Posted 10:50 PM by Luke
Can I see God molding me even in the mundane?

Just one of those days.

One in which I can't help but be bogged down by the realities of day-to-day annoyances. My motivation for school is at an extreme low, and I am thinking way too much about my post-graduation life. Rather than enjoying where I am as much as I should, I can only think of a time where my life is not structured around tests, papers and classes. If things such as school and part-time jobs are so insignificant in eternity, why do they seem to be so consuming here? It's a whole lot easier to see God when I am standing in the mountains rather than sitting in a crummy auditorium listening to a professor drone on and on. I don't mean to be anti-school or anything....it's just that more and more I find myself wondering what of this will stick with me for the rest of this life. The random facts I learn about grammar in mag editing, or the bonds I form with people and the things I learn about God? Hmmm, tough choice. They are both equally inspiring (sarcasm intended). I want to be drawn closer to Christ in everything I do, but it's not always feeling that way in the little day-to-day things. I don't want to be dragged down by them.

I expect great things from God. I know they will come in His time. There is more to life than journalism, day jobs, bills or any other thing that doesn't reach into your heart. Believe it, because it's true. We have desires within that have been choked and sold short on the manmade jokes of this world. The answer isn't to kill the desires. It's to find what they were really intended for in the first place.

"For if we could recover this desire, unearth it from beneath all other distractions, and embrace it as our deepest treasure, we would discover the secret of our existence."--John Eldredge, "The Journey of Desire"

Posted 2:22 PM by Luke
"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling...."

Sorry the posts have become few and far between. What did you expect once school started, though? In any case, I try to write whenever the urge overcomes me. Sometimes with particular purpose, other times just to say what's up. There's nothing much to tell about school right now. School is school, and that's that. It can drag you down sometimes, but you just gotta do it.

The real thing I've been thinking about this past is the fear of the Lord. Or, rather, the proper reverence I should have for Him as a believer. Because, on one hand, I am redeemed and do not have to fear is judgement, but He is still GOD, the great "I AM". We are studying this in Bible study currently, and thus I have been thinking about it a lot lately. I certainly often do not have the proper reverence for the God that made the universe, me and everyone I meet. I long to come before Him in awe of His greatness, but often come as though I am just talking to a buddy on the phone. This the just, holy and merciful God of the universe for crying out loud! There are so many great psalms and passages in the Bible that touch on His majesty, his all-knowing, omnipotent greatness. I am led to one by a song on the new Caedmon's Call CD called "Only Hope," which says:

"There before me the Savior stands
Shows His wounds and spreads His hands
Face to face before the Son
And Like Isaiah I'm undone"

It points to a passage in Isaiah 6 where the prophet Isaiah sees God in a vision, in all His majesty and holiness, and Isaiah's response is this:

"Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."

I think about how when I finally come before God, I will likely feel the same way, I won't even be able to stand. But I picture Christ coming and lifting me up to say, "No, you are mine, you have been redeemed. Do not be afraid." I can only imagine.....

The great thing about God is that, while I study things like this, He shows me so much. Today He pointed me to Isaiah 40, one of the most amazing passages of Scripture. It's a sweeping, magnificent chapter on God's amazing power that ends like this:

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is insrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary."