Resting in the Arms of a Huge God

I found out today that my bank, due to "suspicious" activity on my account, has turned off (or, as they put it, "placed restrictions") on my Check card. It's a minor problem, but there have been lots of little things over the past three days that have served to really cause me to be frustrated. I've come to determine that if I didn't believe in the hugeness of God, I wouldn't have made it until now.

The words "Huge God" aren't just something clever I came up with for the title of this blog. They were carefully selected. I wanted something to capture the absolute bigness of God. And, yes, "huge" is a feeble attempt to capture his bigness. My understanding of God has grown considerably from when I first believed. Back then, he was a disciplinarian who was ready to cut me off if I did X sin "one more time." He was a kind of cosmic Santa, keeping track of my good deeds and bad deeds. And he was still distant - out there somewhere, not intimately involved in my life.

But as I have grown in my understanding of God and his ways, I've seen the true side of him (or at least as true as I can comprehend right now). He's not a harsh disciplinarian; he is a loving Father who will, when necessary, discipline his children (Hebrews 12:4-11). He's not distant and uninvolved, but very much connected to his creation and to us, his people.

But the greatest thing that I have learned about God over the years is that he is HUGE! When I was a child, I learned (like you may have) the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." But do you know what I've learned? He doesn't have the whole world in his hands. Consider with me God's description of himself through Isaiah:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?...He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. (Isaiah 40:12, 22, NIV)

Here, God says that he spread the heavens (universe) out like a curtain. And do you know how he measures the universe? The span of his hand. It's kind of like saying that "He's Got the Whole Universe in his HAND." Now I realize that this is poetic and the song is poetic and when we get right down to it, God doesn't literally have arms and hands (God is spirit - see John 4:24). But still, God lets us know that he is absolutely huge, and that he is absolutely in control.

God is announcing in this chapter that the nation of Judah is going to be destroyed. In the process, he reminds the people that he is in control, that he is God, unrivaled and unstoppable. And how does he introduce this section? Look at Isaiah 40:1 - "Comfort, comfort my people says your God."

It is a comforting thing to know that God is in control, that even when tragedy happens, he is in charge and that he wants us to rest in him. So whether it's a turned off ATM card or some sort of abuse or suffering, God wants you to know that you are not beyond his reach. Take comfort in the arms of this HUGE GOD!

How has God shown you his might and comfort during difficult times in your life? Where would you be if you didn't think he was in control?

Sometimes You Fly, Sometimes You Run, and Sometimes You Just Take One Step at a Time

You know what verse I'm talking about already. It's one of the favorite encouragement verses. We engrave it in our Bibles, make posters of it, and I even saw someone with a tattoo...

And while that is all well and good, I just wonder if we've ever stopped to think about the WHOLE verse. Isaiah 40:31 reads "but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

The way I saw this verse changed in Bible college after hearing a great chapel message about it. And I hope that you will see it differently too. The man (whose name I have forgotten!!) pointed out that the three parts of this verse could be linked to three events in Israel's history:

1. "Wings like eagles" - God delivering Israel from the land of Egypt (cf. Exodus 19:4)
2. "Run and not be weary" - possibly a reference to Elijah outrunning Ahab's horses (1 Kings 18:41-46)
3. "Walk and not faint" - perhaps a prophecy of the coming exile, where Judah would be taken captive by Babylon (2 Kings 25)

Eagle's Wings - God's Miraculous Intervention
These are miracles. Perhaps healing from physical sickness. Solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. These aren't everyday things. God intervenes where only God could intervene. Salvation in general is like this - God saves us when we are completely unable to save ourselves.

I recently had one of these "Eagle's Wings Interventions" happen to me. I'm not going to go into detail here, but let's just say God brought healing to an area of my life that had been a problem for 14 years. And it has been amazing. The grace and freedom I have experienced as a result is truly breath-taking. It's like soaring.

These may not happen to everyone, and they may not happen often. But when God delivers, it is exhilarating.

Running But Not Wearying
Sometimes God empowers us to do things we think we could not do. Share the gospel. Love others. Overcome some fear. And they are no less amazing. And they are more common. It works by God's empowering us to accomplish what he would have us do. Look at the book of Acts. Peter's preaching, the Church's boldness, and countless other examples. These were all God working his power through his people to accomplish his purpose.

Walking But Not Fainting
These are common to everyone. The death of a loved one. Terminal illness. Depression. Or just everyday struggles with our own sinfulness. These are the times when we feel abandoned, alone, or just forgotten.

This is probably common to daily life. Everyday problems and disappointments and failures, and we think we might never make it through. In fact, most of life is lived in the strength of "Walking but not fainting." But there is strength there nonetheless. Even when we think we can go one more step, we find the strength to take it anyway.

