Just like everyone else we've been watching this oil and gas leak in the Gulf. One of the math teachers at my work showed me the live video link from one of the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that are positioned by the leaking pipeline. Usually when I'm at work I pull up a window to the side and watch it while I work. It's incredible to me what we are capable of doing. We are capable of amazing feats of destruction; the damage to the Gulf ecosystem will be extensive from this leak. We are also capable of doing incredible tasks. I know most people aren't fans of BP/Big Oil/The complete injustice caused by the mess the US has gotten itself into with oil addiction - neither am I, but it is pretty amazing that we can control robots a mile beneath the ocean surface and have engineering capabilities that are just wicked bad, as flawed as they can be sometimes. Yet, for all our engineering and economic ability, things in this world can just be so mediocre. So subpar. Boring would be another good word there. Our hearts tell us that the scale of the way things should be versus the way things are is greatly tipped towards the latter. Things really are not as they were meant to be. We have incredible hearts and thoughts, but so often they just fail to come to fruition. Why is it so hard to physicalize what we want? Paul gave a great synopsis of this dilemma in Romans and 1 Corinthians:
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:22-23. NRSV
This is a long mile away from engineering/etcetera; there are mysteries in these two passages that are so beyond our capacity to put into words; that it is best to just absorb them as is and feel out the Spirit in what they mean. How we all know the part of, we see in a mirror dimply. We see things, but they aren't as they seem. Humanity is like a championship team derailed in the big game (like OU in any one of the seasons they went to the National Championship, but when the game began, it just wasn't going to happen). Like a train going full steam, we watch as the engine goes off the track sending the cars into a tremendous explosion. We know in our hearts, through the intimate time with Jesus, the way his Word touches us, the right movies, the right music, the right time of day in the Summertime, that things just aren't aligned correctly. We see life, but it's through a mirror. And it's a dim one at that. We know what it is, but it's so hard to put into words. To complicate matters worse, we ourselves are unknown by this handicap. 'Then I will fully know, even as I am fully known.' But only then.
There is really one person who can obtain perfect intimacy with his beloved. And that is our God Jesus Christ. He is the one who can know us, inside and outside, perfectly. Even the closest of couples on earth cannot know their beloved as Jesus knows us. He is perfect in that. And it is our biggest handicap in this relationship. We are known perfectly by the Beloved, but we can only have a fleeting taste of him to sustain us-compared to what awaits us in Heaven, that is. He can touch us, smell us, listen to us breath at night, know what it's like to wrap his arms around us; we cannot reciprocate, yet. It builds the heart 'part' of our marriage with him; the foundation of our marriage with him will be definitely built on us deeply in love with him, not his beauty or strength. But we cannot or should not be allured toward from the idea that God is just a big stream of unapproachable light and that his beauty or glory should be compared to that of a distant galaxy or quasar. Jesus' beauty is wonderful in Scripture.
"You are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves...you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely." Song of Songs 1:15,16
If only we could see him. If only we could hold him and have him hold us. And actually feel him with us. If only...then many of the troubles of this world wouldn't be such a trouble anymore.
Paul continued in Romans about what we do with that "if only..." for the time being:
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:24-25.
We must learn the art of patience with God. True, we are needy with him. We need him. Desperately. But God wants us to wait for him. Patiently. God desires us, we desire him. But we are still just a little off our timing. Soon, Jesus will be with us. But until then, we have to love him as he comes to us now. As our Invisible God, in the Holy Spirit. Worship takes on a new form, a critical one now. It's no longer about satisfying a spiritual need, or getting in our daily "God time," it's about sustaining a relationship with him. More than that, it's feeding our own passionate desires for him. We HAVE to have him, and inside we won't have anything less than him. How much more do we need to set aside worship time with his Spirit being away from him and having to fight a spiritual war for his kingdom?
Worship is the most intimate act we can do. It's us adoring and interweaving our souls and spirits and hearts with Jesus' Spirit inside us as he loves us. It's incredible. It's perfect. It's something we need all the time. God truly wants to be intimate with us all the time, us worshipping him every second. He is so beautiful and desires to be pursued. Let's pursue him! I've been worshipping God specially in the early morning before I head off to the office. I just somehow feel him around me, inside of me, and I respond by worshipping him. Not that anyone can reach out and touch him spiritually, but the only response is just worship. And it's our act back to him in our intimacy with him. And it's incredible for our relationship with him, our future marriage with him. It's wonderful. God enjoys being known secretly. "Truly you are a God who hides himself." Isaiah 45:15, NIV. He wants to be pursued, for us to desire his beauty. I see the image of the heart of God so much in my wife and how she wants me to pursue her. A man in love with his woman knows that she wants him to pursue her, to want her and to go after her. This is a beautiful image of Jesus. He wants us to pursue him. To want him. To desire him. And worship is the most perfect way we have this side of Heaven to pursue him.
Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirst for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
Even in a spiritual desert far from him and holding him, our God is like "a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon." Song of Songs 4:15
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