A Piano Recital and Thoughts on the World

This has been a difficult week for me (in my own tiny, selfish way). When I see evil in the world, when I see people disobeying the Lord I often internalize it. I know that’s horribly unhealthy. I know the Lord isn’t surprised by it or caught off guard by evil; that He has a plan that is far larger than I can possibly comprehend; that in His sovereignty He rules the universe, plotting the weeks and days and hours to bring about the fulfillment of His will. Yet, all the same, sin weighs heavy on me. This week, like many of us, I was led to ponder the depths of sin; in others; in myself; in the world. The problem does not lie in someone else, it lies in all of us, in our desire to get what we want regardless of who it hurts or whether it disrespects the Creator of the universe. That sense of the universality of sin led me to a sense of hopelessness that there are none who seek the Lord, no not one. I’ve struggled with grasping joy when surrounded by the pervasive gloom to which I so easily fall prey, a gloom perpetuated in word, thought, and deed.

On Friday night I had the opportunity to attend the senior piano recital of a dear friend at Wayne State University. As the performance began and I was surrounded by a concert hall of current and former friends, I was almost immediately struck by the beauty of the moment. I was amazed at the beauty flowing forth from that piano; from those hands. As I sat I could see what human hands were made to do, to create beauty not to destroy life or misuse the gifts that have been given. This is the reason we exist, to praise and bring glory to the Creator through, word, through life, through art. Through art (among other things) we highlight the beauty of the created world and of the beautiful potential of the human race, created in God’s image. All praise and honor to the Creator and sustainer of the world who works unseen even in the darkest night or in the ruins of our disobedience. 

Forever Be (Higher Than The Angels)

Over all the ages

You reign

Never ceasing, never ceding

You reign

Unencumbered by creation

You rule over every nation

You reign

Over all the earth

You reign

No force too great, no mite escapes your gaze

You reign

No sin may frustrate

No plan obfuscate

You reign

Ever reaching, you are,

You were, you will forever be

Holy,

Holy

So much higher than the angels

So much higher than the angels

Holy

Holy

Omnipotent and mighty

Your reign will forever be

Over all our lives

You reign

In our hearts, in our minds

You reign

Undeterred by our weakness

Your sovereignty is boundless

You reign

In all the heavens

You reign

No power of hell, no profane throne

You reign

Though darkness stand against us

And wickedness oppose us

You reign

Ever reaching, you are,

You were, you will forever be

Holy

Holy

So much higher than the angels

So much higher than the angels

Holy

Holy

Omnipotent and mighty

Your reign will forever be

No power can stand against you

No force can overwhelm you

Ever reaching, you are,

You were, you will forever be

Holy

Holy

So much higher than the angels

So much higher than the angels

Holy

Holy

Omnipotent and mighty

Your reign will forever be

The Witness of Life

“Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Acts 14:15-17

Paul implores the people of Lystra, who were attempting to deify Paul and Barnabas who had been healing and preaching, to honor God not mere men. They go so far as to tear their robes in anguish at the misunderstanding of the people. To clarify their thinking, Paul gives them a stunning refutation of the worship of mere idols. His words, which were spoken to a very spiritual yet ungodly people two thousand years ago, are particularly relevant for our world today. He acknowledges their spiritual fervency by calling them to: “turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in it.” Paul calls them to worship a bigger God, the living God, not a mute idol, not some dead pantheon.

In a world such as ours, which questions absolutes, worships honestly yet incompletely, and settles for cultural traditions rather than a living God these are words which should challenge us. Who do you worship? Is it a partial understanding? Is it an incomplete picture?

Even as believers we pick and choose the elements of the Lord we worship. We love Jesus the teacher but don’t like his challenging words of judgement. We love the freedom of grace but ignore the prickly realities of truth. We love the power evidenced in Acts but grow uncomfortable when we ponder its role today. Do we Christians worship the true God today? The whole God? The living God?

“In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Paul shows the people the real world, everyday examples of the grace of God--- the common grace. This parallels his exposition in Romans 1:18-21.

How often do we attribute those acts to the power of God today? How often do we see God working through the rains and harvest and food and gladness? In the agrarian culture he was speaking to, these things were equated to sustenance and bounty; goodness and plenty. These are the thing the living God provides. The good things in live, Paul says, the things you need to live and live well, come from God. They come from God in a very real and tangible way. Do we acknowledge that?

