What a beautiful day! I couldn't believe it. It was actually too warm to wear even a long-sleeve shirt. Since it was so nice, I decided to get out of the office. I didn't even go in until right now. I met with some people this morning at the local coffee shop, JP's. I spent some "Couch Time With God," reading in Ecclesiastes and Mark.
It was nice to just sit and be quiet. I am learning a new appreciation for quietness. I turn my stereo off in the car when I drive, so that I can spend that time trying to talk with my Savior. I don't open Windows Media Player on my office computer right away anymore when I arrive, although I do have some Andy Hunter playing right now. I am learning to take advantage of the quietness. And I have found that in the quietness, I can actually FOCUS. Sometimes when we are surrounded by noise and other senses-stimulating activities it can be hard to listen or see a God who most times chooses less senses-stimulating ways to arouse us or communicate with us. We then complain about not hearing Him or seeing Him the way we like or know. When, in truth, it is our own doing -- we drowned Him out. Oh, how often this happens!
On this gorgeous day, I went for a walk. I walked around Hope College and the surrounding downtown Holland area. This is always a time of refreshment for me. A time for movement of my limbs. A chance for my skin to feel wind gently moving by. It was from my walk today that I draw the inspiration for this writing...
Although I have seen them numerous times before, I noticed the squirrels today a little more than usual. This weekend could very well be the last "nice" weekend we have before the cold breaks. And the squirrels... seemed to know what was up (smart little furry creatures). They were everywhere. They seemed frantic. Moving. Running. Sniffing. Collecting. I have never seen such fast-paced work before in my life, not even from humans. Most of the squirrels refused to acknowledge my existence. Except for one little guy (or girl I suppose...I admit I did not check) who threw his entire body over a hole in the tree where, presumably, he had stored up for himself a nut-harvest quite plentiful. He took one long look at me and began uttering an array of inappropriate "squirrel lingo" as I approached. Apparently, I looked hungry. If only we could have sat and chatted things out. I would have told him that tree nuts do not sit right with my digestive system (it does all kinds of "squirrely" things). But he was adamant that I just keep walking by.
Seeing those little fur-balls work as they did, I've had all kinds of thoughts running through my head tonight. Crazy thoughts. Random thoughts. One of these such thoughts brought me to the passage in Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What does it mean to store up treasure on earth? What does it mean to store up treasure in Heaven? Read Matthew 5:1-2 for the context of this passage and then jump over to chapter 6:19-24. Look at what Jesus is teaching the people. He is answering a question that perhaps they did not even realize they needed to know the answer to: What really matters?
All the squirrels have ever known is survival. It is how God wired them. They know when the season is about to change. How difficult it will be for finding food. So they work their fluffy little tails off to store up a food pantry for the winter. A survival kit. They shift into 6th gear and vrooooooom! they are off. Nothing else seems to matter. They are driven. They are intense. They are trying to survive.
Imagine that every grocery store in the country closed their doors from November 1st till March 1st. The store's reason for this is that it is not safe for transporting food products in the snowy conditions. The shelves are cleared. The doors boarded up. What do you think would happen? Can you picture the video shot, captured by store cameras, as it airs on the NBC 10 o'clock news of what stores were like on October 31st? Do you think people might be a little panicky? What if we felt the same urgency with the message of the Kingdom of God? What if we worked so intensely for storing up treasures in Heaven? What if I began to really see the harvest as being plentiful, as Jesus said it was? And what if the urgency I felt made my life's mission those around me who live in the darkness of the world, separated from the grace and truth of God. My Papa.
This brings me to the next point: How far away from their home do you think the squirrels travel to find their nuts? I do not claim to be any kind of squirrely person (uh...I mean squirrel expert), but I bet the squirrels do not have a very large traveling radius. They stay close to where they know. They just have to be intentional where they are at. And our radius isn't that large either. We should not have to look very far to see the people around us that still need to know. We just need to be intentional. We are not called to worry about food for the winter. We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be witnesses of God's realness. His activeness in this world. God is calling all the hungry. He is calling us out to feed the world. And I am not talking about physically, although this is one part of the calling. But God is calling us to be feeders of the greatest message of all time: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" -John 3:16 and "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed" -1 Peter 2:24. Food for the soul. The nuts and bolts of why Christ came.
