Grand Canyon

It is one of the most majestic places on the earth. It overwhelms the senses to stand and try to take it in all at once. Which, at 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and a mile deep, is impossible from standing at its edge. The Grand Canyon is beautiful and inspiring. Its power is hard to ignore. Scholars cannot agree on the exact age of the Canyon, but most agree it is very old and has been around for millennia.

For all its beauty and tranquility the Grand Canyon can be a rather inhospitable place. It is found in the middle of a desert. The temperatures in the day time can soar above 100 degrees and in winter get so cold, especially along the northern rim, to snow and fall below freezing. The Canyon has been home to many people through the ages. Hardy people who made their homes amid the rock and hard scrabble of the cliffs and along its edge.

It is rather incredible to think that all it took to create the place – besides a whole lot of time – was just some wind and water. The Colorado River runs through the Canyon. And experts hold that it is the river and its streams that are mostly responsible for the Canyon's formation. The water coursing over and against the solid rock sediment cuts it like a knife changing the shape of the Canyon and revealing new levels of rock.

The wind equally has influence on the ever changing shape of the Canyon. The constant blowing of the wind through the Canyon caresses its walls and lifts sediment from its sides. That sediment then rubs against the walls farther down further influencing its shape and design. Ice, snow and storms share some of the load as well.  The Canyon was created long ago but it appears to be a canyon in the midst of its creation.

While on the one hand the Canyon is aged and ancient, it is still being formed and made into what it is to become. Perhaps you visited the Canyon when you were a child, stood on its edge, hiked its trails or rode a donkey down to the river. Go back; you will not see the same Canyon you saw. God is not finished with the Grand Canyon.

Everyday God sends wind, rain, ice, and the mighty Colorado River to work on his majestic masterpiece. Everyday He sculpts His creation into the vision of perfection He has for it. Everyday the Canyon gets a little closer to God’s perfect glory.

You and I see God’s perfect glory already when we gaze at the Canyon's stunning beauty at sunset and marvel at its many colors. We are already in awe as we float along the river and look at the walls standing protection over us that are as old as the earth and as precious as anything on it. You and I fly over the Canyon in an airplane and look down and are able to take in its true vastness and are amazed that anything could ever be grander.

God sees the Canyon and knows it is beautiful. He knows it is good. (Gen. 1:10)  But God rarely stops at good. He wants more. That is why He will never stop working on His Canyon. And that is why He will never stop working on us.

God uses the same tools on us He uses on the Canyon. He uses wind, rain storms, ice and water – Living Water (John 7:38) – to shape and carve us. Don't be put off, look at that Canyon, God can do amazing things with wind and water.  When God looks at us He knows we are beautiful and He knows we are good. But He also knows the plans He has laid out for us. Like the Grand Canyon we are a work in progress.

God didn’t stop working on His masterpiece the day He created it. He is going to keep sending the water and wind to carve, shape and reveal all the colors until it reaches His glorious perfection.

He’s going to keep working on the Grand Canyon too.
~

ENCORE: Wing Man

Because I need this today.
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Let’s get one thing straight right here at the onset, I have a bit of an independent streak running through me. I realize we’ve talked about how we are created to live in community and I agree with that. However, at times I find that I know what’s best better than the community.

I know you do too. Don’t even sit there and try to deny it. It’s the reason we constantly find our selves in troubling situations, we, the know-it-alls of the world.

Take Maverick, for instance. His know-it-all, can-do-it-all attitude got him far but it could not get him all the way to his goal. In the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise played a Navy pilot nick-named Maverick training to be a top jet-fighter pilot. He got his nick-name because of his independent attitude.

In a key scene, Maverick and his navigator, Goose, were in a simulated dog-fight with another trainee jet against two faux enemies. The pilots were trained to fly together for protection. Maverick was the wingman for the other pilot, protecting him. However, Maverick believed that the pilot had his confrontation with his enemy well in hand so Maverick left to go after the other enemy jet.

Of course, things went terribly wrong. The first pilot was “shot down” by his enemy but things went far worse for Maverick and Goose. They flew through the exhaust of another jet, stalled and had to eject. Goose was killed. Maverick could not fly for weeks.

Like jet fighter pilots, I have a wingman as I make my way through life. He is with me everyday protecting my backside. He is there giving me guidance. He is there showing me the way. He is there helping me through. And He is there showering me with love.

But like Maverick, there are many days when I ditch my wingman and fly off on my own. I feel strong and don’t need His protection. I am smart and don’t need His guidance. I am experienced I don’t need Him showing me the way. I am capable I don’t need help. I am happy I don’t need love.  I am impatient and cannot wait for His assistance. 

Greatfully, I have stumbled and fallen like Maverick and like him I am learning the error of my ways. At the end of the movie, Maverick has become a real jet-fighter pilot and finds himself in a real dog-fight with real enemies. Several times he gets nervous and cannot shoot. But then his strength comes as he asks his friend Goose to “talk” to him. As one enemy flies away Maverick's new navigator implores him to chase after it. Maverick says “No.” And he stays flying along with the other pilot.

