Monday, July 24, 2006
Not about eating bugs...
This weekend I had the opportunity to commemorate the end of my friend Justin's un-wedded life with him and a few other of his friends. The festivities started on Saturday with a trip to Valleyfair (near Minneapolis). I was pretty impressed with the park as a whole - there were a few good roller coasters, and the 125-foot pendulum/swing ride they added this year was a lot of fun.
Anyway, what I want to write about has to do with Sunday morning, so I'll spare you unnecessary details. Basically, after a 10-hour day at Valleyfair, the five of us headed to a nearby campsite (which was right by the Minnesota River), sat around a fire for awhile, and then headed to bed in an almost-big-enough-for-five-people tent. I happenned to forget my sleeping bag and pillow, so, needless to say, I didn't have the most comfortable night of sleep (or lack thereof). By about 8:15 in the morning, I was ready to just get out of the tent. All of the other guys were still sleeping, so I walked outside and found a dead tree that was laying over the riverbank and just sat on it for a long time. The sun was still behind a lot of the trees, birds were still chirping a lot, and there weren't many human noises yet, like cars or radio music. So, I'm sitting on this tree, watching this river, and then I realized that I was experiencing something I usually missed during the week, and wanted to start experiencing everyday. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first, since I knew I couldn't just wake up every morning and find a serene river scene in the backyard. But what I think I realized is that many times I'll take time to think and pray about things like ideas, or issues, or relationships (all of which is good), and I'll focus on them until there's some sort of resolution, and then I'll move to the next thing. But what I end up missing is the taking of time to actually listen and hear from God. Because as I sat by this river and took in everything that was going on around me, I couldn't help but just be quiet and open to receive.
As I was thinking through this on dead a tree by the Minnesota River, I noticed a few different kinds of birds darting over the surface of the water. Some were flying in pairs, some by themselves, and I saw one that would actually hit the surface of the water every once in awhile. I assumed that most of these birds were flying in order to hunt for insects, and maybe the one that hit the water was hunting for fish. But as I watched the birds more, I began to question my assumption. Instead of thinking, "The birds are flying in order to catch food", which seemed to be a reasonable scientific assumption, it hit me that maybe the birds were flying because they were meant to fly, and they got to eat as a part of fulfilling their purpose. And all of a sudden, I wanted to be like the birds. Instead of living in a way that thinks, "I'm working now for money," or "I'm going to school to become a lawyer," or "I'm reading my Bible to become a better Christian," I wanted to begin living out my created purpose to know and be with God, and work, study, and read as just a part of that life. We're not meant to sleep, eat, drink, walk, talk, cry, sing, think, love, etc. in and of themselves. They (along with any aspect or activity of life) must just be a part of the journey God takes us on to know Him more deeply and completely. And just like it's beautiful to see birds fly because they're meant to fly, it will be a wonderful things for us as humans to live knowing God more each day. Don't fly just so you can eat bugs - fly because you're created to, and maybe you'll catch something along the way.
Anyway, what I want to write about has to do with Sunday morning, so I'll spare you unnecessary details. Basically, after a 10-hour day at Valleyfair, the five of us headed to a nearby campsite (which was right by the Minnesota River), sat around a fire for awhile, and then headed to bed in an almost-big-enough-for-five-people tent. I happenned to forget my sleeping bag and pillow, so, needless to say, I didn't have the most comfortable night of sleep (or lack thereof). By about 8:15 in the morning, I was ready to just get out of the tent. All of the other guys were still sleeping, so I walked outside and found a dead tree that was laying over the riverbank and just sat on it for a long time. The sun was still behind a lot of the trees, birds were still chirping a lot, and there weren't many human noises yet, like cars or radio music. So, I'm sitting on this tree, watching this river, and then I realized that I was experiencing something I usually missed during the week, and wanted to start experiencing everyday. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first, since I knew I couldn't just wake up every morning and find a serene river scene in the backyard. But what I think I realized is that many times I'll take time to think and pray about things like ideas, or issues, or relationships (all of which is good), and I'll focus on them until there's some sort of resolution, and then I'll move to the next thing. But what I end up missing is the taking of time to actually listen and hear from God. Because as I sat by this river and took in everything that was going on around me, I couldn't help but just be quiet and open to receive.
As I was thinking through this on dead a tree by the Minnesota River, I noticed a few different kinds of birds darting over the surface of the water. Some were flying in pairs, some by themselves, and I saw one that would actually hit the surface of the water every once in awhile. I assumed that most of these birds were flying in order to hunt for insects, and maybe the one that hit the water was hunting for fish. But as I watched the birds more, I began to question my assumption. Instead of thinking, "The birds are flying in order to catch food", which seemed to be a reasonable scientific assumption, it hit me that maybe the birds were flying because they were meant to fly, and they got to eat as a part of fulfilling their purpose. And all of a sudden, I wanted to be like the birds. Instead of living in a way that thinks, "I'm working now for money," or "I'm going to school to become a lawyer," or "I'm reading my Bible to become a better Christian," I wanted to begin living out my created purpose to know and be with God, and work, study, and read as just a part of that life. We're not meant to sleep, eat, drink, walk, talk, cry, sing, think, love, etc. in and of themselves. They (along with any aspect or activity of life) must just be a part of the journey God takes us on to know Him more deeply and completely. And just like it's beautiful to see birds fly because they're meant to fly, it will be a wonderful things for us as humans to live knowing God more each day. Don't fly just so you can eat bugs - fly because you're created to, and maybe you'll catch something along the way.
# posted by G-rant @ 8:31 AM 
