Tag: wonder

Posted in Living this Life

Lightning

Posted on by Sara

How do you capture lightning in a bottle? And yet here I am trying to do that with something more fragile – elusive words that seem to hold little of the substance filling my soul right now.

Sometimes life is like that … bringing you moments that weigh so much, and as soon as you try to grab ahold of it, you find the moment has passed and you’re left grasping for words.

But in essence, it never slips away. The impacts linger and the ripple effects can go through generations.

Lightning in a bottle.

The story starts 30 years ago. As a sophomore at Wheaton College – with my major sorted out and my plans in place – I spent a summer in Amsterdam, and encountered God in a whole new way.

I knew I would never be the same … I had seen and tasted a life spent communicating the beauty of walking with Jesus to those who were seeking… and I knew this was what God had created me for. I couldn’t go back to the person I had been just a month before, and somehow my major and plans didn’t make much sense anymore… when I returned to campus that fall, I felt a bit lost in it all.

“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” Deuteronomy 31:8

Do you believe the promises in Scripture, my friend? Do you believe that they hold the power of life or death? Sometimes a moment in time shows you how undeniably real these promises are…

But I get ahead of myself.

That year … returning to school and feeling a bit lost … I wandered into a class on C.S. Lewis. I thought it might be an interesting way to earn a few credits. That was the year I walked into Dr. Jerry Root’s classroom – and this part of my story begins.

  • I learned about the “F” ring of Saturn – and that it happens to be braided! I have never lost the wonder of that fact … and I have never stopped wanting to learn more about my God who scatters the stars in the universe, braids the rings around planets, and calls me by name.
  • I heard stories – stories of vulnerable intersections of humanity. Stories of relentlessly holding the Hope of Jesus out to all – boldly and selflessly. And the moments that may have felt like failures are the ones I carried with me all these years, because I learned that there is no “perfect” or “right” formula –  that I’m just one beggar showing another where to find Bread. I needed these stories … and I still do.
  • I learned to love the world  captured inside of a book. Not just to read it for information, but to enter into the wonder of what that particular book held for me. And to read it again and again simply to live in that world for another minute of time. My imagination was validated and enriched – and it has widened the borders of my world ever since.
  • I learned to wander through life with a sense of wonder, seeking God’s grandeur in the simple and to “look along” the beams of His glory to find His fingerprints in the world all around me.1

How do you capture with words the sum of a new perspective on life? You can only try.

How do you capture lightning in a bottle? You can’t.

But you can stand by with awe as you watch it strike again. Awe – and maybe a few tears.

Last week, after 30 years, Jerry Root walked into my life, again. “But as for God, His way is perfect” (Ps 18:30) We may know that, say it as if we believe it, but sometimes we need lightning to strike the same spot again. And that is what happened last week.

Sometimes life crowds out the wonder. Sometimes we forget to hear the bird singing its worship in the morning and we rush past all the glory blossoming in brilliant red and yellow and purple around us. Sometimes doing things for God stands in the way of us seeing God. Sometimes our hearts grow weary and our spirits grow heavy and the weight of glory becomes more than we can carry well.

So lightning strikes again … and reminds us.

I keep asking myself why my eyes grow wet whenever I think of that week. Jerry Root is a great man – a man who doesn’t brag about being one of the world’s leading experts on C.S. Lewis, rather he simply speaks as a man who walks with God, with conviction and humility. But this is not why my eyes grow misty whenever I look at these pictures.

30 years ago, I walked into a classroom, not knowing my life would be changed.

Last week, he walked into my classroom – the classroom of young Native leaders who I get to spend my time with – and helped me remember. And once again left me changed. Re-stoking longings to see God in clarity and wonder. To listen to His promptings and immerse myself in His story. To pick up those books that I keep putting off. In the beautiful symmetry of time, I got to see other’s hearts awaken to the wonders that impacted me 30 years ago, to see my own children grow excited about learning, to have my 15 year old ask me to take him to the used bookstore in town … When lightning strikes again, we pay attention.

And God has my attention.

I wonder – how is He getting your attention? Where is the lightning striking in your life right now? Pay attention, my friend. Sometimes He speaks in a still, small voice, and sometimes He speaks through the thunder and lightning. (Ex. 19)

Pause for a minute. Lean in and really listen. How is He speaking to you right now? In the silence, in the chaos, in the symmetry, in the lightning – do you hear Him? “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3)

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him…” – (Revelation 3:20)

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1“All of God’s creation becomes a beam to be “looked along” or a sound to be “heard along” or a fragrance to be “smelled along” or a flavor to be “tasted along” or a touch to be “felt along”.  All our senses become partners with the eyes of the heart in perceiving the glory of God through the physical world”  – John Piper

Posted in Living this Life

Air shows and roller coasters and prayers

Posted on by Sara

For that brief moment, as the ground shook and the sky roared, I could not stop myself from gasping out loud. I looked around me at my sons, and saw the same look on their faces – awe … wonder.

