Desiring God

Of late I have been reminded of a song by Caedmon's Call, and in particular a pair of lines that go something like this,

"You created nothing that gives me more pleasure than You
And You won't give me something that could give me more pleasure than You."

What a line! Odd how it should sound funny to me, considering that the Scripture shouts that in God's presence there is fullness of joy and that at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. It shouldn't touch me as so strange, I think, that God can be enjoyed more than His gifts.

Scripture really drips with magnificent descriptions of God:

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in."
Isaiah 40:22 (NIV)

"You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
Those living far away fear your wonders;
where morning dawns and evening fades
you call forth songs of joy."
Psalm 65:5-8 (NIV)

"The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him.
O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you."
Psalm 89:5-8 (NIV)

"The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
Death is naked before God;
Destruction lies uncovered.
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. . .
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"
Job 26:5-8, 14 (NIV)

In light of verses like these, perhaps the idea of God being more captivating than what He gives to us doesn't seem so strange after all. I have bouts of spiritual amnesia at times, except that it's an amnesia on who God is rather than a loss of memory. But I think, if passages like this are in my mind's eye, that I won't be able to take my eyes off of Him. Because nothing He has created or can make could be more awesome, beautiful, and desirable than Him.

Looking Back. . .

It feels rather awkward to have not posted in nearly two years! I smiled when I looked at the previous title, "Seven More Semesters to Go!" when I realized that it may very well have become "Seven More Years to Go!" Quite possibly no one has even looked at this blog, and so I should not feel awkward at all.

I seem to favor posting near the ends of semesters. There is something about these times--almost as though they are made for looking back over the last several weeks and months, surveying the wreckage and treasure of all that's taken place, and asking myself how things have changed and what things I have learned. Sometimes that's a hard question to ask.

How have I changed? I've acquired lots and lots of knowledge--but have I cultivated a deeper love for Truth? I've spent a lot of time planning for the future--but have I grown in treasuring the time I spend on my knees committing that future? It feels like I've been running, running, running all semester--but was it forward, backward, or just in circles? Maybe time will tell. All that I can do is cling tenaciously to the promise that when God starts something in one of His children, He finishes it, as Philippians 1:6 asserts.

Then--what have I learned? We ask one another, "What has God been teaching you lately?" Sometimes, that's an awkward question because it makes me realize that I haven't been listening for what God has to say. But in the position of looking back, it seems like there's always a message I can see, almost as though tracing back the motions of His hand.

This semester one of my major lessons was in interpellation. That's a fancy term that plays out in a fairly simple fashion: something addresses you as a particular identity and tells you, "This is who you are." Then you respond as though this is, in fact, who you are. I'm not sure that I'd really recognized that this is one way that the system of this world works on people. It bombards us, day after day after day with the message, "This is who you are. This is who you are. This is who you are," and we start to believe it and act like it's true. We have a fighting chance against this interpellation when we go back to God's Word and find Him there saying, "This is who I AM. This is who you are in relation to who I AM" and choose to believe it. It's a lot like Romans 12:2--"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

So, looking back this semester I see all sorts of things, both regrets and things that make me leap up and shout for joy. But most of all, looking back I see evidence for hope.

I think the Psalmists were proponents of looking back and taking stock. Take Psalm 105, for instance--in its opening, it proclaims, "Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels, and the judgments uttered by His mouth, O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!" The Psalmist calls his audience back to the past, to remember their heritage, that long ago, God chose Jacob--and chose them. The psalm continues to tell the story of God's faithfulness in His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, leading the Israelites to the Promised Land. What truth! When we look back, we discover that no matter how rough the journey has been, God has never dropped the promises He proclaimed, even when we forgot them. Praise Him!