For those of us who identify themselves as Christians, do we praise God for all he does? If we, who claim to honor God and praise God, don’t acknowledge him, who will? How can we call those who do not yet know him to praise him if we ourselves are silent to the countless ways he provides for us?

The world needs to hear the call to worship the One God, the true God, the living God who has bestowed grace, common and saving upon us and we all need to praise him for all he has provided.

Blue Jays, or, What We Must Never Mistake

It started as a Wikipedia search (doesn’t it always?) after I had bought some new birdseed and refilled my feeders. I was doing a little research on goldfinches which led to looking up interesting facts about several common backyard birds. I looked at the House Finch, the Starling, and the Blue Jay. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen any Blue Jays in my yard in a while. They seem to come out of the woodwork the second I put a peanut outside but since I hadn’t put any out in a while, they too, were noticeably absent. In addition, my neighborhood lacks the tall oak trees that the birds adore.

Later in the day I was trying to decide where to go for a walk. I try to find time to unwind every weekend (so that I don’t go crazy, as my wife will tell you). I finally settled on Lower Huron Metropark, which is a ten minute drive from my house. As I walked along the bike path there I realized that I had subconsciously chosen this park in part because of the oak trees with form a canopy over a portion of the trail. I was struck at how remarkable (and scary) the human brain is. I gave no conscious thought to seeking out oak trees and the Blue Jays that inhabit them, but something in my mind pushed me towards that environment. Something within me wanted to experience the thing I had been thinking about earlier.

Knowing God is a similar experience. Despite our assertions to the contrary and the other things that draw us, we desire to know and experience the Lord. We want to know God not just know about God.

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I will find myself with vague notions of pious intent. I want to surround myself with godly things, hang out with my Christian friends, and do good, righteous, Christian things. I want to change my behaviors to be more ‘Christian’. But the truth is, just like every other idol we seek in this life, these pious intentions will not sustain me. Only the true experience will do. Just like reading about Blue Jays still left me with the desire to see them. Much of our Christian life is built around the trappings of experience. If we’re honest though, the experience of knowing the Lord comes far too rarely. We know volumes about God but have little in the way of practical knowledge of Him.

J.I. Packer puts it this way: “A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him.”

We are always longing. We long for objects. We long for people. We long for emotional experiences. All of these things, however, are substitutes for what we truly desire: a vivid, personal relationship with the Lord.

Even our “spiritual” inclinations can, by themselves, be poor substitutes for the real thing. At the end of the day we don’t want to be longing for a great Bible study, but rather a transformative, intimate moment with the Lord. All the trappings of the Christian faith, necessary as they may be, are tools and practices to take us to where we desperately need to go --- into the arms of our Lord. We get into trouble, however, when we mistake the journey for the destination. When we substitute anything, ‘Christian’ or otherwise for intimacy with God, we have gone the easy way and set up our own idol and altar.

Packer again writes: “We must seek, in studying God, to be led by God. It was for this purpose that the revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.”

It is only in moments of great clarity and humility do we see that what we’re really longing for is the only fulfilling thing: our Creator and Lord. We must turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God. We must seek humbly to search out the Lord through His word, through fellowship, through prayer but never losing focus of our aim: the only One thing; the only satisfying Thing --- God our Father and Christ Jesus His Son.

Wins and Losses

For over a hundred years a baseball pitcher’s effectiveness has been determined (largely) by one overarching statistic: wins. It seems logical enough. At the end of the day, what matters more than whether a team was victorious or not? And who affects that more than the starting pitcher? Salaries, bonuses, and accolades are awarded based on the number(s) in the Win column. In fact, the highest award a pitcher can achieve is named after Cy Young, who is most remembered for accumulating 511 wins over the course of his career, the most in league history.

However, recent observers of the game have suggested that this stat is not a true measure of a pitcher’s worth. What about the starting pitcher who allows no runs but is replaced by relief pitchers who blow their team’s lead and thus deny the starter with a win? Many say that once the ball is put in play, the outcome is out of the pitcher’s hands and thus he should not be punished for being on a team of less than excellent defenders. These fans and statisticians have created new metrics such as WhiP (walks + hits / innings pitched), FiP (fielding independent pitching), and WAR (wins above a hypothetical league average player). The key theme in all these is that perhaps the outcome of the game (of which a pitcher’s performance is merely one factor) is not a proper metric for measuring a pitcher’s success. Perhaps winning, after all, isn’t everything.

