I am in the middle of reading Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. It is a powerful book because it begins with an important premise: how you see God really does matter. In my own life, I see, over and over again how my sad little view of God’s power actually prevents me from trusting him and truly following him with every part of who I am. God is so much bigger and more risky than what I can hope to understand in my highly scheduled and strictly controlled days. This is an understanding of scale. And I believe in our highly mediated and highly synchronized culture, it is especially difficult to gain a realistic and life changing view of a holy, omnipotent, eternal God.
I especially like how Francis Chan begins his book. He acknowledges how our way of doing things demonstrates an inability to process God’s power. For instance, think about how we tend to approach interactions with the creator of the universe. “Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That is what fool’s do….we are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society where spoken words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive” (p. 25). What we need is to spend time worshipping in a way that communicates our weakness and inability to articulate. The thing is, it makes a difference.
Let me share a very personal and current example. I have recently been faced with some soul-wrenching decisions and unknowns about where my 20-year old son will live when he leaves the hospital. I feel my heart break every time we meet with the social workers. So how have I slept at night when I could lie awake worrying? How have I continued on with my days when I could be completely eaten up on the inside? Well, at first I tried praying through every possibility. I tried pleading for wisdom. I tried confessing my sins. I tried prayer chains and sharing my distress with my small group. While all of those things were probably good, you know what has carried me? Worship. I have spent hours in the Psalms, on walks, and in solitude. I gave up trying to formulate the perfect prayer. I just started worshipping and meditating on the powerful God I serve. And you know, the bigger my view of God becomes, the less I worry. The more I see his majesty, the more I see his hand at work. And the more I acknowledge his power, the less I agonize about my options.
How we see God really does matter. I would challenge you to, right now, to spend some time worshiping our amazing God. You might be surprised at how it might change your entire world.
Peggy Kendall 