Losing its Luster

"I've already seen glaciers. I've already seen waterfalls. Not another mountain!"

After the incredible summer in Hawaii, Alaska and Banff, one of our ornery children complained about things one should never complain about. Nature was losing its luster, and the grandeur wasn't grand anymore. While some of this in inevitable due to his age, it also appears in our culture, but with erroneous acceptance.

The job isn't exciting anymore. The marriage isn't romantic anymore. The kids aren't cute anymore. When things lose their luster, we decide to look for something shinier. Instead of pressing into the dull or hard moments, we think it's time to raise the bar.

Eventually the bar will hit a ceiling. Then what? You could break the proverbial glass ceiling, but you'd still end up on the "tower of Babel," trying to climb higher into the clouds while misunderstanding everyone around you. The frustrations will pile like boulders and you'll look for an out-- quit, sulk, or cover it up with anesthetics.

Until you realize that there is only one completely satisfying endeavor, you'll never learn to be satisfied where you are. The wealthiest, most successful individuals will unanimously agree (if they are honest)--once at the top, they still aren't satisfied. What more is there?

One of my favorite writers identified the problem this way, "You may sit in your cubicle or work in the cornfield or cook in the kitchen or pound away at the construction site — and think you are never further from spiritual reality. Young David [of the Bible] too was disposed to be mishandled by monotony. None of us does well with sameness. Its spell sedates, blinding our eyes to the beauty we think we’ve already seen. It deafens the shouts of “Holy is the Lord God Almighty! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The green hills were not what drew David near to God; a meditative habit and a devout heart were — the kind of vision that can transfigure trivialities." (Greg Morse, "The Lord is my Shepherd: Why God Made Sheep," desiringgod.org)

Morse explains how monotony can numb the soul, unless we have a habit of worship. Like a dog on a mission for a stick, who turns and runs at every squirrel sighting, we also forget what we were so excited about in the beginning. Distraction deceives us to believe there is something better than the mission to worship God.

I'm seeking to stay on mission-- not one led by an organization, but one where I'm learning to individually worship Him who satisfies completely no matter the glaciers, mountains, deserts, or tightly packed truck around me.

When knowing God more intimately is our mission, everything else is transfigured into an act of worship. I don't always get it right, day in and day out, but I'm conditioning my meditative muscle to see His glory in an unpolished, unknown life.

Fall is NOT losing its luster for me though..... I'm so grateful for it every single year, and I'm blessed to see it this year in Colorado, and I'm sure more to come in the East!

~Conditioning Carefully & Carelessly