Hear Past the Explosions

Sometimes, the voices in my head and the voices all around me are so loud that all I really know is this: " 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his Word."

In the midst of a chaotic reality where everything is but a shattered image of the way it was designed to be, I KNOW that "all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together." [Colossians 1:16-17]

This is a pretty good place to start...

Rest.....

&

Keep laboring in love.

[Matthew 11:28-30]

Hope...Rest!

Imagine if the universe had a personality...what if the universe, as big and infinite as it is, could think and talk? What if it had eyes and those eyes had life in them?

[ I'm not on drugs, bear with me :) ]

Think about the largest animals on earth...think about the devastating, unforgiving natural disasters on earth. What if you tried to control that stuff? Think you could? Think you can make a hurricane bow down to you? 

How unforgiving, massive, and devastating is the universe, then? What if it had a vendetta or a chip on its shoulder and it was out to get us? And what if it was your job to stand up to the universe and tell it chill out?

I don't care how strong you are, go stand in front of a tornado and tell it to bow down! Good luck...tornado don't care! 

No matter how great my "kingdom" is here on earth, the sea will never submit to me (Luke 8:25). 

Never in my lifetime, will the universe bow down to me. 

Not only does Jesus control the universe and hold it together (as if that's not enough!), the universe bows to him!

Y'all, here is hope: 

This same Jesus is the one that breathed life into your individual personality.

The same Jesus that created love and laughter and cool breezes...he same Jesus that offers life in the midst of a chaotic world (John 10:10). The same Jesus that chose to give us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3-4)...I don't even know the extent of what that means but it gives me hope! 

Seriously, when life gets chaotic, where else am I gonna go? What else is gonna hold me together and stand me up? Even the seas and storms bow down to Jesus. This I can rest in! 

Hope and Creativity

Consider this:

- God created chicken to taste so great...isn't that wild? Would you have ever thought to look at a chicken and say, "man I bet that's some good eatin right there!"? Or even seen a pig wallowing in the mud and said to yourself, "I bet if I ate the backside of that thing, it would be delicious!"

- Have you ever noticed (of course you have) that when we see/hear something funny, happy, or exciting it triggers an involuntary movement of the muscles in our faces so that we smile and laugh? 

- When you get a cut or scratch, your blood clots on its own to stop the bleeding.

- There is no way the amazing feeling of a cool breeze running through your hair and skin is merely an accident!

-God knew that one day, man would mush up peanuts and grapes and spread them on bread...I'd be willing to bet that He said, "man I can't wait for them to discover the deliciousness of peanut butter and jelly!" 

- Hot water is somehow therapeutic and can sometimes get down to my soul...doesn't have to be, but it is!

- The roasting of the fruit of the coffea tree doesn't have to produce a glorious, brown nectar (coffee)...but it does!

- There has never been an identical sunset...ultimate artistry!

- The ostrich is a bird that can't fly but can outrun most of its predators....really? That one's just for kicks :)

- You are physically capable of performing this very complex process of reading...crazy, right?

- The Bible says that the hairs on our heads are numbered...sounds elementary, but really?

- When the tiny muscles inside of a cicada were created, God knew he was making a beautiful evening chorus for us here in the South.

[This is the God of the Bible who has made all of the promises you've always heard...]

Isn't it cool to think about how the Creator of the universe created things a specific way so that they would work for your good and his glory simultaneously? 

THIS I can rest in...THIS is what can sustain me when I'm not who I thought I was or when my own self-built "kingdom" crumbles. I don't know about you, but for me, believing that God is who he says he is is essential to believing his promises of sustainment, peace, rest, joy, etc...

How can you share hope with a broken world if you don't know what you hope in?

Ain't My Universe!

"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?" -Job 38:25-27

Job 38-39 has quickly become one of my favorite pieces of Scripture....there isn't even an INKLING of anything about us in there! 

What God has essentially said in the above verses is, "Look dude, I make it rain and I take care of the parts of the Earth that no man has EVER set foot on or even knew existed! It ain't about you, this is MY universe!"

God gives us glimpses of who he is, but we're looking through a keyhole at a being that is larger than the universe.

He is creator, controller, ruler, provider, sustainer, lover, and good...I DO know those things! But as far as presuming to know exactly how God works? Man....it's his universe, he does whatever he wants to!

So regardless of circumstances or what's going on around me and in the world, I know that it's his universe, everything is his, he does what he wants and he is still good! 

And knowing this about God, believers, makes him enough! 

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him!" -John Piper