Many of us (and when I write ‘us’, I mean ‘me’) have a tendency to view life in a similar regard. What is more quantifiable than results? At the end of the day, are we not judged by what we have accomplished? Modern logic would confirm this.

Perhaps though, there is more to life than cut and dry results. Perhaps unintended outcomes pulse with just as much opportunity and potential as desired ones.

My father and I set out to hike the Manistee River Trail this weekend. We’ve had it planned for a couple of months. I bought the maps and planned the hike. We calculated our days and divided our snacks. When the day arrived, we drove the four hours north to Mesick, Michigan. The hiking was warm and humid and we were glad to finally set our packs down in a gorgeous meadow beside the Manistee River to watch the swallows dart joyously in the air above our heads. At about 8:30 that evening we were forced to retreat into our tent by the arrival of a rain shower.

 At 8:30am, it was still raining. At 9:00am it was still raining. While we took down our tent it was still raining. When I put on my raincoat it was still raining. I noticed that the rapidly falling water seemed to seep right through what I thought was a waterproof coat, soaking my skin. We had a brief conference about the now-waterlogged coat. The temperature was to drop into the mid-thirties that night. We made the decision to not risk a 30 degree night in wet clothes (and hypothermia) and instead return the four miles we had hiked and drive home.

My first thought as I led the way back over the slippery roots and muddy soil was this: ‘What a failure.’

Hiking has a funny way of eroding and shaping your thoughts over the long haul of a day’s walking.

My mind turned back to baseball (as it often does) and upon wins and losses. We attribute wins and losses in life based upon our expectations of what a desirable outcome would be. To be sure, there are times when we all need the motivation and accountability that this type of thinking brings but it also smacks of hubris and defeatism. Where we might not accomplish a particular goal or outcome, we may at the same time, achieve another desirable result. When our desire for success robs us of noticing other positive outcomes, it becomes a hindrance that we must either shed or use as fuel. We must never drag it behind us like an anchor.

Beyond that, our goals are driven by a severe ignorance of the larger picture. In light of an omniscient God, who lays the plans of this world (and our lives) out before Him in His hand, our personal goals must be held lightly and with the greatest humility. We don’t really know what we need. We only know our personal preferences and desires. We must always be quick to defer to the One who holds our life and knows our needs. These are not excuses for inaction but rather assurances that His plan for those who love Him is far beyond our meager imaginations.

At the end of the day, I spent a day and a half hiking with my father, a fact to which few can joyfully claim. We sat beside a marvelous river in the amber rays of sunset. We marveled at the beauty of a created world; the grasses, the rocks, the hills. We heard the symphony of falling water amid the boughs of silent pines. We spent hours together of a life on this earth that is far too brief to be taken lightly.

We may not have gotten the win, but perhaps we gained something greater.

When God Destroyed Me

There are plenty of times that I don’t feel qualified for doing student ministry (most times if I’m honest). The longer I stick around working with students the older I feel, the less I know, and the more things I realize that I’m not any good at. I’m not just talking about Instagram or Twitter but simple stuff, like retreat registrations and emails. Sometimes I marvel at all the ways that I don’t fit the job description that I would write for myself.

And then…

There are days like today. As I was running this evening (all my best thoughts come while running or hiking) I was overcome by the prayer requests of one of my students. There were so many similarities between this student’s story and mine. I ached in prayer for the Lord to move in and reveal truth and heal hurts. My body physically hurt (probably helped by the fact I hadn’t run in a few days) with emotion. It was as if my entire being was crying out in prayer (minus actual words).

And I was reminded of something from years ago…

I have always had a strong empathetic reflex. Even before I became a Christ-follower I would often be struck by severe pangs of pain, sorrow, and joy over the concerns of others. I remember one such encounter that left me ruined. I was at a Halloween party and a friend’s house (I didn’t have many friends). I didn’t know anyone at the party besides the host and so I awkwardly mingled my way around, upstairs, downstairs, outside. I watched as the other guests watched The Lost Boys in the basement and I felt an overwhelming, palpable darkness and despair. I had to leave the room. I made my way outside (it was somewhat warm for October) into the backyard. The host’s mother had a converted school bus out back. To this day I remember watching the adolescent lust as couple after couple circled off in the backyard to give away parts of themselves they would never get back. I briefly entered the bus to find the seats nearly full with other teens. I remember the darkness. My chest felt like it was caving in. I sat down beside the bus and sobbed silent tears. I felt destroyed at the brokenness and despair of the strangers who surrounded me.

