Sunday, 7th of September, Bron and I took to the roads of Northern America and found our way clear of the hustle and bustle of Chicago city life, to a little place called Green Lake.
Our days in Chicago usually started around 3pm when we rolled out of bed, freshened up, put on our walking shoes, and hit the pavements like all good tourists should. On our first day, we wandered around the lake and found our way to Navy Pier - one of those tourist black holes that you usually want to avoid. This particular black hole served to be a great starting point for some memorable tales.. the sunset skyline cruise was well worth the $14 we paid, as was the $8 I paid for a Haagen Dazs chocolate brownie fudge sundae!! Then there was the ferris wheel… I thought it appropriate to share with Bron (when we’d reached the top of our ferris wheel climb) that there was a slim chance I could suffer from a fear of heights.. stuck in a little cubicle miles above the earth (well perhaps not miles) had the capacity to incite a dormant fear!! We survived and the 7 minute ride over Navy Pier, much like the sunset skyline cruise, and the chocolate fudge sundae, was well worth it!
God has continually blown my mind with the ways in which He goes before us in the simplest and most complicated of things, throughout the days of this adventure around the good ole US of A. Most people would discount the happenings of a day to be chance or happenstance. In fact, I would dare say that there are many Christ followers that seem to loose sight of the intricate ways in which God moves in their lives. Sometimes it is easy to forget to see the kind, gentle, man behind the ticket counter at the airport, on a morning that you’re surviving on four hours sleep, was dreamed in to being my the Father God and weaved in to that man’s life, was a momentary meeting with two tired and crazy women from half way around the globe.
I believe in an interactive God. A God that is alive and active in the miller-seconds of my day. I believe God is an intimate God. A God that desperately wants me. A God that is not merely interested, but absolutely infatuated with me. How incredible is that?
The absolute insanity of it all, is that God has the same reaction to all of mankind. Hard to wrap your head around the fact that the same insane, hilarious, incredible, ridiculous infatuation resides over every single body roaming the earth!! God see’s you.. knows you intimately.. is completely and utterly madly in love with you!! Hard to believe I know.. how could He think that, feel that, do that?
I think this is some of what makes God an upside down, inside out, doesn’t quite make much sense kind of God. A God, that embraces the beautiful balance of struggle among the many contradictions found along the journey of life.
I like to wrestle with the things that motivate behaviour mostly within myself, and more often than not, within the people I encounter. I’ve also recently obtained an unbelievable desire to wrestle with the things that motivate God. I’m intrigued by the interplay of our hearts, souls and minds. I’m fascinated with the ways in which God infiltrates the breadth and depth of life. How incredible are the complexities of this God? How humbling are the simplicities of God? The beauty of it all is that by the sheer grace of God my soul is able to rest in the knowledge that above all of my own complexity, and ultimately God’s complexity, there lies a majestic simplicity that brews the warmth of contentment within life.
As I journey, I‘m challenged to somehow resolve the many paradox’s that play within the life of a Christ follower. To make sense of that which just doesn’t seem to make sense. For now I find resolve in a simple understanding and knowing that His name is Love.
Love never gives up, love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end.