The enemy turns around and has them in its sights. Again his navigator shouts to pull out and Maverick says “No, I’m not leaving my wingman.”

Maverick has learned the value of keeping the faith in what he has been taught and that it will keep them safe. The first enemy gets shot down then Maverick pulls off his signature breaking maneuver, turns the table on the fight and shoots down his trailing enemy. Staying with his wingman, Maverick ensured all enemies were defeated and both jets made it home safely.

It’s no easy task, staying with my Wing Man. Faith asks a lot. My independent streak is strong. The harder things are and the darker the night the stronger the pull is to strike out on my own. To say, “God, must have forgotten about me. He obviously doesn’t care about me anymore. So, it’s all up to me now.” That is exactly when I must fight the hardest to stay with Him. I must do what Maverick did and ask my Wing Man to talk to me and give me strength to hold tight. You see, even when I’m grounded and cannot fly, my Man’s got the wings to help me soar.

Come hell or high water, I’m not leaving my Wing Man.
~

Voice Lessons

“Inspirational,” . . . “like a choir of angels,” . . . “a true instrument,” . . . “bravo!”. . . “it brought me to tears,” . . . these are words people never – ever – say to me when I sing. How I have longed to have a voice like Julie Andrews, or Diana Krall, or even Cher. But alas, when I raise my voice in song it lands with a dull thud. I have been told by those who know such things that I might be tone-deaf. Meaning I can’t hear or reach the notes and tones necessary to sound like anything other than a barn owl.

Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t stop me from singing. I just make sure my audience is small, me, and the venue comfortable and safe, my car and/or shower.

Perhaps because I can’t sing I find being in the presence of someone who can a true joy. My sister-in-law is not a professional singer but she can at any moment break into song and it sounds like heaven. No musical instruments or back-up singers required. She is constantly singing to my new nephew. He will be a bit sad and she out of nowhere begins to sing him a lullaby, and one she made up at that. He will quiet almost immediately. The smile it brings across his face when he hears his mother sing lights up the world.

Ahh, to be able to do that will remain but a dream for me. Although I have accepted my fate and know my singing will never light up a room, at least not in a good way, and that I will never go on a concert tour, that doesn’t mean I will remain silent. I cannot sing but I do have a voice.

The past few years have been a difficult journey for me. I lost my voice. Actually, I lost my job but in today’s world they are the same thing. Or so it would seem.

It turns out that my job is not the same thing as my voice. I am not what I do for a living, not even close. But when I lost the job, my voice – and heart – seemed to pack up and head for the hills. It was as if the world told me that without my job I had nothing to say that it wanted to hear. That my contributions were not valuable. That is a lie and one I no longer accept.

I have a voice and God wants to hear it.

God has given each one of us a voice. A voice that is true, unique and distinctly our own. No two voices are the same. That is why it is so important that we use our voices, because we are each a part of the puzzle. When one of us doesn’t use our voice then the whole symphony is off just a bit. Like Beethoven’s Fifth without the violins. So when we lose it, it is important that we get it back.

We find our voice by finding our heart. We find our heart by discovering what makes it sing. Perhaps your heart is in gardening, or in educating our next generation. Perhaps your heart sings when look through the lens of a camera or argue a case in court. Maybe your heart soars when you help heal the sick or give your time to the less fortunate. There are those whose heart beats a little faster when crunching numbers and building spreadsheets. Still others become truly alive when serving others, either from behind a bar or in the military. Spending time raising your children may get all your cylinders going. Or maybe you are never more awake than when walking on the beach.

Our job and our heart are not the same thing. It is a blessing when they overlap, but most often they do not. Whatever it is that makes our hearts come alive, it is vital for us to find it. It is from where our voice and strength comes. It is the expression of our purpose. But life has a way of stealing those things that matter and camouflaging our purpose. So it’s a good thing we don’t have to find our voices on our own.

Scripture tells us that Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and fix our wounds. (Ps. 147:3, Is. 61) Jesus came not just to save us and get us to heaven, but to restore us. (Ps. 23:3). To restore something is to put it back like it formerly was. God wants our hearts restored to how they were when he conceived of us and created us. I can’t even imagine what that really looks or feels like. If you are like me, your heart is wounded and far from being the heart it should be. Some heavy restoration is needed. But that is exactly what Jesus came to do.

And He will, if we let Him. All we have to do is ask, and our restoration and voice lessons will begin.

Finding and regaining our voice can be a daunting task if it were left up to us. But thank Heaven its not. We have a voice coach who is with us every step of the way, fine tuning us, restoring us until our instrument is as perfect as the day it was made.

I cannot sing, but I do have a voice. And when it is fully tuned, watch out, I just might go on tour.
~