I’m sitting here with this view of the city that should captivate me. It should take my breath away by the sheer magnitude of the city and sunset. But I’ve already seen it. I’ve seen it so many times that I don’t ever come up here unless I’m with someone that’s never seen it before. Then it’s interesting; then it’s something to gaze at again. Only then does it become breath taking and beautiful!
I came praying God would meet me here and do something amazing. I expected some great sign or some awesome conversation between a stranger and I who would be so thirsty for hope and life!
None of that happened.
I took out my YouVersion app and started to read through the psalms thinking, “Ok God! This must be how you’re going to speak to me tonight!”
Nothing.
I sent a picture of my view to a friend of mine from Texas. His response, “Dude that’s sick!”
I figured he would think it was cool. It’s an amazing view. And then that’s when it hit me. I came here expecting God to show up in these crazy ways when all a long the beauty is always there. The beauty of live-giving hope and the story of redemption are always on display and showing off its greatness.
God wasn’t the one not showing up. I was.
Much like my view of the city had diminished into nothing more than a postcard, I feel like our view of God and our faith can do the same. That wonderful view of the city is always there and available to be enjoyed, I was the one that stopped visiting.
I was convicted.
“God! Break my heart again for those far from you with no hope! Give me a passion for the gospel message that is always screaming of its greatness and power! Give me burdens and passions for the very same things that you’re burdened and passionate about!”
The world we live in is damaged. It’s no wonder we can’t recognize something that’s actually truly beautiful and magnificent. We’re too consumed with what we see in the mirror. What’s in our accounts, what’s trending online, and Facebook likes and twitter follows.
That’s what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13. I love how the New Living Translation words verses 9-12. It says:
Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete…
Partial; Incomplete; imperfect; these are all things that describe our limited view of the truth. BUT!!! It’s still there and beautiful and powerful nonetheless! That never changes. There will come a day when we will, “know everything completely just as God knows” us completely (verse 12). There will come a day when we will be captivated and beautifully distracted by what has always been there.
It is us that need to adjust our focus. Pray that the Holy Spirit gives you a fresh view of what’s been there all along and a passion to act as Jesus would to proclaim hope and truth in a world that just wants to see true beauty and life!
“God, come wreck me. Really. Start over in my heart as if I’m seeing you for the first time!”
“We need to stop our world sometimes and be still in God’s presence because He has so much to offer us. He has bigger and better things waiting for us… we just need to go out and reach for it! He is standing by us. But we need to turn of the loud noises in our lives and listen to His whisper – ‘You’re wanted, you’re pursued, you’re worthy, and made for so much more!’” –Keri Reyes (visit her world race blog and follow her on her journey at keriannreyes.theworldrace.org)
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
