Some folks may recognize the play on Scripture I’m making, but sometimes we have to reflect on God’s love being shed abroad in our life. This morning, I was especially reflecting on the similarities between the glory of God and a waterfall.
God’s glory is raw and majestic, full of power, and wonderful to behold. His glory and character cannot be contained or usurped, except at inevitable danger to ourselves. A couple of examples about this came to mind while I was showering.
One way to capture the glory of God is to try and jump into the waterfall. But we know that this is incredibly dangerous, and one survives only if the glory of the waterfall is no glory at all (e.g., a very small waterfall). However, everywhere God’s glory shows up in human lives, we see only a glimpse. Its like visiting Niagara Falls and feeling the spray of the falls, or like looking from behind a great waterfall as if protected by the glassy wall of water. We only see humans survive the full glory if God invites us into His protection, while He passes by. If we presume to enter His glory unprepared, or we attempt to usurp it for ourselves, it is like trying to ride the falls in a barrel: we will surely perish.
The other way we place ourselves in danger relative to His glory is when we try to harness the power of God’s glory for our own purposes. This is like building a dam to produce hydroelectric power, or create a recreational water body. On human time, we may reap great benefits from this harnessed power. Just like manmade dams, however, our lives become full of the silt and mud that accumulates behind even the most well constructed dams. Ultimately, the depth of the water behind the dam will become too shallow to allow continued safe operation. It will either fail structurally, placing in great danger all who are downstream, or it will need to be replaced, rendering in vain all those who were displaced to allow us to reap our own satisfaction and glory from the work of our hands. In both cases, the costs of decommissioning or destruction of the dam may greatly outweigh those required for its construction.
This is not to mention the appearance of power and depth on the surface, while all of the dirt and silt accumulates beneath the surface. For a while, our plans will avail us of much, but we must be careful not to replace the raw majesty of God’s unchanging glory with the temporal designs of our desires to gain glory at God’s expense.
Let us allow God’s love to be shed abroad into the uncharted and wild courses of our lives as he dictates, and avoid the costly, inevitable destruction of attempting to contain our Father’s authority.
This is so profound. It seems that with the birth of your son comes a new level of annointing. God is revealing Himself to you mightily. This is your season!
Pastor, if I may add: When the presence comes, we are strenghtened and empowered; when Glory comes, priests are no longer able to stand and perform their duties(2 Chronicles 5:14). The truth is God’s glory is disruptive. It’s untamed, uncontrollable, unstoppable, and dangerously all-consuming. It destroys agendas, calendars, service orders, songlists, and carefully devised plans.
Yes, God has been doing some things differently, and I hope he empowers me to make changes in my life that will enable me to allow His glory to take its course. The hardest thing about following Him is that we rely on Him to take us on both the external and inner pilgrimages that make us more like Him. I can’t wait to see what He does in my life, and I’m looking for Him to make my soul progressively sensitive to His Spirit.