It was nice to just sit and be quiet. I am learning a new appreciation for quietness. I turn my stereo off in the car when I drive, so that I can spend that time trying to talk with my Savior. I don't open Windows Media Player on my office computer right away anymore when I arrive, although I do have some Andy Hunter playing right now. I am learning to take advantage of the quietness. And I have found that in the quietness, I can actually FOCUS. Sometimes when we are surrounded by noise and other senses-stimulating activities it can be hard to listen or see a God who most times chooses less senses-stimulating ways to arouse us or communicate with us. We then complain about not hearing Him or seeing Him the way we like or know. When, in truth, it is our own doing -- we drowned Him out. Oh, how often this happens!
On this gorgeous day, I went for a walk. I walked around Hope College and the surrounding downtown Holland area. This is always a time of refreshment for me. A time for movement of my limbs. A chance for my skin to feel wind gently moving by. It was from my walk today that I draw the inspiration for this writing...
Although I have seen them numerous times before, I noticed the squirrels today a little more than usual. This weekend could very well be the last "nice" weekend we have before the cold breaks. And the squirrels... seemed to know what was up (smart little furry creatures). They were everywhere. They seemed frantic. Moving. Running. Sniffing. Collecting. I have never seen such fast-paced work before in my life, not even from humans. Most of the squirrels refused to acknowledge my existence. Except for one little guy (or girl I suppose...I admit I did not check) who threw his entire body over a hole in the tree where, presumably, he had stored up for himself a nut-harvest quite plentiful. He took one long look at me and began uttering an array of inappropriate "squirrel lingo" as I approached. Apparently, I looked hungry. If only we could have sat and chatted things out. I would have told him that tree nuts do not sit right with my digestive system (it does all kinds of "squirrely" things). But he was adamant that I just keep walking by.
Seeing those little fur-balls work as they did, I've had all kinds of thoughts running through my head tonight. Crazy thoughts. Random thoughts. One of these such thoughts brought me to the passage in Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What does it mean to store up treasure on earth? What does it mean to store up treasure in Heaven? Read Matthew 5:1-2 for the context of this passage and then jump over to chapter 6:19-24. Look at what Jesus is teaching the people. He is answering a question that perhaps they did not even realize they needed to know the answer to: What really matters?
All the squirrels have ever known is survival. It is how God wired them. They know when the season is about to change. How difficult it will be for finding food. So they work their fluffy little tails off to store up a food pantry for the winter. A survival kit. They shift into 6th gear and vrooooooom! they are off. Nothing else seems to matter. They are driven. They are intense. They are trying to survive.
Imagine that every grocery store in the country closed their doors from November 1st till March 1st. The store's reason for this is that it is not safe for transporting food products in the snowy conditions. The shelves are cleared. The doors boarded up. What do you think would happen? Can you picture the video shot, captured by store cameras, as it airs on the NBC 10 o'clock news of what stores were like on October 31st? Do you think people might be a little panicky? What if we felt the same urgency with the message of the Kingdom of God? What if we worked so intensely for storing up treasures in Heaven? What if I began to really see the harvest as being plentiful, as Jesus said it was? And what if the urgency I felt made my life's mission those around me who live in the darkness of the world, separated from the grace and truth of God. My Papa.
This brings me to the next point: How far away from their home do you think the squirrels travel to find their nuts? I do not claim to be any kind of squirrely person (uh...I mean squirrel expert), but I bet the squirrels do not have a very large traveling radius. They stay close to where they know. They just have to be intentional where they are at. And our radius isn't that large either. We should not have to look very far to see the people around us that still need to know. We just need to be intentional. We are not called to worry about food for the winter. We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be witnesses of God's realness. His activeness in this world. God is calling all the hungry. He is calling us out to feed the world. And I am not talking about physically, although this is one part of the calling. But God is calling us to be feeders of the greatest message of all time: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" -John 3:16 and "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed" -1 Peter 2:24. Food for the soul. The nuts and bolts of why Christ came.
1 comment:
I LOVE the analogy, Kevin. Isn't it amazing how God gives us these lessons every day, if we just open our eyes enough to see them?? Looking forward to further reading.. Hope to see you soon!
cara
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