Here's the re-post and a few links to other posts asking the same question again (it also seems I couldn't find a way to wrestle without using metaphor after metaphor):
Did you ever read Waking the Dead by John Eldredge? In his first chapter he compares our ability to see God and really "get it" spiritually on this earth like a pilot trying to fly in the fog. He talks about the fact that while we are on this earth it is most days that we are unable to get a clear visual -- we are more often flying in the fog than we are in the clear. But -- the moments that we do experience, where we 'get it' (it feels like we can almost literally see God's face and can hear him speaking to us about who we are and what our life holds) keep us energized for all of the rest of the foggy days. It keeps us hungry to follow Him and to be hopeful for eternity with him.
I have personally found that I struggle with making an idol out of those moments. When I experience them, I usually behave like Peter when Jesus took him and James and John up on the Mount and allowed them to see him full of glory and talking with Moses and Elijah. It's hard not to do that, but it is not growth and quickly turns into idolatry. Boy, it is tough, though.
It strikes me that God loves our pursuit of Him so much that He sometimes seems to playfully hide from us (picture peek-a-boo or hide 'n seek with your kids and all of the giggling that goes along with it and the joy of being found by them) in order to keep us moving forward and unable to make ourselves God because we figured him out (picture Eve wanting to eat the fruit in the garden so she could have the same knowledge as God).
It seems that God chooses to be more like a greased watermelon than a bird with clipped wings in a cage. Even those this often leaves me feeling frustrated, I wouldn't want to serve a God who could be caught-- by me or anyone else.
I have personally found that I struggle with making an idol out of those moments. When I experience them, I usually behave like Peter when Jesus took him and James and John up on the Mount and allowed them to see him full of glory and talking with Moses and Elijah. It's hard not to do that, but it is not growth and quickly turns into idolatry. Boy, it is tough, though.
It strikes me that God loves our pursuit of Him so much that He sometimes seems to playfully hide from us (picture peek-a-boo or hide 'n seek with your kids and all of the giggling that goes along with it and the joy of being found by them) in order to keep us moving forward and unable to make ourselves God because we figured him out (picture Eve wanting to eat the fruit in the garden so she could have the same knowledge as God).
It seems that God chooses to be more like a greased watermelon than a bird with clipped wings in a cage. Even those this often leaves me feeling frustrated, I wouldn't want to serve a God who could be caught-- by me or anyone else.
other links:
- On Wrestling Watermelons, April 2007
- Authentic Experiences, December 2008
