When is the last time you went outside - not just to get the mail, go to your car, or run into the mall? Instead you went outside - just to be outside. You looked around, noticed the plants - how green they seemed to have gotten, how had you missed that? If you listened for it, you heard the birds singing and whe you breathed in a long and deep breath of air it left a smile on your face - not forced but one of true joy and fulfillment because you were connected. Connected to man, to nature, to God.
Connected to God.
Maybe the question should be, when was the last time you were truly and completely connected to God? Have you ever been connected to God?
It's funny how the great outdoors, the great wild yonder (I picture Davie Crockett or John Bunyan in my head), have the power to bring out the lost or suppressed emotions in a person.
Freedom.
Purpose.
Strength.
Courage.
Joy.
Worth.
Connection.
No matter who she is, what his job might be, what school she goes to, what role he plays - the mistakes, the failures, the victories, the pain, the tears, the laughs, the cheers - it doesn't matter. There is still a connection when you let yourself go, let yourself outside, drop all your walls and barriers - it becomes something deeper. You feel it. I feel it. I wonder if that is intentional. It makes me think that those great outdoors were created for a greater purpose that to merely exist as a host for humans. Maybe how we interact with nature is, in a small way, how we interact with God - how we view God. Maybe this is His tangible gift to us to connect, on a very real level, with the humans he so intricately created, calls "good", and loves deeply.
Has this vision, this connection been lost today? Do you feel it? God began in a garden, a garden that throughout its creation he called "good". We now seem to be stuck in the tension of highrises, highways, automobiles, noise, busyness, and demands. We are caught in a fog (or maybe it's the smog) of disillusioned visions - visions that the more the better, the bigger the better, the more convenient the better. Is this really better?
A lot of words, catch-phrases, how-to's, and dialogue can be heard right now on the environment, our impact, and what it will take to save it. A lot of you care, deeply even, about the state or our earth but don't know how to go about acting. What can I do? Will it matter? Can I, one person, make a difference?
Know that it does matter and you can make a difference!
The hope for this blog is that it will be the first steps - something that inspires real conversation, tips to learn, encouragement to do further research, and bring about a passion for restoring God's creation to its full intention - a way to get connected, or re-connected, with the earth, our Creator, and the purpose that He has for us - to begin to make our way back to the garden.
The question now becomes, not what can you do, but what will you do?
What will it take to get back to the garden?
What will it take for YOU to get back to the garden?
No comments:
Post a Comment