About Me

Christ follower, husband, father, minister, musician.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Grass and Shooting Stars

There are three mundane activities that I do that allow for contemplation and dreaming. One of them is mowing the grass. Since it rained every day in April, I’ve gotten some good time to think and ponder. Wednesday I was pushing through my backyard and God began to put in my mind some “What ifs” and “howabouts.” (Solitude and silence are great moments for God to do this.) Most of these realizations are resurfacing themes and ideas that I’ve heard in seasons past. They are not original. But for the first time I began to envision them as my own. And that’s when it starts getting wild and crazy. *Enter picture of Steve Martin in your head* *Now back at me*

I’ll let you in on the rabbit trails I went down later. For the moment let’s just stick with the reality that we don’t have breaks. We intentionally honor God through our intentions, but usually that’s the best we can do is intend. A year ago I heard a wise man talk about silence and being still enough to hear God. Most often we don’t, or at least I don't. But every once and a while I’m rich enough to pay attention and I hear something. Or I think something. Or I feel something. And it’s not from me.

And then I plan on making sure I get more time to be with God. And God LOLs. Or is it LsOL? Either way He knows that unless I have some built in time where I’m forced to stop and not listen or think about anything else, it’s just not going to happen. He’s pretty much right, and I hate that!

But intentions have been made. I will try once more. Because if I do get there and He is speaking, I want to hear. It’s like when I worked summers at a camp in the mountains of Western PA. We’d spend many nights sleeping under the uninhibited canopy of mountain sky counting satellites and watching for shooting stars. We were hoping to catch the BIG ONE in our view as it scratched the night sky. Usually, though, there were only little blips. “Oh, there’s one!” and you point to a place that no longer has any remnant of celestial activity. Someone next to you would reply “Saw it” even if they didn’t because no one wants to miss the magic. But every once and a while you’d hear “WHOOOAAA” and you may even sit up in your sleeping bag and wonder. Did that enter the atmosphere and crash into a hillside in India?

We were at camp for 10-12 weeks and each week we’d have a different set of campers. Sometimes they were 8, sometimes they were 18. But most of them had never seen a clear sky and never seen a shooting star. So I intentionally brought them up to sleep in the field and experience it. Everyone wants to see a shooting star.

Everyone wants to hear God’s voice. From the littlest thought of a hint of a whisper to the loudest clarification of His guidance and presence, we want to hear from Him. It’s in our bones.

I’m grateful for every chance to mow my lawn.

No comments: