Stuff Christians Like is this great new blog I just started reading. It's written by Jon Acuff, a hilarious and witty guy who really understands the church and the direction that modern Christianity is taking. Anyway, on his blog he writes about things that your typical Christian will relate to doing, liking, thinking, or undergoing.
One of his recent posts is #575. Refusing the gift of the desert road. In this post, he brings up this passage from Exodus:
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. (Exodus 13:17-18)
Acuff's point from this passage was that God loved the Israelites so much that he would not lead them into a situation that he knew they couldn't handle. So even though the Israelites may have believed that they were tough and hardy and ready for battle, God knew what they didn't and he saw that they needed to take the long desert road to prepare themselves.
In my college group last night, we watched a video from Louie Giglio. He was kind of talking about this same concept and he said something I really liked:
"We only see little snapshots, but God is painting on a canvas the size of the universe."
This hugeness is a characteristic of God that I really love. I've begun to think of him more as an eternal being than just a super powerful human because that's who he's showing himself to be.
I spent last weekend in my favorite place on earth and even got to attend the church that had so much to do with my personal and spiritual growth when I was 16. I haven't had a chance to visit it in the past three years; well, I haven't had the courage to visit it. But last Sunday, I bundled up all my nervousness and walked right into that church building with my shoulders back and my hair brushed away from my face. And it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it was going to be. In fact, I was even able to hear God in the worship music. And this is what he said to me:
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done in this city
I've been focusing a little too much on things that God has done for me in the past. And it's true, he has done some amazing things in my life. He's met me in dozens of cities around the world and provided for me no matter where I've ended up and, countless times, revealed himself to me in the mundane, the ordinary, the average. He's given me gifts and taught me how to use them. He's put me in a family that, I'm convinced, may just take over the world some day and that is just the way I like it. He's done miracles in my life and saved me from so much more than I can understand.
But that's not the best part about God's relationship with me: even with all of these things he's already done for me, he's not done yet.
He's an active and living God and maybe I have been on a desert road for the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean he loves me any less than he did at one point in my life. If anything, it means he loves me more. And because God is so incredibly huge and I am just one tiny little snapshot in the canvas of the universe, I can't see what he's preparing me for or propelling me towards or sending my way.
But I can trust that he knows what he's doing because, based on what he's already done, he has some great things planned for my life. I just need to wait a little while so I can be ready for them.
