So this is my third blog since I've been doing this, and well I guess I've not been very consistent, and who knows, I may be the only one who reads this. If so, cool I guess.
Let me first say that I am starting a new project that is gonna kill when it is done. KILL. (Figuratively, that is.) Can't say anything about it, but it will be revealed around the end of the year. I can say that it is bringing me closer to God and it will all of you too. And it will be big. This won't be another one of those things that you start and never finish, no, this will be completed, and if you knew what it was, you'd understand why.
Second, I will also say that I am really wanting to go somewhere where God's beauty through creation is displayed on more epic proportions. In general, I have been blown away by God's creation like never before this year. Summit was a big push in that direction, and Party of the Galaxy helped spurn that as well. Something I love to do is just stop life in all directions and just watch. To stop thinking about what I'm doing, what I've done, and what I'm going to do, people, and activities and just watch life outside myself unfold before my eyes, namely, in nature. If you're like me, then you get this real nostalgic feeling every time you go on a hike, kind of like you're coming home after being away your whole life. Like you used to be one with the landscape of the trees, waters, and wind, but you left and now you're coming back after an eternity. And I'm not trying to be all New-agey "spiritual" on you, because I believe this feeling comes from our origins as man living in the garden of Eden, naked and innocent in nature. but then we sinned and fell short of perfection in nature, and when we return it's like going home again.
I want to move to somewhere on the west coast so bad, at least for a short season of my life. If you haven't been somewhere like California, Oregon, Washington, British Colombia, or Alaska, I pity you. I really do. My favorite part of America, hands down. I love the warmness, the palm trees, the mountains, and the rain, but one of my favorite things ever is the sea. Few things have I seen with more beauty, but also scares me to death. Even over mountains, the sea makes me feel incredibly, incredibly small. I mean, what can you do against all that water and might? What can you do to stop the shifting of the tide? What creature is larger than a whale? What expanse is deeper than the deep Atlantic rifts? We've only explored 5% of the body of water that covers 75% of the earth. Who knows what mysteries lie in the deep, dark places of the ocean.
Against the power of the ocean there is now hope for a man. As you sink deeper towards the floor, the pressure crushes your body. While the seas themselves extinguish the life of a man, it gives life to millions of species. From the shores, beaches and reefs teeming with bizarre and colorful kinds of swimming creature to the barren reaches unknown to all perception, life inhabits the seas. I love sitting by the sea and watching the ever-changing waves, smelling the bitter air and listening to the pendelumnic crashes, but being actually in the open ocean scares me to death! There's no way of knowing what's under you. How terrifying is that. When I went on my youth group's trips to Vancouver and an island off the coast of British Colombia, we used to jump off of this rock into the sea where sea lions often poked their head up. Below us, dark waters. For goodness sakes, what if one of them started acting hostile! In the long and short of it, the mystery of the sea both enchants me and terrifies me.
A lot like my view of God. God isn't like a kiddy pool where the water is clean and shallow, and you can have fun and be safe. You can't see shore to shore with God. He is a mystery. And because of the terrifying mystery that he is, I love Him for that. He is bigger than even the seas we know. His understanding is deeper than the largest trench. He is more consistent than the tide. His wrath makes a violent tsunami seem like a bubble bath. He has removed removed our transgressions as far as the East is from the West. Whatever I begin to feel around the ocean, I know God is greater in every way. Don't ever let anyone convince you that our God is a nice, friendly, cute little God that you can manipulate by saying just the right words. Because He is more uncontrollable than the tidal wave, and with the breath of His nostrils, He parted the Red Sea. It wasn't even straining for Him. Fear Him greatly. But let that fear of mystery drive you to love Him, for He is worthy to be lifting up by every tongue and every people. Amen.
"You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea"- Micah 7:19
