Recognizing The Creator...

In "Unbroken" Laura Hillenbrand talks about a time when Louie was on the raft and they were in the doldrums of the ocean.  He saw something so incredibly beautiful that he knew, right then and there, that there had to be a Creator.  Hillenbrand writes:

     "As he watched this beautiful, still world, Louie played with a thought that had come to him before.  He had thought it as he had watched the seabirds, marveling at their ability to adjust their dives to compensate for the refraction of light in water.  He had thought it as he had considered the pleasing geometry of the sharks, their gradation of color, their slide through the sea.  he even recalled the thought coming to him in his youth, when he had lain on the roof of the cabin in the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, looking up from Zane Grey to watch night settling over the earth.  Such beauty, he thought, was too perfect to have come about by mere chance.  That day in the center of the Pacific was, to him, a gift crafted deliberately, compassionately, for him and Phil."

During my first hike this week through Prairie State Park the very first thought that came to my mind was that I had taken for granted the beauty of this world.  The small things that God created that are "too perfect to have come about by chance."  The Apostle Paul talked about this in the book of Acts as he was trying to convince the Athenians of the One True God.  He put it like this:  

"The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don't make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him!"

This week I spent time focusing on the beauty of creation and focusing on the beauty of the Creator.  The following pictures share some of my journey from the colors and shapes of the flowers, to the shape and vastness of the clouds, to the size and strength of the buffalo, to the agility and speed of a deer, and finally to the most beautiful fish I've ever seen...the rainbow trout.  

Menacing Blackness: 

In the book "Unbroken", Laura Hillenbrand writes about the soldiers who came back from World War II.  She writes:

"For these men, the central struggle of postwar life was to restore their dignity and find a way to see the world as something other than menacing blackness."

I wonder if being in the ministry or in church leadership for many seasons can change our view of the world around us.  Do we ever get jaded?  Do we begin to view the lost as enemies instead of P.O.W.s?  Do we ever stop our rescue missions because of our tainted world view?  Can we still recognize how beautiful the world is and the beauty of the people in it?  Do we try to huddle in our Sanctuaries hoping that the wooden walls and the wooden cross will keep the menacing blackness out?  Or do we throw open our doors and lives and let His radiant light penetrate the darkness?  When do we quit worrying about if the boogie man is going to get us and start worrying about rescuing the folks who are being held captive by sin?

I pray that the menacing blackness would be our next battleground.  I pray that the Church would step into the darkness and never quarantine it.  I pray that the Church will continue to see the most beautiful thing God ever created...when a person steps out from the menacing blackness and into His wonderful light.

Lessons From Louie

One of the books that I'm reading during my sabbatical is called "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  This book about Louis Zamperini is "A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption."  So far I've traveled with Louie through is childhood, his High School years as a track star, his days as an Olympic runner, his first couple of years in the military, and now I'm floating with him on a life raft.  I first learned about the heroic Louis Zamperini through John Ortberg and the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.  John did an entire series on Lessons from Louie and at the end of the series interviewed the 90+ Louis Zamperini.  In the 150 pages that I've read, I have learned more about World War II then I ever learned in school.  I am so thankful to all the soldiers that served during this time of darkness.

The first lesson from Louie that I want to focus on is the fact that your mindset has a lot to do with what you can accomplish.  I've been learning this lesson over the past few months from the Apostle Paul and now from Louie Zamperini.  Why did both of these guys keep going?  Paul has an incredible list of the persecutions and trials that he went through in 2 Corinthians 11 after he became a Christ Follower.  Louie had an impressive list of his trials and tribulations before he became a Christ Follower.  Why in the worst circumstances, does it seem, that these two guys remained optimistic?  Why is it that sometimes, we can get so absorbed with the absence of luxury that we think life is so terrible?  One area that I will be working on in my spiritual life is my attitude.  I want to be more optimistic.  I want to have more faith that God is in control and my physical comfort has nothing to do with my spiritual optimism.