Perhaps, God was preparing me. Perhaps He has designed this reaction in me to keep me from being judgmental or distant. Perhaps His desire is to break me to the point where all I can do is to cry out to Him in prayer.

Most often, that’s I can do.

True Acceptance

This post is a bit of a departure as it is a talk I gave recently for a student ministry overnighter.

Do you remember your first day of school?

I’m not sure how much I remember, but this is what I’ve been told about my first day of first grade. I was going into a new school building. My mom came to drop me off at Mrs. Fellman’s class. She took me inside, got me situated, my little desk, those little chairs, and as must happen eventually, she turned to leave. As many kids do, I started bawling. I grabbed my mom’s leg and wouldn’t let go. Nothing that my mom or the teacher could do would comfort me. Other kids are playing with toys and running around. I am causing a scene. I was inconsolable. Then the door opens and in walks Robbie Swanson. Robbie had been my best friend since we were three. I saw Robbie and stopped crying and happily went off to say hello. I found someone who knew me.

Or perhaps you remember your first day of Jr. High or High School.

I remember going into each of my new classes and scanning the room to see if there was anybody I had gone to elementary school with.

What is it that makes us do those things?

What makes us look for people that we know; who know us?

I would argue that we are hardwired to have friends. We’re hardwired to seek out people that we feel comfortable around. We need each other. We want to be accepted by people. We want our friends to turn to us and say that we’re worthwhile; that our lives mean something.

Think about it, little kids are all about feeling accepted. If they make a piece of art out of macaroni noodles or something they’ll come running to mom or dad or grandma or grandpa and they’ll be waving their masterpiece. My daughter is almost two and she stays with my mom while I’m at work and she does this all the time. I’ll come home from work and my mom will say ‘show daddy your picture’. And she’ll run over and wave it in front of me and start shouting something like: “it it hop see it hop”. I look at it and it’s just a smear of red paint and I’m like “its good honey”. And my mom will say “she painted a bunny”. “bunny, bunny, hop” Gotcha.

That’s how we are as little kids. We want someone to tell us that what we did was good. That’s why it’s so dangerous when people twist and manipulate that desire to be accepted in children. Or for too many of us, sometimes our parents don’t give us that kind of acceptance. Adults can do incredible damage by insisting that their children have to succeed to ‘earn’ their love and acceptance.

Some people even go so far as to say that unless we feel accepted, we can’t love other people or achieve our potential.

I want to look at some common examples of how we show that we all seek acceptance in our daily lives.

We’re not kids. I mean I’m certainly not a kid.

We can see this desire to be accepted in our own lives too though can’t we?

Have you ever had one of your friends get into a relationship that is just toxic? First they isolate themselves and spend time only with their boyfriend or girlfriend. Then everything becomes about the other person. What would so-and-so think about this? I can’t go, so-and-so might not be able come. We stand there helplessly and look at their lives and see them making bad choices and we can’t say anything about it?

Why does this happen?

It happens when they get so wrapped up in being accepted by that one person that the rest of their life gets all out of whack. They stop seeing the warning signs and only see the need to be accepted by that person.

I’ll be honest, when I was in Jr. High and Sr. High, I was all about having a girlfriend. I mean it drove me. I had a really messed up viewpoint where I viewed every girl as a “potential” girlfriend. I’d get stuck on one particular girl and spend all my time obsessing about her. I perfected my lame way of flirting: the “I look at you and then look away just as you look at me.” It was really lame but I had the timing down to a science. The thing was, I really never even got a girlfriend until I graduated high school, but I spent so much of my time and thought into finding one girl who would look at me and go “I like you. I want to spend my time with you.”

Lets look at another example of ways we show that we’re longing for acceptance.

I graduated high school in the year 2000. A lot has changed since then. There’s this thing called [squint and look for the word] “the internet”. I think it’s on the computer.

Probably my favorite thing that’s changed since I was in high school is that being a nerd is cool. It’s cool to read comic books and like superheroes.

When I was in high school this wasn’t the case. There was a comic book store a few blocks from my school and on Saturdays I remember having my mom drive me down there. I always felt like I was on some undercover sting operation. We’d park out front and then I’d walk up the store and pretend like I was just walking down the street and look up at the sign like “oh hey, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this type of store, let me go in and see what it is that they sell”.

