I’ve been to church, I’ve read the Book
I know He’s here but I don’t look
Near as often as I should… yeah, I know I should…
His fingerprints are everywhere,
I just slowed down to stop and stare,
Opened my eyes and man I swear,
I saw God today

From George Strait’s newest single I Saw God Today

It’s no secret that King George is my favorite artist. I own every album he’s released, all the way back the the first one in 1981. In all that time and in all those tapes and CDs, there have been dozens and dozens of songs that I count among my all-time favorites… in fact, even just to trim it to a top 50 proves quite a challenge to me. However amongst all those great songs, it could be said that none have had quite the same kind of impact on me as his newest single that was released today.

The chorus (which is printed above) really struck home with me. As I listened to the words, it hit me just how well those words describe me. After all, I have been to church and I have read the Book, and I know He’s here… and yet, so often I live as though He is only around in certain times and in certain places. It’s not that I ever doubt or question His existence, but so often I get too caught up in life and it’s daily events – both good and bad… and I lose sight of the fact that He is all around and in everything and every part of my life. The problem is I just don’t look.

I know that if I could slow down and take the time to look, I would see God so much more often… and I can only imagine how that would change my perspective on so many things and revolutionize my attitude and the way I live my life.

The song closes with yet another verse that I must comment on:

Got my face pressed up against the nursery glass,
She’s sleeping like a rock…
My name on her wrist, and tiny pink socks.
She’s got my nose, she’s got her mamma’s eyes.
My brand new baby girl, she’s a miracle…
I saw God today”

I can say without a doubt, the day that I saw my little baby girl for the first time, I most definitely saw God that day. And in a way, she still plays that role in my daily life. There are so many times that I get worked up about something and then she comes to me with those big eyes and beautiful smile, with her arms raised up in the hopes that I will sweep her up and give her a big bear hug… and I am reminded of my priorities and the miracle that she is… and God uses her and those moments to remind me of Him and His blessings in my life.

In that way and many others, I definitely saw God today.

Food for Thought, General, Scripture | 1 Comment »

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to add to the blog world… but this morning I came across a good thought that I want to share:

“We must daily soak ourselves in Scripture. We must not just study, as through a microscope, the linguistic minutiae of a few verses, but take our telescope and scan the wide expanses of God’s Word, assimilating it’s grand theme of divine sovereignty in the redemption of mankind. ‘It is blessed,’ wrote C.H. Spurgeon, ‘to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord, so that you blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows through you.”

From Charles Swindoll’s Strengthening Your Grip

That certainly seems like a worthy task to undertake and a noble aspiration to aim for. Beyond that, I’ll just let the quote speak for itself.

Food for Thought, Scripture | No Comments »

You know how sometimes you can watch a movie for the 10th time and still find something new in it you hadn’t noticed before? I find that happens to me a lot when I’m reading from God’s Word. There may be a passage of Scripture that I’ve read or heard a dozen or more times, and yet for some reason, when I come across it again, it seems as if it’s brand new. The first Psalm that struck me that way this morning…

Blessed in the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like the chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalms 1

These days, it seems like it’s easier than ever to get drawn into the ways of the wicked. By that, I’m not necessarily just talking about the overt, noticeable sins that can land you on the front page of the Metro Section. It’s the less obvious things that get us… rude behavior, gossip, slander, impatience, lack of compassion and kindness, etc.

Just think about how easy it is to become a rude driver when your temper is stoked by another rude driver. Or how easy is it to lack compassion or patience with a waitress or store clerk that may be having a bad day?

Things as seemingly innocuous as those can put us squarely in the counsel of the wicked, because we are no longer being led by our better angels, but our worst demons so to speak. At the point that we begin to neglect the behavior that we know God desires of us and stoop to a level that would make satan grin, we have strayed into the counsel of the wicked and are standing in the way of sinners.

Think of how those type of things are so vexing to the spirit. And contrast that against the image of the tree planted by the streams… peaceful, being fed, producing fruit. It’s a stark contrast.

I wonder how much all of our lives, mine most definitely included, would be transformed in so many ways if we were to strive to be the man that is described in the first verse, regardless of our external circumstances or present frustrations and annoyances. I’m sure in many ways, our lives would be a stark contrast to what they often are today.

General, Scripture | No Comments »