How do you connect with God?

Hey friends and family! I’m about six weeks into the Center for Global Action discipleship program in Gainesville, Georgia, and let me tell you I have learned SO so so so much. So much that I can’t fit it all into one blog post. With that in mind, the following entry is the heart behind my last public speaking presentation that answered the prompt: How do you connect with God?

I’ll clarify some words and phrasings here and now; spiritual pathways and temperaments are interchangeable, and those words can be defined by the ways in which we hear and connect with the Lord.

The Lord has reached out to me, and I to him, in many nuances and fashions over the years, and as we learn about spiritual pathways in class, I could pinpoint the ways in which a lot of temperments have had some sort of implication on my life. They each are well fit for their season. However, while the Lord has shown me more glimpses of Him through the vast variety of ways in which he connects with me, the most consistent thing has been the way in which he speaks to me through nature.

In Hebrews, one of my favorite books in scripture, the author goes on to write that the Son, Jesus Christ, heir of all things, creator of all things, is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of his power.

As we live and breathe, our existence is dictated by the utterance of Christ’s words. Our God spoke all things at the beginning, and since he is timeless in nature, consistent, and kind, he speaks still through what he has made. There isn’t really a specific activity I have in mind, like gardening, bird watching, or a routine long walk, maybe it would be wise to channel my passions into crafts such as that. And it’s not safe to say that I don’t absolutely love all of those things either, because I truly do, I’m just not a master at any of them. Maybe you could just say I have simply mastered the art of sitting, soaking up, and being. Existing in the very space that has been uniquely crafted by the Lord. You could call it my office, my home. It’s where I work best, it’s where I want to do all things, learn, study, play, and be with my Father.

What better way to be reminded of the radiance of his glory than in the radiance of the sun warming my skin? To be reminded that he is a playful God when the otters dance with one another in the spring waters I swam in as a kid. To walk the beaches of my childhood, and know that the Lord commands tossing waves to halt by his word, that his thoughts of you and I are more than the very grains of sand I walk on. The faith of a little child is what wells within me as I do cartwheels in a grassy meadow on top of a mountain. As I jump and swim in a lake during a long road trip. I don’t really think about how the seat cushions of my car will be soaking wet, I just can’t wait to be fully immersed in Christ’s being through his beautiful work.

When I want to dream about the Kingdom of Heaven, it only makes sense to do so laying on my back in the grass, gazing at puffy golden clouds, or in the midst of a starry night, dreaming along with the Lord. When I need to be grounded, there isn’t a way that makes more sense than walking barefoot in streams of water or sinking my feet in the soft sands of the coast, in doing so the Lord brings me back to earth. And there’s something about the sound of a woodpecker whittling the trees that takes all of my anxious thoughts into one thought that typically breathes the truth and wisdom that the Lord is speaking over me at that moment.

And so there is still beauty, and words to be spoken, in the less romantic of scenes. In the barren scorching heat of a Texas drought and in dusty cotton plantations, through the haze of a wildfire that takes on orange hues, wafting the aroma of mesquite to my nose. There is not a lot more that makes me bubble with anger than the complete disregard for what the Lord has given us on this earth, such as the carelessness of a litterer or the abuse of land that was once nutrient-rich. The Lord tells me how his anger is the righteous kind.

The Lord in his grace has given me revelation after revelation in the world he spoke into existence. And as he speaks to me, through the word of his power, I speak to him, through the power of mine, as a small, significant piece of the creation he has crafted around me, my office.

Take a step outside today, breathe in the fresh air, gaze unto the trees, listen to the birds, and marvel at the beauty of this World the Lord has spoken into existence!