I was so embarrassed to be seen reading comics and playing card games. I never talked to anyone but my closest friend or my parents about them. I was hiding that part of myself from everybody else because I didn’t want them to reject me.

This is another sign that we’re all really seeking acceptance: we change parts of ourselves that we don’t think others are going to like or accept.

Have you ever found yourself talking to someone and thinking: “I can’t say X because this person won’t understand” or maybe you don’t think about it consciously like that but you kind of guard yourself to the point where you only talk about certain things with certain people. You’ve got a line and you can talk and talk and talk right up until you get to the line and then: stop. We all do this. I don’t care how popular you are or how much you enjoy talking with others. We hold parts of ourselves back because we don’t think that people will accept us.

Ok this is the point in the talk where you go: so what?

It’s one thing to see how we all are seeking someone to accept us; seeking someone to say “I like you just the way you are”. But how does that affect our lives?

Let me suggest two ways that we can take this knowledge and apply it to our lives:

The first way I think we can learn from this is by simply understanding that we all have this desire for acceptance.

In our own lives we can keep ourselves out of some really hurtful situations by knowing that we seek acceptance. We can keep ourselves from getting into some toxic relationships by recognizing when we might be leaning too heavily into a boyfriend or girlfriend. If we’re really aware of our need, we can catch ourselves before we get into situations that have the possibility to be hurtful.

We can also keep ourselves from becoming emotional leeches by recognizing that we’re really seeking acceptance and finding healthier outlets for that feeling.

We can also learn to be better friends. When we recognize that the people around us want to be accepted, it allows us to think about them first and try and be accepting for them. For example, if you find yourself in a situation where there is a new person in your group, if you know that they probably want to be accepted, you can do simple things like asking them questions and keeping them involved.

Going along with that, one of the ways that I’ve been learning to look out for the concerns of others is to simply be involved in every conversation that I’m part of. Instead of thinking of the next thing you’re going to say, be involved in what your friends are saying. When you pay attention to what they’re saying, you’re telling them that you care about them and that you accept them as valuble people.

So far we’ve looked at this idea of being accepted and seen how each of us longs to be known and love by others. We want someone to come along side us and say “I like you. I want to spend time with you”. We’ve seen how that desire will drive us to some pretty unhealthy places like staying in bad relationships or censoring ourselves instead of standing up for what we believe it.

I think that this longing to be accepted goes far deeper than simply having a big group of friends or having a loving boyfriend or girlfriend. Even if you could have all those things and feel loved and accepted at home, it still wouldn’t be enough. I mean no one knows 100% if what goes on inside our heads. No other person can truly know us and therefore no one can accept us 100%.  And if we’re honest with ourselves, there are parts of ourselves that we’re not proud of. There are things we’ve done that we don’t even like; things we don’t want anyone else to know about because they show just how messed up we are.

We long for acceptance because we’re actually longing for something far bigger than merely the acceptance of a friend. We’re longing to be accepted by God.

God is the only one who knows 100% of our thoughts; the only one who can see us for who we really are: the good, the bad, the ugly. We want someone to accept us 100% but God is the only one who is capable of doing this.

I don’t know what preconceptions you have about God. I don’t know if you view God as some supreme court justice in heaven who’s just looking to punish you for everything you do wrong. I don’t know if you even believe in God. But let me assure you of this. There IS a God and He WANTS to have a relationship with you that is loving and accepting. He knows everything you’ve done and still wants to know you. But we need to be honest about who we are and what we’ve done. We need to accept that we’re jerks a lot of the time and that we’ve done a lot of things that are wrong. We’ve done a lot of evil and horrible things. We’ve lied and cheated. We’ve lusted and tried to fill the holes in our lives with a lot of junk.  We deserve punishment.

 But God wanted to have a relationship with us so bad that He sent his only Son Jesus to take all the punishment that we deserved. That’s how bad he wants to have a relationship with us. In fact, the Bible says that BEFORE we get our lives together, BEFORE we even try to live a life that is pleasing to God. WHILE we were still helpless and pathetic and evil. That’s when Jesus died for us. He didn’t say “hey, get your life together, then come and talk to me”. No, he said, I want to have a relationship with you so badly that I’m willing to die for you even BEFORE you care about me. That’s sacrifice. That’s someone who loves you.

That’s what really drew me into a relationship with Jesus. I suffered from anxiety disorder and depression throughout my jr. high and high school and that kept me from forming any real friendships. All I wanted was to be accepted by someone. It was really that desire for acceptance that led me from a head knowledge about God to a place where I was willing to give up my life to accept what Jesus had done for me.

