Here’s something I wrote last week and read to our high school group. I’ve never considered myself much of a writer, so maybe this is incoherent, but I thought I would share.
Do you ever think about God? I mean really think about Him. I know we pray to Him, maybe we talk about Him and sometimes we even read about Him, but have you ever sat back and watched a sunset and thought about the majesty of God who painted it? Or have you stared at a tree and considered God who sculpted it? Do you ever think about the mystery of God? How can God be powerful enough to create the mountains and yet gentle enough piece together a hummingbird? How can God know everything about everyone and still care for each of us personally? That’s the mystery of God. We are unable to fully understand God. He has always been. There is no start to God. He exists in the past, present and future at the same time. We can’t explain that. God is big and He is small. He’s larger than the heavens and yet He is in the microscopic. He creates and he sustains. We can try to fit Him into our understanding, but we can’t. Job said, “His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?” (Job 26:13,14 NLT)
The funny thing about humans is that we are the only one of God’s creations that thinks that we have it all figured out, like we don’t need help. We go through forest of every day life and amongst the trees we get lost. We don’t know where to go and what to do next. And there’s God, outside of the mess and confusion, like a choir director at the back of the room listening to it all come together. Like a football coach in the skybox with a perspective we can’t get on the field. Or the choreographer standing elevated to watch the entire production unfold. We’re so focused on our part, or what we think our part should be, that it’s hard to see the beautiful scene come together from where we stand, but God sees it all. But the mystery of God also says that in that mess, He is right there with us, guiding and encouraging and helping us through the mud and dirt and pain of life. He is the elevated director and He is the close and personal guide. We can’t define Him, just trust Him. We can’t see what He sees. We can believe what He says.
Our problem is that we have become so focused on our own plight that it has invaded every aspect of our life. God has become an add-on to our lives, like a bumper sticker on our car or a fancy piece of jewelry to go around our neck. He even becomes a side note in our prayers and in our worship. In his book, “Godology”, Christian George writes, “What do we pray about? We often pray for ourselves; ‘Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ We also pray for exams, comforts, cars, and job promotions. But insular prayers grow boring after a while. It’s tiring always being the subject of the sentence. God doesn’t want to be our footnote; He seeks to be our title. It’s time to elevate God with prayers that revolve around His ability and His beauty. God should rightfully occupy the center of our prayers.” We have to stop trying to add God to our lives like mustard to a hot dog. God is not to be added to make things better. He should be our whole life, not an accessory.
It’s time to be awed again. It’s time to be filled with wonder again. It’s time to rejoice in the mystery of God. We need to find comfort and fear in the knowledge of who God is. We must stop adding God to our lives, or treating Him like some almighty vending machine. He should be our whole life. It’s time to praise Him because of who He is, not because we like it, or because we feel good doing it, but because He deserves it. No more turning praising God into one more thing about ourselves. It’s time to listen to the words of the psalmist who said.
Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD from the heavens,
praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for he commanded and they were created.
He set them in place for ever and ever;
he gave a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and maidens,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
He has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his saints,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the LORD.
Psalm 148 (NIV)
A couple times a year, with our high school group, we do what we lovingly call a family meal. We get several frozen lasagnas, some breadsticks and salad from Sam’s club. We set up the room so it looks nice with table cloths and candles, and we enjoy a meal together as a youth group. It is always fun. One of the things we do during this night is to pass around what we call encouragement sheets. We give each person a sheet of paper, they put their name on it and then pass it to the right. The sheet goes around the tables to everyone, and each person writes a short note of encouragement to the person. The students love it, and many of them put them on their walls at home, or in their lockers at school.
