Ode to Joy

Do you ever have those moments? You're singing something you sang all your life, and suddenly it expoldes with meaning. Well, a couple of weeks ago at church, it happened. We were sing the second verse of Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee - aka Ode to Joy since it was set to the Beethoven musical piece by that title.

So we were on the second verse, and....

All Thy works with joy surround Thee

Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays.

Stars and angels sing around Thee

Center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain,

Flowery meadow, flashing sea

Singing bird and fountain, 

Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Yes! They all call us to rejoice in him. And I was overwhelmed by that thought.

It hit me at that moment what I was signing about. The verse is a list attributes - attributes of God's creation. Things in which we can find joy if we just slow down and pay attention. Stars. Fields. Forests. Mountains. Meadows. Seas. Birds singing. Streams flowing.

All beautiful. All wonderful creations. And - most importantly - all pointing to their Creator. All of them exist for one purpose...to bring glory and honor to God. This is the purpose of every good gift.

Every good gift. As the verse starts: All thy works with joy surround thee. All.

And the list could go on. Music, Art. Color. Language. Sports. Technology. On and on.

Where we mess up is when we start to take these good gifts for granted. When we start to forget the One who gave them to us. When we allow them to become the focus of our lives instead of something God provided to point to himself. There's a word for that...idolatry. And it's the essence of sin.

But they are good. And they call us to rejoice in him. If only for a few moments when we were singing this song, I got that.

Lord, let me never forget it. May I always allow Your gifts to point to You.

Our little corner

Last week I saw something so incredible, I had to share it right away - so I put a link on my Facebook page. It still resonates with me, so...a little more about it.

We live in one of the bands of an indescribably big galaxy known as the Milky Way. There are around 300 billion stars in our galaxy. And (this boggles the mind) there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Well, the closest galaxy other than our own is visible in our night sky; it is known as Andromeda, and it is about 2.5 million light years away.

How far is that? Well, one light year is about 60,000 times as far away as the sun. So Andromeda is about 150 billion times as far away.

Wow!

So, as a kid who drew up fascinated with astronomy, seeing a 4 GB picture of Andromeda, zooming in on detail, was indescribably awe-inspiring. Here is a video that zooms in on a portion of the picture. If you realize what you're looking at, it'll take your breath away:



So far away. So big. And just the closest one out of billions.

I have heard many people say it makes them feel insignificant. They think it means our little corner of the universe is too small and too remote to be significant. That is not what I see at all. Instead, I marvel that God has singled out the earth to accomplish his eternal purposes.

This verse tucked away in Isaiah sums it up for me:

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), "I am the LORD, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18 NASB)

First, why is the universe so big? How can the earth be significant when it is so big? Is God that wasteful?

By no means! God is so awesome, so powerful, so infinite that it takes this kind of vastness to even begin reflecting his glory. The universe was created for his glory, and its size, wonder, and complexity is the natural result of that. If anything, we might ask, why isn't it bigger? And maybe it is - maybe we're just beginning to see it.

Second, why is the earth so perfectly fitted for life?

It is a unique place...situated in a safe corner of our galaxy...the perfect distance from its sun (which give out just the right amount of heat and light)...tilted just right on its axis...with gravity just strong enough to support life. And I could go on and on and on. As Isaiah says, he formed it not to be a waste place, but to be inhabited. And so it is.

With us. Creatures he has chosen to love.

So I watch the video in awe. The heavens are indeed declaring the glory of God.

Yeah, I think I'll watch it again now.

Amen.

Lucy: A story about limits

The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." 

- Genesis 3:4-5a (NASB) 

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Last weekend I went to see the movie Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. The trailers had intrigued me for several months, and so I was really looking forward to it.

Let's just say, it was weird. The plot involved a young woman (Lucy) who was subjected to a powerful hormone drug in massive quantities, with the result that her brain chemistry was radically changed. Whereas the normal human being only uses about 10% of our brain capacity, her usage began to increase exponentially. She became more powerful, began controlling the environment around her, was able to learn Chinese in about an hour, and began to spiral out of control.

Parallel to Lucy's story, we see Professor Norman (Freeman's character) delivering a lecture about the brain's power. When asked what would happen if a person reached 100%, he replied, "I have no idea."

Of course, that's where Lucy was heading, and she was going to be get there in less than 24 hours. So she found Norman and got his help to upload her brain's knowledge to some monstrous supercomputer. When her brain hit 100% capacity, three things happened: 1) She disappeared. 2) The data from her brain was contained in a large flash drive [yeah...I know], and 3) a cell phone received a text message from her saying, "I am everywhere."

I'm not positive, but I believe that the implication was that she had essentially become the equivalent of God.
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So we come back to the Scripture quote at the top of this page. The movie was clearly trying to draw a line of history starting with the dawn of man (a primate that evolutionary scientists have nicknamed "Lucy") and ending with exponential growth that finally brought man to the level of God. In other words, the very thing with which the serpent tempted the first man and woman.

