Look at that!

Left, Right, Left, Rig… What is that? Wow, look at that formation! The way the flowers combine to protect each other. Isn’t God amazing? Left, right, left... Another one, and another, there is a bunch of the flowers. And look at the rocks here, God is so strong He can pile up these rocks; what, that has got to be at least 13 inches high. The other day I saw this incredibly powerful trickle of water too, what can’t He do? Isn’t our God awesome?

The other day, Tim, Alex and I went up to The Enchantments in the Washington Cascade mountain range. On the second day, we scrambled up Little Annapurna. It was a quick two hour hike, and the view was magnificent. On the way up, Tim decided not to look up until we reached the top. He stared at his feet and narrow view to his front the whole way up. He wanted to experience and take in the entire thing at once, be utterly surprised. We knew that the view was going to be great. From the bottom you caught a glimpse of what was next. Little A has a gradual slope on its north face, very easy to walk up. But the south slope is shear cliff, jagged, jutting rocks and immense drop-offs. Quite an impressive sight had with relatively little effort.

Part way up Tim made a comment that I am still thinking about today. He said that our view of God is like this. We are staring at the three feet in front of us and that is our impression of God. He has revealed a whole world for us to see, but we are happy, actually euphoric, just looking straight down. What is up with that?

Ironically, Justin Weeks used a comment two weeks ago that is fitting here.

"Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are far too easily pleased." - C.S. Lewis

Justin and Lewis were talking about the substitutes we are satisfied with, the things other than God that fill our days and bring temporal “joy.” But we are also “far too easily pleased” with our finite image of God Himself. We settle for this image of God as something that could exist on this small planet. We package this god very nicely and handle him at our convenience. Granted that is only reality. This finite mind can not comprehend the infinite Creator of the universe.

I wish I had taken a picture of Tim’s face when he finally looked up from the top of the mountain. Tim is prone to grand explosions of joy and he does take great pleasure in some of God’s most basic and wonderful creations. Last week was nothing less than a continual outpouring of that most child- like attribute which is only preceded by revelation. His face at the top was the best of them all because the anticipation, the waiting, the perseverance and the steadfast determination to experience something that big brought it about.

What would it be like if we could have that sort of experience with God? Everyday He makes new revelations most of which are either missed or ignored. But what if, what if we could look up from the small world inches from our noses and see the vastness and the greatness that is God? I don’t think you could stay the same, and you certainly wouldn’t ever look down again.

So why don’t we look up? What are we afraid of? That is just it, we are afraid of what we haven’t experienced because we haven’t looked up yet. One excuse that I have heard is that knowing God will force me to stop all the things I am doing today. How can I give up my friends or habits, my girlfriend or even wife, my job, security, home, or life, those things are all that I have and I just am not that much of a gambling man to trust that some ubiquitous God is going to see me and be there. I would HAVE TO give up sex with my girlfriend, the porn I look at, and the nights out on the town. Who wants to be a monk? That isn’t satisfying.

You know what I say? You are wrong but you don’t get it. You won’t HAVE TO give up anything! But what do I know? Not much. To bad you won’t even give Him a try because deep down, you are just…

It is tomorrow.

Jason