Monuments to the Lord

Moving between two places I call "home" for different reasons throughout the year is a challenging thing to do (for clarity's sake, however, "home" will refer to Wisconsin in this post). Since I moved to Massachusetts two Januaries ago to attend seminary I have grown in new ways socially, spiritually, academically, culturally, and relationally. This is most noticeable to me when I return home and am out of the context in which this growth has occurred. It's comparable to this: when you see a child every day it doesn't seem like they are growing, but when you see a child once every few months it is easy for you to notice the growth! As challenging as moving back and forth is, I am blessed by the perspective the shift brings because my personality does not typically allow for me to take a step back and look at how I've grown in life and in the Lord. Instead, my personality desires to push ahead and not be content with where I am currently at. Coming home calls for musings and reflections - this is a welcomed rest.

When I get home I love to go back to places that generated meaning throughout the years growing up in Wisconsin as well as my years during undergrad at UW-Madison (Go Badgers!!). In addition to using these places as an outlet to be nostalgic, many of these places have "God moments" tied to them. These are places where God met me and transformed the way I view myself, Him, and others. Such events are extremely meaningful to me, and revisiting them where they physically happened is like visiting a monument and reflecting on God's faithfulness, goodness, and love towards me.

For example, yesterday I went to a Starbucks near the UW-Madison campus (for those Madison-buffs it's the one on University Ave near Copps). Here I sat in the same spot where in October of 2010 I finished the last pages of journal I began in Europe two summers ago. As I read the last few pages, I was overwhelmed with gratitude in God's leading to do so - what I read was exactly what I needed to hear and reflect on before heading over to Vienna in a week! I will share a C.S. Lewis excerpt that is a portion of these pages:

"Thus, if you have really handed yourself over to Him [Jesus], it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."

- Mere Christianity, 148

I believe that God honors remembering his faithfulness in our lives and in other's lives - currently and in generations before us. I think this is one of several ways to receive the gift of faith that God desires to increasingly lavish on each one of us. God's faithfulness, character, and love, among many other things, calls not for blind faith, but faith.

Again, a small quote from Lewis:

"It is not reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason."

- Mere Christianity, 139

Another time I hope to have with God while at home is reading one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 18, outside during a thunderstorm. This event first happened sometime during my undergrad years while I was spending time at home and I felt led to go read this Psalm outloud during a powerful thunderstorm. It was one of those thunderstorms where the wind whips the rain in every direction, and as a result I had several water marks on the pages of Psalm 18. It is one thing to imagine being in a storm displaying God's power; it is entirely another to have God speak through the storm concerning his character while you are in the midst of it.

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Below is an excerpt of a message by Bill Johnson speaking to one's "personal history with God" - no one can take this away from you, but no one can give it to you either. It must be developed and written through our time before the Lord in the Word and in prayer. Enjoy and be blessed!

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You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

- Psalm 18:28

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

- Matthew 25:1-4