Rainy Day

Ever notice how sometime in December a gloom settles in over life? The weather just gets yucky, for lack of a better word. The sky turns gray, it's cold, and it's wet. Sometimes it can really affect life. I've known people who get seasonal depression, when the weather goes south so does their attitude. Personally, after a while I just go stir crazy being stuck inside. Today it's just rainy outside, I wish it would just snow because at least you don't get soaked when you go outside and it's pretty. Through the winter it just seems like there's a sense of gloom.

Our lives can be a lot like that. Sometimes we just enter a season where everything seems dull and gloomy. Not really full on depression, just a sense of the blah's. We kinda withdraw to ourselves and take it easy, being a bit less active and spending more time hiding under the covers. A lot of the time we can't really do anything about it, we just have to hold out for a sunny day again. We have to find a warm place inside that gloom, a place where we can find some warmth and light to hold out for the day when the skies clear again.

Not sure where all that came from, maybe it's just the rainy day outside. I can't say that at the moment things are gloomy in my life, but I do find myself seeking to withdraw a bit to take it easy and rest. Good weather is coming and I want to be ready to play hard again.

Living between worlds

Many people don't realize it, but we live in two worlds. The one that most people see, the one we try to exist in, is the world we have created around us. A climate controlled house, a climate controlled vehicle, a paved road, a mowed and weed controlled yard, a carefully constructed office, a world that is quite tame. Everything has been made to be safe, convenient, and comfortable. The other world is the wild world, the one we can't control. Mountains and rivers and forests and deserts and oceans. As recent news stories have informed us, these worlds are dangerous. It's hard out there, people get hurt. People die. So we try to tame that world too. Forests are cut down, rivers are dammed, and for the things that we can't fully tame, we create rescue squads to save people from those dangers.

But I sometimes wonder, are we saving people from the dangers of the wild, or are we slowly killing ourselves with a tame world. We're substituting the world that God made for the world we have created. We long for Heaven, but we're doing our best to isolate ourselves from the world that God called "very good".

I've had the pleasure to spend time with, and get to know, people who really love the great outdoors. They've found something out there and they love it. They know that it is "very good". The sad thing is, many come to worship the world, instead of the One who created it.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Romans 1:20-23

At the same time, many of the Christians I know are the ones who immerse themselves in the tame world. It saddens me that the people who should have the greatest appreciation for God's creation aren't interested, the people who are the most interested in the creation have no appreciation for the One who created it.

Psalm 19 is what comes back to me each time I go into the outdoors, I'll often print it and carry it with me on the trail. King David begins with his joy of the revelation of God in the world He created. This leads him to understand the goodness of the even clearer revelation that God has given to mankind in His Word. In the end, these bring David to humbleness before God. David looks at the grandeur of the creation and the goodness of God's Word to us, and he realizes how small, yet how loved he is.

I'll admit that I do much to live in the controlled, tame world. I'm not an advocate of escapism either, we must spend time in the broken world so that we can spread the new of a better world made available to us. However, I have to frequently revisit the world that God created to remind myself of what has been offered us.

I often dream of what heaven is going to look like. I look forward to being with the Lord, I pray that He says to me "well done good and faithful servant, come and enter into your master's joy." However, I see things in our world now and dream of what they might look like once they are restored to what they were before humans jacked everything up with sin. To enjoy the mountains and rivers. That maybe I can kayak the wild rivers without fear (will they have kayaks in heaven?). That God allows us to fly. However, my one fear about heaven is where it talks about there will be no night. I like night. There's a peace about night time, when things become quiet and the world becomes settled. But I know that God is good, and we won't have anything to complain about with heaven.

Thus the human dilema, to live in a fallen world, to find hints of what should be in the created world, to have the hope of the restored world to come.

Shadows of Creation

Psalm 19

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.

8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.

11 By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.

13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.