Seeing Him

So, there's this video on youtube that I can't find right now. It was really cool. It was about how the world would look if we had special glasses that let us see what people were really thinking when they say things like, "I'm fine". The point being, of course, that we miss a lot of the needs around us because we don't look carefully enough to see.

Today I've been thinking about what life would be like with a different kind of glasses.

Ones that let us see God's grace.

What would it be like if we could really see how good He is all the time? If we really grasped the depth and extent of His unmerited favor that He saturates us in?

It makes getting to know people worth it. Because you generally have no idea of how they manifest God's glory until you know an awful lot about them, about where they have been, about what they have grown out of.

I was thinking about it today during chapel as I was trying to figure out why I enjoy being with one of my friends so much. And it finally dawned on me: Because every single thing she does shouts to me that God is faithful. Her entire life is a testimony of God bringing beauty out of cosmic brokenness.

How different is that for any of us?

But I don't normally focus on that. Not even in myself. I don't go around thinking, Wow, the fact that I just took a breath is a proclamation of where God has brought me from. (Which it is, especially after I failed at breathing for ten minutes.) I don't remember, This is amazing, and I have no inherent right to be able to worship my Creator freely.

So here's the challenge: Get to know people. Look for the glory. And rejoice in it. Find ways to tell them, I delight at seeing God in you.

The Dangerous Idea of Academic Faithfulness

As background to this post, my college is very fond of a book called The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness. I haven't read it yet, and maybe I should, but I keep seeing the title since my one roommate has it laying around.

Today in Sunday School we were discussing prayer (also a staff focus at camp this summer) and how it works with being a college student and especially how it interfaces with being busy. And in the midst of this discussion, I began wondering if Christian schools shoot themselves in the foot at this point. You see, I understand that classwork is important. And academic integrity, yes, is important. And academic faithfulness also.

But maybe, maybe, for some of us, the idea of academic faithfulness is no longer outrageous and sometimes it dances too close to idolatry and that is not faithfulness, not when it crams our minds and hearts and souls so that we feel that we do not have time for devotions and do not have time to truly rest because

honestly

something else always needs to be done.

I don't know how this change comes about. I am sure that there are still people who need to be reminded that we are students and that is important and we have a responsibility to be faithful stewards of the gifts (mental, physical, financial) that God has graced us with.

But...

I wonder...

What about the outrageous idea of truly seeking first His kingdom... and His righteousness?

Because our calling isn't to be faithful to academics. And we are small and finite and forget that and would rather pretend that it is.

Instead, my heart needs to remain in the focus of the ring-engravement...

Faithless to None, Yet Faithful to One.

And all else will come in its proper place, and all shall be most well.