The Key: Trusting in the Lord
The key to accessing any type of this strength lies in where we have put our trust. If we trust in man or man's ways, then we will not see any of these types of God's intervention. But if our hope is in God, then he will come through. He may not do it in the way that we like, but he will bring us through.

So when you set out to encourage others or even encourage yourself, look for how God might be bringing others or you through. Maybe he'll give you an eagle's wings deliverance, maybe he'll help you take the next step and not fall apart. But look for and hope in him. He will deliver you.

How have you seen God at work in your own life? What have you learned from God's different means of delivering you through the hard times?

Why I Don't Care Anymore...And Neither Should You!

Our culture is just screwed up. And I used to think that there was something wrong with me.

After I watched Braveheart and The Bourne Identity for the first time, I heard a friend of mine telling his friend on the phone that we was "manning" me up. So, let me get this straight: I was somehow less of a man because I had never gotten around to watching these movies?

Somehow, somewhere, we've been lied to. Society seems to have a very refined definition of a man. John Rambo. William Wallace. James Bond. Jason Bourne. Macho tough guys who save the day and get the girl(s) in the end. In the real world, this means that if you don't do some approved "man" activity, you are somehow less of a man. Did a committee sit down and decide "These are the marks of manhood?"

Seriously, guys who don't play sports or shoot guns or go to NASCAR or football games or whatever - well they're looked down upon. I was one of these guys. I didn't like sports - I somehow got bypassed on the athletic gene. I'm not competitive at all. I'll watch sports, but I'd much rather sit down and have a good conversation at (insert restaurant here). I love to read. I don't mind getting dirty, but I don't like to get dirty.

And I was often ridiculed for it. Imagine what it does to a young boy to hear that he is a "sissy," "wimp," or worse (I've been called every name there is to be called). All I could respond was "there must be something wrong with me." And so the process of self-hatred began. I have struggled for years with a sense of my "lack" of "manhood" - at least by the world's definition.

But recently I have come to understand things differently. God doesn't make only John Rambo or Jason Bourne kind of men. Men who are rough and tough and don't take no crap off nobody. He also made men who are gentle - who can comfort someone who's hurting, who'll take a small child in his arms when everyone else is annoyed by them, who will give himself in service to others. Don't believe me? Look at Jesus. He embodied all of these characteristics: he is after all the Lion (Revelation 5:5 - strong, fierce, wild) and the Lamb (Revelation 5:6 - gentle, kind, weak).

Recently, while painting a stencil pattern on my grandma's patio, I realized something: I felt good doing this. I didn't feel weak or insecure. I felt confident. In fact, I was even enjoying myself. Now I realize that painting stencils isn't a very manly thing in the eyes of our society, but I've now realized that I just don't care. If you want to belittle me for not doing the right "manly" things, then you are clearly the one with the problem.

So I've stopped caring what other "manly" men think of me. And if you're a man that doesn't fit this society's definition, you shouldn't care either. Stop caring what others think of you. You will truly be a man when you embrace the type of man that God created you to be.

What do you think makes a man a man? What's wrong with men being sensitive? Why do you think this way? What can you do to change your perception and treatment of other men who may not fit your view of manhood?

The Danger of Hiding from the Dark

I have a confession to make. I'm not proud of it, and I certainly don't like having to say it, but here it goes. I'm afraid of the dark. There. I feel better. Even when I was like 13-14 years old, I was still sleeping with a night light on. Why? Because I was afraid that something would come out of the darkness and hurt me. A burglar would break in and steal my stuff. Someone would come in and hurt my family or even me. The pops and creaks that the house made while lying awake at night would terrify me, and I would lay as still as possible, trying to calm my heavy breathing. I would lie still and hope that the threat would not harm me. The darkness was always "out there," and the darkness intended to do me harm or send harmful things my way.

I think a lot of people in church can act this way. They meet for their "holy huddles" week in and week out, and they'll often point to the "evils" of those outside: Hollywood, media, educators, liberal politicians...you name it, we blame it. And so we try and shelter ourselves from all these influences. In a sense, we try to be night lights for each other. We try to ride out the dark night until the day is at hand. But in so doing, we fail.

You see, we are often looking for the darkness outside, but in so doing we neglect the darkness within. When we see evil as an external influence, we will try to shelter ourselves from it, giving it room to grow on the inside. Paul took the opposite approach. In Romans 7:18 he declares: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh." Later he laments, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:23).

It's easy to stand on the inside and condemn the darkness outside. But it's tough when we see our own inner darkness and come face-to-face with our own spiritual ugliness. We need Christ to shine in our hearts. We need for him to expose the hypocrisy, doubt, fear, self-righteousness, judgmentalism, etc., that hold us back from being a light - not to each other, but to the world.

How can we move forward to be the "light of the world" Jesus called us to be (Matthew 5:14)? What ways have we hidden that light, and how can we "shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15) rather than shut the world out for the sake of our "holy huddles"?