like 13,000 ft. and is right on the continental divide. Four of us (the four that though we could survive the trip down) took the lift to the top. It was like a Monday morning and no one was up there so we took our skies off and went under the rope and over the peak. What greeted us was breathtaking. We just stood there, no one spoke for several minutes. We were at the top of the world. Standing at over 13,ooo feet on the continental divide looking west out across the Rockies. I believe we all have moments when God speaks to us. That was one of mine. There are a handful of moments in my life that I feel defined by (I've already talked about the day on the lake and I'm sure the rest will come out right here very soon), this is one of them. Maybe I was too young when I got saved to experience God the way I did that day but for the first time I understood that what I saw was more than what God can do, in some way it is who He is.

I'm not sure what else to say about that day, I know there are no words to describe what it looked like or how it made me feel. I can tell you this: when the world seems dark and ugly, when all that is in me cries out for something beautiful, I go back. Loveland is my proof that God can't help but be beautiful. Its the portion of earth beneath my feet.

That last line is from an Ed Cash song. I suggest you listen to everything he ever recorded.


What God Desires


Tonight I read from Genesis 13-15, Psalms 7, and Mathew 9. I would love to talk about all the text, but I was so struck by Mathew 9:13b, "I desire mercy..." Jesus just told us what he desires from us. The creator of the universe, the almighty God, just said I want this. That should make it too easy. We should just give it to him. Mercy, Jesus wants mercy.

I began to wonder what mercy actually looks like so I did what anyone of us would do, I googled it. Just searched for an image of mercy. What I found was a bunch of cheesy pictures of Jesus in shiny robes with light all about and a stupid grin on his face. Is that really what the world thinks mercy looks like? Not to be denied a clear picture of what mercy looks like (I knew there had to be one on the Internet) I looked up synonyms. I liked kindness the best so I did an image search for it. The first thing I saw was the poster I have on the top left. That's nice, I thought, but what should it look like in my life. While I was thinking about that I had a slide show of all my pictures playing on the sidebar of my computer, and the image I have on the right popped up. Is it really that simple? Can it be that the God of the universe simply wants me to treat everyone with the same love, compassion, and care that I show my daughter? If it is, can we ever get the job done?