------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"
I love taking pictures of nature, especially the sky. And I think the sky is most glorious when a storm is approaching, or while it is lashing out in all its fury. So, naturally, when I know a storm is on its way I put on my hoodie and grab my camera and iPod and I go outside to take pictures. Well, yesterday was a stormy day. I live in a rural area in hills, so from my back yard I can see the rest of the area, and its beautiful, but I never really paid it all that much attention. That all changed. I was actually sitting in the grass up against a log and I was still thinking.
I had Switchfoot's 'You' as background music to the thunder at first, and then it was 'Cherry Wine' by Jupiter Sunrise after that, then Pedro the Lion, then perhaps some John Mayer and Mat Kearney. After that I couldn't tell you what played.
As I'm sure you've realized, these along with the scent of rain and no industrial sounds whatsoever for hours can cause massive epiphanies. I thought about a lot of things, and really started realizing how large this world is, and I started thinking more deeply about how everything in it is like a puzzle, and how we are the four-year-old's that love to scatter it's seemingly infinite amount of pieces. You know when some minutes seem longer than others? Like the seconds are moving by in slow motion, and you could have sworn the last one didn't take this much time? Well, I think that they really are different. Why not? Time doesn't have to follow rules, it can run in front of us and then when we try to catch up it hides and we keep running until we realized its behind us. Every now and then it plays tag. Time certainly has a cruel sense of humor at times. Anyways, during this gorgeous weather, the minutes were the long kind. Serious introspection occurred. I started wondering how many other hearts were beating at the exact same time as mine, and wondered what those people were doing. I realized what I would attempt if failure weren't a possibility.
I would just get together everything I needed and go. Just go. I would people-watch and nature-watch and would see some incredible things happen. I would commit random acts of kindness, because I know that strangers have provided me with hope by simple things that way. I would be practically homeless, just finding the feeling of 'home' in each place I went. I would change lives and make sure my life was changed in some way everywhere; I would let the world mold me. I would of course write things down, and I would hear stories from elderly people at parks and ask busy people questions that would make them stop and think... Make them, if even for just a fleeting moment, contemplate something other than their scheduled, machine-like lives. I would always want to see those special places for the town people, perhaps where a couple got engaged or someone was changed completely, or a place where the local legend got his fifteen minutes of fame. And I would write about them. Things like that are so beautiful to me. I would also take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. The 'not failing' portion would, of course, be that I do not fall short of making sure all of these things happen.
The storm was lovely at the beginning, but when it became menacing, it wasn't as pretty. But you never worry that it's going to stay that way forever, because you've seen the silver lining before. I applied that thought directly to my life. Things aren't always going to be good, but there is always hope. There may be thunder and lightning, but sometimes those things are cherished moments because they're catalytic moments that help you grow.
I also sat in amazement of nature and how people can possibly not believe. How can you not believe there is a God when everything is linked? When every creature depends on something else for survival, when we lean on this cycle, this subconscious, yet perfect cycle that never fails? How can an explosion have created such divinity? There are a lot of things about God that can't be proven scientifically, this is true. But neither can love. Neither can beauty. We certainly believe in those things. Who's to say that our reality is what reality truly is? Our mind can only grasp so much of a concept, and I believe that there is so much we do not understand, but we take away the enchantment of it all by "reducing it to mathematically correct" terms. Just because we say something is the way it is for a certain reason doesn't mean we are correct. These days we seem to think when we 'figure something out,' that there is no way we could be wrong. And people have seemed to 'figure out' that God cannot be real, because they cannot prove Him mathematically.
But this does not make those people any less worthy than believers. The fact that so many of us divide ourselves from nonbelievers makes me want to leave my label 'Christian' out to rot. The fact that so many 'Christians' are afraid to get near those in need, those in deep sin such as prostitutes or addicts for fear of a bad reputation has lessened the value of that name to the rest of the world. I, too, am guilty of this, and I seek forgiveness for it. People don't seem to understand that Jesus himself ached to be beside the lowest of the low, and we are supposed to have that hunger inside of us as well. I apologize for anyone who has ever been hurt by the Christian group and has therefore had a stereotype of us burned in their mind ever since. Trying to 'sell' people Jesus has made the idea less attractive to others.
Just show them you love them. Everyone. Just because of their existence. They are God's prizes, God's children. All of us. Who are we to decide which types of people are worthy of Him? I can't stress enough how obligated we should be to reach out in a way that is real, not in a way that is full of puns and over-used metaphors that really mean nothing; ways that sell a lifestyle more than offer a relationship. People can see Him in your eyes. You shouldn't have to tell him He's there. They can see the way you feel about Him and how it has changed you, and they'll be interested. But the aim is not to shove it down their throats that they MUST believe or they are horrible people. You can help people come to know Him by getting to know those people. And love them.
We are all the bad guys in this story, whether you like it or not. Not one of us is good, but we're in this together and we can't back down from that. We are all a team; a team can't work together if each member hates the other and is only looking to please himself. They will lose terribly. As will we.
I've quoted this verse many times to many different people, but it is a verse that stands out to me in a world like this, and is perhaps one of my favorites:
- "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,
- naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
- When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
- Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?' He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Matthew 25:31-46
--Selflessness is my key, and it's calling me out.
I will leave you with a quote from Blue Like Jazz:
"Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder."
truth. So much of it, too.
ReplyDeleteReally good i like the verse.
ReplyDelete-Markis