Finding God in the Mundane
So I am sitting at home today with my daughter. She is so funny and cracks me up so often. Like always, she was having a hard time taking her nap and would stand up in her crib and scream at the top of her lungs. As a devoted father I let her scream it out assuming that she would tire and eventually fall asleep. Twenty minutes later I finally decided I needed to save my daughter from her horrible crib that must be eating her or something. I open the door and our eyes meet and she giggles for joy at her triumph. God is there.
I then feed my daughter her lunch (Peas and Apples with Blueberries!). She eats every bite with fervor until she catches a glance at the cat walking by and then her attention is fixed upon the cat. She can’t take her eyes off the cat. She is caught in some feline-trance. No matter what I do, she does not open her mouth or even blink (ok, she did blink, but I thought it added to the intensity). Finally, the cat leaves the room to sleep peacefully somewhere else and my daughter looks back at me and smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen. God is there.
Finally, I decide to do some reading with my daughter. But, instead of her basic reading books I pick up a book that I have been reading and decide to read out loud to her while I hold her in my arms. The entire time I am reading about the nature of God she is grabbing at the book, at my shirt, at the couch, and at my face. As I am reading outloud she becomes fixed upon my lips and starts to grab them and pinch them as I am reading. By this time I had stopped reading and am now loving her enfatuation with my lips. I begin humming as she opens and closes my lips making a different noise. She giggles with pleasure at the change in pitch she can make and this goes on for ten minutes as I hum, she flicks my lower lip, she giggles, I laugh, and the whole process begins again. God is there.
Simple daily occurences. God is there. We seem to believe that God is only in the big, amjestic things of life. Like a thunderstorm, waves crashing on the beach, a sunset, the National forest. But, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Whether in joy or in pain, God is there. Whether in love or anger, God is there.
Look back at your day today and look for God in the simple things of your day. How did you respond? Did you miss him in those moments? Did you find him and rest in Him?
Hide and Seek
Luke 11:9
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
How many times have I read this verse or quoted this verse? How many times have I just seen the words and never really understood the meaning? I have really been struggling with God because I feel that He is so far away and doesn’t seem to care about me, my family, or my ministry. It feels like we have been playing hide and seek and that instead of hiding in the closet He has gotten in his car and driven off somewhere. As if God has a car. But, needless to say, I have felt very dry and brittle. And then I come across this verse- this passage that I have read so many times, I have memorized the order, heard three point sermons on asking, seeking, and knocking. It seems so basic, but it is so deep. God doesn’t want to be distant, he wants to be found. He desires to be close to us. And just like a little child we search in all of the wrong places and don’t notice the clues all around us like the shoes sticking out from under the drapes or the leg sticking out from behind the couch. Instead we search under the cushions of the couch or are so timid that we don’t search at all.
God has put clues all around me. I have just been searching for Him in all of the wrong places. I have been searching for Him in the details rather than sitting back and seeing the big picture before me. God wants us to seek Him, He even has given us clues. I love this game and want to keep playing. I’ll count…one, two, three…
Jesus and Joy
Luke 10:21
“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.'”
Jesus had just finished receiving the 72 disciples that he had previously sent out. He heard of their amazing adventures and probably some really cool stories. I always picture Jesus being upset with the Pharisees for not fully understanding the Law or upset with the disciples for not getting it at all. This passage struck me sideways when it says that Jesus was full of joy and the reason for it. Jesus was filled by the Holy Spirit with joy. He was so stoked at the stories from his disciples that he was “filled with joy.” I hope that I cause Jesus to be filled with joy. I hope my stories of what He is doing would cause him to get excited about me.
I also found it interesting that Jesus gets excited that these things were hidden from the scholarly and made known to the simple. I hope I am always simple and trusting in Him with all that I am.
God, may my life today fill you with joy and may I be like a little child andtrust you. Amen.
The Parable of the Sower
Luke 8:4-15
This passage of scripture fascinates me. I have read this passage so many times, but each time I get something new out of it. I always want to be the good soil and I always want those that hear me be the good soil, but that is not always the case. Right now I am going through a series with my students entitled, “Built to Last.” It is a series based upon the house built on sand and how it got washed away when hard times came to it. This passage of scripture describes that same time of faith. The seed that fell on the rocks is like those people that receive the word with joy and are so excited about it, but they have no root and do not desire to go deeper. Verse 13 describes them this way, “they believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” What kind of believer am I? Will I still be strong in my faith even when the hard times come or will I fall away because that is the easier thing to do?
God, may I always be strong for you. May my roots dive deep into your Word and may I grow strong like an Oak tree. Amen.
Genesis 11:4
“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.'” These people were so proud of what they were going to accomplish. They thought of only themselves and of making themselves great. They thought they could do anything. Even God believed that they could do anything as well and that is why he chose to scramble their languages and scatter them across the world. What are the towers that we want to build?
Personally, thinking about this passage causes me to wonder what towers I am building in my own life. What are the things that I am striving to do on my own for my own personal gain? Each one of us can think of things from our wealth, our homes and how enormous they are these days to the way we dress and appear before others to receive accolades from our coworkers, etc. Are we doing things to please God or man? Are we doing things to bring security, prestige, and glory to ourselves?
God, may I continually seek you in all that I do and put you first in my life always and not just when I feel like it.
Luke 3:22
“You are my Son,whom I love; in you I am well pleased.”
I just love this passage of scripture and how the Father says this about Jesus. I just get so excited when I read this because He thinks the same thing about me. It causes me to also get so frustrated whn I don’t live up to this standard of “being pleased.” There are so many times when i know that He is not pleased with me because of things that i do. But, our God is a loving and merciful God who forgives us no matter what we say or do. Because of His Son and the sacrifice he made he is pleased with us all the time.
I want to continue to strive to live up to this standard and continue to grow in my walk with Him this Year. Will you join me?
Jon Nungester-Living from the Inside Out 