According to the Genesis account and the rest of the Bible, the very essence of sin is the desire to be our own god. We don't want anyone, including our Creator, running our lives. And so the temptation of the fruit was, You will be like God. It has been the aspiration of humans from the beginning. And this movie painted a (weird) picture expressing the concept that if we ever could reach our full potential....bang! There it is. We're God.

People were created in God's image, but not to raise ourselves up to claim his throne. We were created to reflect his image on the earth and send praise back up to him as a part of his creation. When we decide to try to be more than that, we go down the same dangerous path as Lucy. Thanks be to God for the gift of his Son, and the grace that he brought to us through his death and resurrection. In him, we can be restored to our original purpose, reflecting his glory instead of our own.

Forever. And that's a lot better than uploading myself to a computer.

"Is the universe a simulation?"

Huh?

The question is the title of an article that appeared in the New York Times last Friday:

Link: Is the Universe a Simulation?

It was fascinating to me as a math geek. But also as one who thinks about the meaning of life and what it all means. To get the full meaning you'll want to read it for yourself. But here's the gist:

Philosophers and mathematicians have considered for years whether mathematical concepts exist independently - just sort of "out there" whether we discover them or not. Most mathematicians believe at their core that this is the case. Math is true, objective, and timeless, just waiting to be discovered.

If this is true, the article asks the question, Is it possible that our universe is just a computer simulation created by a person in the future? Could it be that math is so fixed, so unchangeable, because it is actually computer code of that simulation, just waiting to be discovered? The article then presents the idea that it might be possible to test this theory by looking for anomalies - inconsistencies - in the computer program. That is, in our universe.

This sounds familiar in a way, right? It reminds me of the plot of The Matrix, and the author is proposing that there is a "red pill" for us to learn the truth.
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To me, it's not so far-fetched. Not because I believe that there is some random person who wrote a program and we are living out his simulation. No, I don't think so. But I do believe that there is a Person who designed the universe. He wrote the code, and all the immutable laws of math and science are His "computer code." When man discovered the Pythagorean Theorem, he was discovering something that already existed - programmed, not by a random person, but by the creator God.

So yeah, I read this, and I saw another piece of the puzzle. No matter what you believe about how it was done and how long it took, there are clues all over the place that we are here by design. There is a purpose and there is a plan. And I am awestruck by the fact that I'm a part of it.

What a creation. What a Creator!


Do you think the laws of mathematics exist on their own? Or are they creations of the human mind, like art? If they do exist on their own, what does that mean?

A glimpse of glory

Last Saturday night I was doing one of my favorite things. Yeah, you know. I was sitting in Bryant Denny Stadium watching the first Alabama home game of the season. It was a long-awaited night and I was soaking in every moment. The excitement, the colors, the traditions, and the energy of over 100,000 Bama fans packing the place.

It was the end of a dreary day weather-wise, but it didn't matter to us. Rain, rain, and more rain had given way to a cloudy late afternoon, and pretty comfortable temperatures. And then, early in the second quarter, the sun broke through. Broke through right as it was about to set, and the view above the stadium walls was spectacular.

From my seat

And even better, a panoramic view borrowed from my niece Haley

Wow!

At that moment, I forgot why I was there for just a moment. I was overwhelmed with the majesty of God's creation, and how he had taken just that moment to paint a spectacular picture for us. Yes, at that moment God provided us with a reminder of his glory. But even more, I marveled as I thought of the fact that creation itself was praising the Creator. As it says in the 19th Psalm, "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."

We usually think of praise as something that comes from the lips of humans. We  sing, we read, we pray...we praise. But the Scriptures are filled with this message: All of creation is designed to bring glory to God, and to praise him by its very existence.*

And so it was at that moment, and it was noticed throughout the stadium I don't know how many pictures I saw on Facebook from those who stopped watching football - for just a moment - to notice how the heavens were declaring the glory of God.

And then we got back to football. The Crimson Tide sleepwalked to a 31-6 victory over Colorado State. And it was fun. But the thing I'll remember most about that night was the magnificent intermission, when we saw God's glory through a stunning painting in the sky.

Thank you, Lord.

* - For a more detailed discussion, see Chapter 5 of NT Wright's The Case for the Psalms: Why They are Essential.

Feeding fish

Yesterday morning, while visiting my friend Steve and his family, we got up a couple of hours before we had to be at church. It was a relaxing morning; we grabbed a cup of coffee and went out to the back yard to sit and relax.

And feed fish.

Steve has a small manmade fish pond in the yard, and currently there are about seven fish living in it. It is a marvelous environment and very relaxing to watch. There is a stream flowing down a hill that recirculates the water, and there is a very nice collection of plant life in and around the pond. Very nice.

As we sat there and and Steve threw pieces of fish food into the pond, he explained some things about the pond. For one thing, the fish could probably do okay feeding off the plant life, but it's fun to sit there and watch them while feeding. Let's see, what else? Oh yeah...

