Standing in Awe

I remember clearly the night I accepted Jesus into my life. It was during a drive at night, and I was looking up at the moon in utter amazement. I remember asking my dad, "God made all of those stars and the moon?". He explained to me how God was the creator of all the Earth, and that if I accepted Jesus as my savior, I would be God's own daughter. I could not fathom how it was possible for God to create so much beauty and wonder, but at ten years old I knew I wanted Him in my life.
   
     As the years have passed in my journey of faith, there have been many times where I have had similar experiences as I did that night, often times when I am surrounded by nature. This past week I was on a beach in Mexico, and at night I stood at the edge of the sand with waves crashing before my feet. It had been a busy, stressful couple of months, and I was feeling exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually. Approaching the water, my weariness was met with complete awe.

As I looked out at the vast sea and the dazzling stars above, I felt so incredibly small compared to the world around me. I began to ask God, "who am I that the creator of all of this calls me by name?". I pondered on that for a while, but soon my focus switched from "who am I?" to "Who is God?" See, I began to realize that the reason I felt so small was because it is not about me. As I looked around and soaked in the beauty of creation, my soul was filled with the understanding that it is all about God.

Often this is exactly what I miss. In the business of the day-to-day, my school work, social activities, work, and so on I forget how great God is, and begin to focus on myself. Instead of feeling the glory of God all around me, I become bigger and God grows smaller. I lose sight of what is important and slowly my worship turns to worry. If you are anything like me, it is easy to forget to seek God each and every day. To make Him a priority and to live each day out of the child-like faith I had the night I accepted Christ. However, I think when we make life about ourselves, we try to carry the weight of the world on our own shoulders, which is why we result in feeling so drained.  Instead, I want to encourage you to remember who it is that does not only offer to free you from the weight of the world, but sent His own Son to take your place.

Author Brian Zahnd talks about this when he writes, "The gospel properly proclaimed and properly heard is a mystery evoking awe- not a prospectus eliciting calculation. Without astonishment as our initial response, we meet Christianity in a wrong way- or more properly, we meet Christ in a wrong way" (Zahnd, 159). My prayer for you is that you always make an effort to remember how amazing the God we serve is. Through every tired or busy day, find a way to rediscover the awe that came when you first received your salvation. It is not God that changes, but rather our own desires and distractions that so easily deter us from the majesty of our Lord. Evidence of our creator is all around, we need only open our eyes to the work He is doing both around and in us.

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Zahnd, Brian.  2012.  Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure & Mystery of Christianity. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House.