Sunday’s discipline: “pur’t near nothin’”

size of earth

In previous posts, I wrote about how small I felt looking out at the universe as I stood on this insignificant planet in an insignificant solar system in an insignificant galaxy, looking outwards into the vastness of space.  In fact, this was the reason my mother cited for not embracing Christianity.  She couldn’t imagine why God would care about us.  And of course, she’s right – it doesn’t make sense.  But then, here we are with “the most complex machine in the universe” inside our skulls, thanks to evolution, which seems, at the least, rather surprising at first thought.  Lots of things are unexpected at first thought. 

 

Well, here we are.  Pretty near nothing in the universe with any measure you wish to use.   How do we interact with the Creator?  If He doesn’t care, then we can do what we wish ……. and we are profoundly alone.   But what if He has expectations of us?  What then? 

 

So this is my discipline for this week.  I want to reconnect myself to my proper place in the universe at least once per hour.  I want to understand my smallness and God’s complexity and grandeur.  So I’ll look at the window to see the largeness of sky.  I’ll look at the freshness of Spring and think about the anatomy and physiology of the plants around me.  At night, I’ll look at the stars.  In this way, I’ll try to take my proper assigned role as a servant in the service of God.  I’ll place my desires beneath those I’m serving – children, students, co-workers.  I’ll focus on getting the job done in research and teaching rather then on distracting things, because a good servant gets the important things done first.  I’ll make sure I keep myself pure down to the thoughts, because my life is laid out as plain before God.  And I’ll try not to overpromise, even as I set these goals…..

 

image from : 

http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~20~20~120408~227109:Earth-and-the-Sun

 

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