Take a few minutes and check out this video from Louie Giglio (if the posted video isn't working for you, try copying and pasting this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWKm-LZWm4). It takes a few minutes but is far worth your time.
When I first watched that, it totally blew my mind. I mean, have you ever just stopped to imagine what it must sound like in the throne room of God? The sounds of whales and stars and trees and oceans, of birds and rain and lions and wind...and then there's us.
I don't intend to make it seem as though we are insignificant - we are wildly important, of infinite value to God - but doesn't it just make you feel so..small? So oblivious to all that is happening around you on this earth?
The crickets at night, the beating of that tree against our windows, the sound of rushing water; most of the time, we hear these things as noise, as sound. Not as music, and not as beautiful praises to God. But what if everything around us is just as much an instrument as is the cymbals or the guitar? What if there is beauty we've failed to see? It just makes me step back in awe at how small we are, how little we notice, how much God is all around us but we fail to see Him.
So here is my one, simple challenge for you today: stop. Slow down enough to notice the beauty God has placed around you. Stop and listen for the sound of all of creation exulting the God of the heavens and the earth. Stop and listen, stop and notice.
If you are at all like me, halting everything you have going on is a difficult task in busy seasons, and even "difficult" is a word that underestimates the feat. But I challenge you to stop, even if that requires setting aside a few of your responsibilities, because there is something better that beckons.
We see this repeatedly in the scriptures. In the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, Martha is making all these preparations for Jesus to stay at her house when he comes as a last-minute guest. Was what she was doing a good thing? Of course; she was serving, she was showing kindness, she was being a good host. But in the end, Jesus tells her that her sister Mary had chosen what was better, and that was sitting at his feet. Pushing aside, for the moment, her responsibilities. Listening.
When Jesus calls his first disciples in Luke 5, we see a glimpse of this as well. Jesus calls Simon Peter away from his job as a fisherman, a good profession. But Jesus didn't call him away from fishing because fishing was a sin; He called him away because there was something better for Him than what He was doing, and that was following Him. Once again, pushing aside the responsibilities, of his boat, his possessions, his family, his time.
So I challenge you, today, to slow down. Walk to your car with slower strides this morning. Drink your coffee in slower sips. And don't be afraid to push aside what is good in pursuit of a God who is infinitely better. Embrace the God who understands how difficult it is to slow down but who commands us nevertheless to be still, who "makes us rest in green pastures...leads [us] beside quiet waters...[and] refreshes [our] souls" (Psalm 23:1-3).
posted by Taylor Fohr
When I first watched that, it totally blew my mind. I mean, have you ever just stopped to imagine what it must sound like in the throne room of God? The sounds of whales and stars and trees and oceans, of birds and rain and lions and wind...and then there's us.
I don't intend to make it seem as though we are insignificant - we are wildly important, of infinite value to God - but doesn't it just make you feel so..small? So oblivious to all that is happening around you on this earth?
The crickets at night, the beating of that tree against our windows, the sound of rushing water; most of the time, we hear these things as noise, as sound. Not as music, and not as beautiful praises to God. But what if everything around us is just as much an instrument as is the cymbals or the guitar? What if there is beauty we've failed to see? It just makes me step back in awe at how small we are, how little we notice, how much God is all around us but we fail to see Him.
So here is my one, simple challenge for you today: stop. Slow down enough to notice the beauty God has placed around you. Stop and listen for the sound of all of creation exulting the God of the heavens and the earth. Stop and listen, stop and notice.
If you are at all like me, halting everything you have going on is a difficult task in busy seasons, and even "difficult" is a word that underestimates the feat. But I challenge you to stop, even if that requires setting aside a few of your responsibilities, because there is something better that beckons.
We see this repeatedly in the scriptures. In the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, Martha is making all these preparations for Jesus to stay at her house when he comes as a last-minute guest. Was what she was doing a good thing? Of course; she was serving, she was showing kindness, she was being a good host. But in the end, Jesus tells her that her sister Mary had chosen what was better, and that was sitting at his feet. Pushing aside, for the moment, her responsibilities. Listening.
When Jesus calls his first disciples in Luke 5, we see a glimpse of this as well. Jesus calls Simon Peter away from his job as a fisherman, a good profession. But Jesus didn't call him away from fishing because fishing was a sin; He called him away because there was something better for Him than what He was doing, and that was following Him. Once again, pushing aside the responsibilities, of his boat, his possessions, his family, his time.
So I challenge you, today, to slow down. Walk to your car with slower strides this morning. Drink your coffee in slower sips. And don't be afraid to push aside what is good in pursuit of a God who is infinitely better. Embrace the God who understands how difficult it is to slow down but who commands us nevertheless to be still, who "makes us rest in green pastures...leads [us] beside quiet waters...[and] refreshes [our] souls" (Psalm 23:1-3).
posted by Taylor Fohr
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