Fresh powder and glory
Woke up early and couldn't settle back into sleep, so opted to just go ahead and get started with the day. Surprised to see snow falling and staying on the ground; very unusual for Seattle on the cusp of March. Beautiful, too.
In a previous entry, I mentioned that my habit of gorging on feeds of information and entertainment from the internet and other media might really be all about glory, and that's worth trying to explain a bit. In a recent sermon from Exodus 14 about God getting glory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea, our pastor spent some time defining glory. If ever a bit of religious language needed some definition, this one did (at least for me). He said that glory is something that has weight ( C.S. Lewis spent some time with this) and gravity in our lives. It pulls on us and shapes how we live and act, even when we think we're not in its grip, as the Hebrews continued to be affected by their slavery to the Egyptians even as they ran from them.
Much of the self-inflicted overload I experience from constantly being plugged in to streams of data may well be the weight of the false, destructive glory I let that stuff have in my life. Something tugs on me regardless of my distance from it, and that sounds remarkably like the experience of the Hebrews. In effect, I'm worshipping staying informed, productive, stimulated, and entertained, without regard for what bearing any of that has on the true life God's given me to live.
In the past (when I've thought about it at all), it's seemed a bit petty somehow for God to say, "I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host." What a small motivation for salvation! But God's glory is salvation-when God has the weight and gravity due Him in our lives, we are pulled into His orbit and away from everything that enslaves us. Indeed, there is no other way to be saved. And I need to be saved.
In a previous entry, I mentioned that my habit of gorging on feeds of information and entertainment from the internet and other media might really be all about glory, and that's worth trying to explain a bit. In a recent sermon from Exodus 14 about God getting glory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea, our pastor spent some time defining glory. If ever a bit of religious language needed some definition, this one did (at least for me). He said that glory is something that has weight ( C.S. Lewis spent some time with this) and gravity in our lives. It pulls on us and shapes how we live and act, even when we think we're not in its grip, as the Hebrews continued to be affected by their slavery to the Egyptians even as they ran from them.
Much of the self-inflicted overload I experience from constantly being plugged in to streams of data may well be the weight of the false, destructive glory I let that stuff have in my life. Something tugs on me regardless of my distance from it, and that sounds remarkably like the experience of the Hebrews. In effect, I'm worshipping staying informed, productive, stimulated, and entertained, without regard for what bearing any of that has on the true life God's given me to live.
In the past (when I've thought about it at all), it's seemed a bit petty somehow for God to say, "I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host." What a small motivation for salvation! But God's glory is salvation-when God has the weight and gravity due Him in our lives, we are pulled into His orbit and away from everything that enslaves us. Indeed, there is no other way to be saved. And I need to be saved.