I’ve been thinking about that day alot lately. Also about my journey from where I was to where I am. And about the invisible line in our lives that keeps us in our “safe” little boxes. This strange day brought so many of those pieces together in one gasp.

We went to the air show. It was exciting – there were pilots doing things with planes that no plane is designed to do. We took so many pictures, saw so many stunts, ate good food, enjoyed the music, and generally had a really fun time.

But then the Blue Angels took to the sky, and everything was different. These F/A-18E/F Super Hornets can brag about their power, their speed, their G forces – but all I know is they took my breath away as they roared over my head in a way I had seldom experienced.

Then it was over in a split second, it seemed. But my heart was still racing. And I wondered – when is the last time my heart has raced like that? How often do I experience that “whatness” that is impossible to put into words, but we all know it when we feel it.

As those planes roared overhead, and my mouth hung open, I thought of the words of Jonathan Edwards – that we ought to “be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame [our] desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. . . . Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement” (Sermon on Canticles)

Allurement – what a weird word. Who says that anymore? I googled it and was told “allurement means fascination, charm, or the power to entice or attract”

I mean – isn’t that pretty much what I felt when those jets roared above me … power to entice or attract? We use other words, but I just couldn’t stop thinking that if I had just stayed home that day and not made an active choice to be where the planes were, I would have missed the moment.

But then more happened… keep walking through that crazy wonderful day with me. Because this next part is what makes me shake my head a bit and lean in to what this all really means.

We left the airshow and meandered over to our favorite amusement park, where they had a concert going on. This concert was a southern gospel staple – not the kind of music I listen to most of the time, but a fun way to end the day. As the concert kicked off, the emcee had a moment of prayer. And as the crowd in the ampitheater grew quiet for prayer, the emcee began to pray, and suddenly we heard screams erupt. Startled, I lifted my head to see what seemed like a strange juxtaposition, and that is when the Holy Spirit spoke loudly to my heart.

Behind the ampitheatre stage where a man stood with his head bowed is the tallest, fastest, steepest spinning roller coaster in the world. And as he said “dear Lord…”, that roller coaster hurtled behind him full of riders screaming in exhileration.

I giggled a little. Then I felt a little bad about giggling in the middle of a prayer. Then I pictured a smile on Jesus’ face – in the middle of it all and realized – there’s something more happening in the middle of all this. What do ground shaking jets, a simple prayer, and screams from a coaster all have in common? That simple phrase, “lay yourself in the way of allurement” kept rolling around in my head.

In this world of self promotion, branding, and influencers, the next great thing is always tugging at us. And that moment – my ears still ringing with the roar of jet engines, and now juxtaposed with the screams of exhileration alongside of a moment of prayer – made me pause: what does it mean to lay yourself in the way of allurement? Is it about seeking out the next adrenaline pumping exhileration and bouncing from one experiential high to the next? Is it the moments of solitude and quiet that comes in prayer? Were the screams of the roller coaster riders interrupting our prayer – or augmenting it?

I’m not here to break it all down for you and give you a simple formulaic answer. But I walk away with a truth in my heart: this wonder in life is all around us – each of us – every day. Whether it is in the ground shaking power of a plane, a quiet moment of prayer, or the unexpected drop of a roller coaster – there is a moment to capture that slips away in just that moment. How are we doing at letting it in? Are we living purposefully in the moments that we are given?

To wake up in the morning and be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the warmth of the sun’s rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the sheer being of things… becom[ing] alive to life… seeing what is there in the world—things that, if we didn’t have, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, ignore. Become more alive to beauty. Put your soul on notice that there are daily wonders that will waken worship if we open our eyes. (amended from quote by John Piper)

David captures this thought so perfectly in Psalm 35:7-10: “Both  high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light”

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: God has filled my life – your life – with innumerable “allurements”. Wonders and beauty and unexpected winks that are meant to “fascinate, charm, entice, and attract”.

Are we seeing it? What clouds our vision? Sometimes the fog of pain can be too thick – life can be so upside down it’s impossible to see through it. That’s real – yet even there, maybe this can help usher in a ray of light. I suspect on most days, however – for most of us – we’re just a bit too distracted. Glowing screens in our faces, the crush of the to-do list, the flurry of life, the decisions and challenges and daily pressures all crowd in and our eyes stop truly seeing.

Entering into this Christmas season with our surroundings decorated and our air filled with different music, maybe this is an invitation to live on purpose. To choose every day to lay yourself in the way of His allurements – to find the treasures He has tucked into your everyday rush that feed your soul with wonder and joy and life. To see and to savor, whether it’s the roar of jet engines, screams from a roller coaster, or just a quiet prayer.

“I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel” Isaiah 45:3

Posted in Living this Life

The extraordinary Ordinary

Posted on by Sara

Where were you when it happened?

