Posts Tagged: nature

“Thanks for Everything!”

On July 7, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I am into list-keeping. Lists keep me more or less on track. Even in my personal journal, I do lists. I am especially fond of gratitude lists. I usually try to list 50 things for which I’m grateful. It’s a wonderful way to start the day, and I heartily recommend it.

This morning, I paused after item 49, and thought, “I need to make item # 50 count!” So, I wrote the following: “Every little and not-so-little thing you do for me and everyone and everything else in the universe.”

I immediately thought of some of the psalms that broaden praise and thanksgiving to God to embrace God’s goodness to all of creation. The biblical psalmists were not just into thanking and praising God for God’s goodness to them individually. At least some of the psalmists were also aware of God’s goodness to all people, and indeed to all creation.  Psalm 104 is just one example. In this psalm, God is praised for his care even for wild animals and sea creatures.

I love Toby Mac. I love his songs and I love his concerts. He has a song out that is getting lots of play time on Christian radio. It has a very simple title—“Everything.”

“Everything”

I’m captivated, I’ll say it
I’m on a whole new intrigue
My space invaded, upgraded
I hear You talking to me
It’s in the boom of the thunder, it’s in the cool of the rain
And I’ll say I don’t ever want to get away

Tonight is beautiful
It’s got my mind on You
And everywhere I turn is a reminder

I see You in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me
I see You in everything
You’re all up in everything

My soul’s awaken
I’m taken by all the beauty You bring
You got it blarin’, I’m starin’
Love watching You do Your thing
There’s no mistaken Your style
No mistaken Your touch
I see the grand, I see the subtle of Your love

Lord, I see You in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me
It’s finding me in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me

Tonight is beautiful
It’s got my mind on You
And everywhere I turn is a reminder
From the sparkle in her eyes to the starlit open skies
You bring my heart to life, fill me with wonder

Oh, I can see Your love, Your love in everything
And that’s why You’ll always be my everything
Yeah, I can see Your love, Your love in everything
And that’s why You’ll always be my everything

And a God who is able and willing to take care of the entire universe—everything—is a God worth trusting to meet my own little needs.

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“APPRECIATING NATURE”

On September 13, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I like (and need) to make lists.  One of the lists I frequently make is a gratitude list.  Sometimes, I feel challenged by God to concentrate on specific kinds of things for which I am thankful.  Today, it was nature.  I found it a stretch.  It was difficult for me to come up with fifty specific things from nature for which I am grateful.

This is ironic and disturbing, since I grew up on a farm in southern Ohio and spent most of my time outside.  I loved nature—or at least most of it.  I was never a big snake person.

In fact, I think my dad thought I loved nature a bit too much.  When I was little, I used to pray sometimes before we ate our meals.  My dad said, on at least one occasion, “Our food gets cold while this boy thanks God for the grass and flowers and weeds!”

Guilty as charged, I’m afraid.

So, why has it become so difficult (unnatural?) now to be thankful for natural things?  After doing my thanksgiving list this morning, I wrote in my journal, “Doing these thanksgivings has made me more aware of how unaware I am.  Do I really notice my natural surroundings?  How much do I know about this lovely planet?  How deeply do I cherish it?”

Like all really good questions, these are profoundly unsettling.  And like all good questions, there may be no easy answers.  We need to live with good questions, even when living with them is difficult.

So, here is what I plan to do differently today: I will notice things.  I will ask them questions about how they are doing, and then I will listen for their response.  The question is not, “Can plants, animals, and inanimate objects speak?”  Rather, the question is, “Will I choose to listen?”

Some years ago, Annie Dillard wrote a book titled, Teaching a Stone to Talk.  The title comes from a thirty-year-old man who lived on the same island where Dillard lived at the time.  The man lived by himself with a stone that he was trying to teach to talk.

Crazy?  Maybe, but then again, maybe not.  Jesus spoke of stones talking (Luke 19:40).  “But that was just a metaphor!  Right?”

Maybe.  Sometimes, I think that we call things “just metaphors” whenever they sit uncomfortably with what we think we already know.

Psalm 19:1-2 tells us that “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.  Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known” (New Living Translation).  The Hebrew word which is here translated “continues” is a word which may suggest an uncontrollable gushing forth.

So, join me in staying alert today  Notice nature, even if it’s just that dratted creeping charlie that is taking over your lawn.

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