So I want to ask you today, are you seeking acceptance? Let me encourage you to go to Jesus with that desire. He’s the only one who knows us fully and loves us enough to die for us.

A Theology of Wilderness

Within a mile of my home is Ford Lake and I often find myself strolling along its southern shoreline in the afternoon hours. The lake was first created in the 1930’s when auto magnate Henry Ford dammed the Huron River to provide hydroelectric power for one of his plants. Today the lake is a beautiful, if somewhat polluted, reminder of how nature quickly reclaims spaces abandoned by mankind.

The shore upon which I walk runs the length of one of the city’s largest parks and is largely populated by oak and maple trees which, in the heart of autumn, rustle lyrically in the breezes off the lake. In the summer, blackbirds carouse in a nearby marsh preening and posturing in amorous display. Winter brings an ever-present carpet of snow upon which the tracks of rabbits crisscross in manic patterns that bespeak their erratic flights. All of this still seems foreign to me though I have experienced it for five such cycles now.

I was raised in a suburb of Detroit in a thoroughly developed neighborhood and though my family exposed me daily to the natural world around me: the squirrel busily content beneath the boughs of an oak tree or the life that scuttled along the bottom of a seasonal pond, my experiences with Nature largely came through vacations the family took into the great forest of northern Michigan. There exists in my heart a well of love for the northern Oak-Hickory forest of which my state is so blessed. The haunting call of a loon upon a placid lake seems to bring inexplicable peace to my heart. The scent of a pine forest urges me ever to explore the wilderness further; pressing onward into the unknown and the uncivilized.

All of these things however, were far from my normative experience. The closest opportunity to surround myself with the vastness and beauty was a forty five minute drive to Kensington Metropark, which, for a child without means of personal transportation and whose parents were both employed outside the home, meant that such trips were a rare treat.

When I married and bought a home, I had few expectations of the natural world. It was only after we had moved in that I even began to realize that I lived within walking distance of a lake ---a real lake! How far removed I was from the uniformity of suburbia. I have only to drive five minutes to reach country fields and dirt roads. As it turns out, there is even a nature preserve within a five minute drive.

All these blessings lead me to my walk beside the lake. Despite the relative proximity to a bustling highway and busy condominiums the depth of this glade affords me the luxury of illusion. For me, the natural world holds a power beyond compare. It is a refuge, rejuvenation, refreshment. Surrounded by water and trees I can see the handiwork of God. I understand (and affirm) that Man is God’s creation as well (his penultimate creation, in fact) yet the natural beauty of Man is lost amid the sin-stain. The works of Man: great art, architecture, medicine all bear the fingerprint of their Creator, but it is sub creation once removed. Too many times I the sins and disappointments of the world send me fleeing for the purity and solitude of God’s creation; a creation that exists and flourishes in the absence, and indeed often in spite of Man. Among the pines I am overcome with the closeness of the Creator and marvel at the works of His hands. Even in the most mundane details: the recesses of a stone, the ripples radiating out upon the waters, I sense the handiwork of the Divine.

As I walk along the fertile banks, my eyes are inexorably drawn to the noxious elements of Man. I see an empty potato chip bag half-submerged amid the weeds. I see bottle caps hammered into the rock-hard ground. Most ubiquitously the discarded beer can in various shades of decay at the base of a bush, its label fading from the years of solar abuse, evidence to the longevity of such refuse. I am always taken aback by the wantonness of such abuses. I see in them the very epitome of Man’s corruptive sinfulness. Once given the mandate to cultivate and manage the Earth, our rebellion now infects not only our moral and social spheres but even the land itself whose soil once fell from the fingertips of God. We need not look to prisons or far-off dictatorships to feel the indictment of our crimes. We should only look at the rotting remains of discarded insulation that sullies the canvas of creation. Depravity never stays confined to our hearts.

As fallen men and women we bring our brokenness into every place we reside. In our selfishness and pride we damage both each other and the landscape. It is only through the redeeming work of Christ that restoration can come to the land and our lives.

My heart will always reside where the air is cool; where the branches sway gently; where fish drift slowly beneath the surface of the water. Though the affairs and troubles of the world often encroach upon the fringes of the Wild, those who value still such things must continue to find solace there. Those who can still discern the fingerprints of the Lord must persevere in seeking them while they may yet be found.