That moment that changed your life… what were you doing in that moment? That moment when God came down? When your life was struck by something extraordinary and you were never the same…

Were you in Walmart? At work? Stuck in traffic? Making dinner or doing laundry? Or still waiting for a moment like that to hit, perhaps?

We’re in the season right now where there is alot of talk of Mary. You know, the Mary, who God chose to give birth to His deity… and I wonder: Where was she when it happened? What was she doing? When Gabriel visited and whispered words that changed her life forever. Words that we celebrate 2,000 years later because they also changed our lives forever.

So, I ponder my question. What was she doing to precipitate the visit of an

archangel? No one really knows. There are an awful lot of prettied up

images that seem alot holier than the lives we live. In these pictures Mary

often has a gold orb floating around her head and zero personality on her face… it’s hard to relate.

Maybe it will help if we back up a bit … we know what others were doing when a moment like this hit.

We know Abraham was just sitting … escaping the blazing heat of the sun by sitting in the entrance to his tent (Gen 18:1)

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

We know that Moses was tending sheep for his father-in-law in the desert. Just another day at the office for him. (Exodus 3)

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

We know that Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress – hiding and afraid, but still going about his work (Judges 6)

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

We know that Zechariah was just doing his duties in ministry … nothing out of the ordinary prepared him for the extraordinary that was about to rock his world (Luke 1)

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

We also know that mighty angels visited when Jacob was running away from home, Hagar was about to die of thirst, Lot’s life was in danger, Peter was in prison and Philip was told to go take a walk on a foreign road.

Finally – those famous shepherds on the hills outside Bethlehem… the ones we love to sing about? They were just dirty shepherds of ill repute, putting in another shift, keeping track of their sheep on a night like every other.

So here I am, returning once again to my original question in these days before Christmas: what was Mary doing when the eyes of the Lord found her? We hear that her Joseph was sleeping when the angel appeared to him … Scripture just doesn’t tell us about Mary. But you can see the pattern with me, can’t you? It seems she was most likely doing what she did every day. Living her ordinary life. Only, God didn’t find it so ordinary, and on that particular day, He chose to come down.

We live in a culture consumed by the extraordinary – We laud it on facebook and glamorize it on Instagram. We create dances for it on tik-tok and embed it with gravitas on X. We crave that viral moment that will somehow make our existence extraordinary. And we feel diminished by the “ordinary” of our lives when we see the tantalizing lives of others flashing before our eyes. And we wonder how we can be seen. How we can matter. How our ordinary lives can compete with all this extraordinary.

And young Mary was just going about her day – perhaps doing laundry or making bread. I don’t think there was anything different about that day when she woke up, but that day forever changed everything. The eyes of the LORD saw her. He saw her heart, fully committed to Him. And there, in all that ordinary, He came.

Do not scorn the ordinary, my friend. Do not look down on the insignificant and seemingly unseen. It is in this crucible that the realness of who we are settles in. It is the prayers uttered while up to your elbows scrubbing dishes in the sink or rocking your baby to sleep at 2 in the morning though your eyes refuse to stay open. It is while you are fixing your car or paying your bills. These are the tender places we find Jesus and determine if our hearts will stay fully committed to Him.

And these are the moments when He finds us. When a life can be altered in an instant – and we spend all our ordinary days preparing for it. So do not scorn the ordinary days, my friend. Rather, choose you this day whom you will serve … and serve Him with all your heart. Keep your ear pressed tight against His chest and listen to the thrum of His heartbeat. In all the ordinary, watch for Him and be ready. He’s weaving His story all around you right now, this moment! As His eyes range throughout the earth, what will He see when they land on you?

You may not expect an archangel to visit you in your kitchen or in your car on the way to work – neither did Mary. The truth is, God could send an archangel at any moment into our lives… but He doesn’t need to. Some of His final words to His disciple were this: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:26) And this is the reality that blows my mind and leaves me on my knees in worship!

Moses visited with God in a burning bush – and that same God resides in our hearts today! Abraham shared a meal under a tree with his 3 visitors, and Jesus Himself says to us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Rev. 3:20) When we are scared like Gideon, doing our mundane work in hiding, we are told, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) When, like Zechariah, our days are filled with serving others, we get this promise: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Try to wrap your mind around that. The God who created the Universe, wrapping Himself in the temple of our soul. And we think having angel drop by would be something extraordinary.

Just stop! For one minute, just stop the hurry, the bustle, the distractions. Set down your phone, close your eyes, and let this wonder wash over you. Stop chasing the extraordinary and let the woder of this truth sink deep into your soul.

Now open your eyes and look around you. What are you doing … this moment? Do you believe that the Spirit of God is with you – with a power greater than the archangel that visited Mary? Oh follower of Jesus, this is one of the final promises made by Jesus before He returned to heaven! Do you live like you believe it? And if you don’t know Him yet, oh friend – choose Him today! In this season where we celebrate welcoming Him to earth – will you welcome Him into your heart?

It seems the only real response right now is through the words of young Samuel: “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10)

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)