• The plant life was placed there by humans, 
• The chemical content is managed by humans, adjusted whenever it gets out of balance and threatens the livability of the pond,
• The water flow was established by humans,
• Steve periodically prunes the pond of excess vegetation.
• Five of the seven fish were placed there, and the other two were born in the pond,
• Etc.

Now, imagine for a moment that you are one of the fish. You have no idea how the pond got there, how it is maintained, why there is always food, and how it stays a good place to live. Now, for the most part the environment plugs along with natural forces maintaining it - plant growth, water flow, etc. But every now and then, the owner intervenes and makes sure things are okay. You are a fish - you don't know when. All you know is that it works.

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When it comes to creation, the Creator's ways are so much higher than ours. We want to understand everything. What is a miracle? How often do they happen? How much of what goes on is the result of God just letting his creation work, and how much is intervention?

What if we just accepted that, when it comes to understanding God, we are like the fish? Actually, the gap between us and God is so much wider than that. I am convinced that he is sovereign and paying attention to every detail of our universe and, yes, my life. Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-32 (italics mine):

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

There is no way for us to understand how. Or separate it into the "natural" and the "miraculous." But we can know that it is true. Just as my friend makes sure that the pond is functioning properly and takes care of his fish, God is doing the same for us. We can trust that he is there, watching over us, with a loving heart we cannot even imagine.

I guess our worship yesterday started way before we got to church. What a God!

Creation: a reminder to give

Why do we work?

You might say that it is so we can produce something that the world needs. You might say that it is to give us a sense of accomplishment. You might say that it's so we can have the chance to interact with other people on a regular basis.

You might say any one of those things, and you would be right to a degree. But most people would simply say, "So I can make money."

And that is true. But Paul said something in Ephesians that might surprise you:

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. (Ephesians 4:28, NIV, emphasis mine)

Interesting. Being productive is there. So is getting something out of it. But the reason for earning money? According to this Scripture, it's in order to put us in position to be generous.

It's not just an isolated passage. All through the Bible we see people of God who were blessed for one reason - so they could be a blessing. Abraham. Moses. David. Solomon.........all received incredible blessings from God but the reason was so they could be a part of his master plan.

So why are you blessed? (And make no mistake - almost everyone who reads this, especially if they're an American, is in the top echelons  or so of the world's wealth.) The Bible gives us one reason. And it so we should ask ourselves every day how we can be a blessing to someone else.

I actually got to thinking about this while reading a book by the founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy. Mr. Cathy has been blessed with an incredibly successful franchise, founded and built through hard work and adherence to Biblical principles. To share his insights, he wrote a book recently called Wealth: Is It Worth It? Here is the excerpt that got me thinking:

The whole world around us is a reminder to give. Why did God create trees? To give us shelter, fruit, timber, and oxygen. The ground, the stars, the moon, the cattle in the fields - all of them were created to give. Likewise, we were created to give. That's why we experience so much joy when we give generously.

What a wonderful picture! God has created a wonderfully rich universe. Sun, moon, stars, air, water, animals, plants...I could go on and on. Out of his infinite riches God has created everything around us in order to give, give, give. And they all scream at us, "YOU give too!"

There are so many in need. And God has blessed us with so much. In the Ephesians passage, he tells us that the reason to work is so that we will have resources to help others. May God grant us all the wisdom to follow his example, and the faith to trust that when we do so he will take care of our needs.

Random?

It was one of those moments...one of those comments...that caused the switch to come on. And I was looking at my surroundings in a whole different way.

I was in Bermuda last week for some work-related meetings. (I know, I know...sounds like tough work. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. Although it really is.)  The morning after we flew in we had some free time before our colleagues arrived and so we decided to explore the beach.

It was different - nothing like the white Panama City beaches we're used to around here. More like what you would picture for California. Intermittent stretches of light colored sand with alot of rocks and cliffs.

Beautiful, right? It was breathtaking, and not just because we were climbing some of the rock formations to get a better view down the beach. (See what I did there?) I have been to Bermuda several times but I had never taken time to see this part of the island.

So we were walking along taking in all of God's handiwork when suddenly we came across this odd rock formation:

See there on the bottom left? It's a series of letters carved into the rock. And four of them actually form the name Rick. Well, a friend in our group noticed this and made the observation of how strange it was that nature could have carved out all these initials naturally while forming the rocks. How random!

Of course Bill was being facetious; everyone knows that letters have to be formed by people. People who know a little something called the alphabet. The initials were a sign that someone had been there.

And that's when it hit me. Something I knew of course, but something that was not resonating deep inside. Until then. The whole beach, all the rocks, the whole island was a sign that someone of unfathomable intelligence, creativity, and power had been there. A person had carved the initials. And the God of the universe had carved the whole thing.

And the whole expedition changed. I marveled, worshipping that God in my spirit.  It was awesome.