We are inundated with information today. It is too much. It prevents us from thinking deeply – some call that meditation. It takes time to be still, to just listen to what God is saying to us. We all need some time in nature, that part of God’s creation that glorifies Him by its mere existence. Nature does what it was created to do. Every creature there lives as God created it to live. Trees are trees, wolves are wolves, ants are ants, eagles are eagles. You get the idea.
The only creature that often strays from the way it was created to be is the human being. Irenaeus wrote that the “glory of God is a human being fully alive.” All created beings “sing the glory of God” just by living and being what God made them to be. But men and women are more complicated than animals and plants. It is our blessing and our curse.
To be endowed with the ability to think critically and to think meditatively (delve into Mystery) makes us so much more complex than any other creature. But, the silver lining for us is that we have God to turn to, to rely on, to thank for just being here, and ultimately to worship. And when we do those things, we too glorify the Lord with our lives.
Those of us who have a relationship with the Triune God need to figure out a way to share the beauty and the peace that comes through that blessed communion with the increasingly vast number of people who do not. It’s tragic really. Some people know there is a God. Some people believe in a god made in their own image. Some people doubt God’s existence, though I don’t know how you do that without doubting your own. Sadly, some people do indeed doubt their own existence. Or at least they doubt the reason for their being.
You are here to love and serve God in your brothers and sisters. We are here to love one another. And to, one glorious day, live in eternity with our God. Sound too simple? What other reason could there be? Is there no reason? Then what’s the point? And that’s what I see all around us in the U.S. and read about in much of the rest of the western world where God has been denied, forgotten, or worse. People who don’t know God have no hope; they have no reason for getting up in the morning. Meaning for their existence is lacking. This makes them scared or bitter or distracted by other things that can never fill their need for God. And so they grow angry and/or despondent. They despair. There is no hope.
Those of us with the hope that is Jesus Christ ought to be moved with compassion to help heal, to help free them from their fears and anger, to give hope to those who do not know and love God. Hey, to know Him is to love Him. Amen? Joy will come with hope. And hope is only found in a relationship with God. God is lovingly calling every one of us to Himself. And in the most amazing privilege of life, God wants those of us who know Him to participate with Him in that call.
Drowning in Lemonade 