THE HIKE THAT MADE ME QUESTION EVERYTHING

I also pray that you will understand the incredible 

greatness of God's power for us who believe in him. 

This is the same mighty power that 

raised Christ from the dead...

Ephesians 1:19-20

In a discipleship journey I am on, I am reminded that God's intention for us was always good. It was always Shalom—wholeness, harmony, peace. I read this morning that he personally designed a universe to reflect the magnitude of his glory and good intent for us as his creation. He saw what he had made in the very beginning and proclaimed that it was good.

And he was delighted in his creation (read Genesis 1:1-25).

Any time I think about creation and God speaking the unique elements of the universe into existence, I automatically default to the phrase in the beginning. I limit my perspective of creation to a specific time in history and my Sunday school felt board lessons. 

I tend to forget that God, in his power and intelligence and goodness, is still creating. 

Even now, at this moment. He is creating something or someone and still putting his stamp on it that says from its beginning, "this is good."

He was still creating when I came into existence, and he was delighted. He saw that he had made something good. He personally designed me as a part of his creation that would reflect his power and glory, even upon first entering into the world in the miracle of birth.

Now, about this hike: 

One beautiful week in a sunny [gasp] Portland September, my husband and I decided to plan a staycation. On one of these sunny days we went on a hike to Portland's well known Punchbowl Falls and I had one of those moments of being overcome—and almost dizzied—with the vastness of God's creation. We rounded a corner heading back down the very narrow hiking path, and straight in front of me was a steep cliff, exposing a massive valley of trees and water that was surrounded by an overpowering wall of evergreen. As I tried to focus on every detail at once, I experienced the sensations of vertigo. I had to stand still in shock and awe. My heart was beating faster and I felt like my pupils were going to explode. 

There are moments when we experience creation that we can't help but feel a sense of strength and power and beauty and freedom. The vastness of his creation draws out of us such a natural response of awe and wonder, and God's glory and power is still so evidently displayed in his natural creation. The way he originally intended it to.

As a seemingly small part of his vast creation, I can't help but wonder about myself...

Is God's glory and power so evidently visible and displayed in me?

In the physical sense, I'm not quite as majestic as a mountain range or as vast as the sky in a deeply colored sunset. Yet if God personally designed his creation to point others to his glory, he designed me specifically to do the same in my own way. I have to ask myself: Am I fulfilling my purpose as his creation in reflecting the glory and power of God in how I live? 

Woah. 

Hold up. Take a step back. 

In the beginning of...well...me, God created me and said, "this is good." 
God delighted in me, his handiwork. 
God designed me to be a powerful voice that proclaims his original intent of goodness. 
He gifted me with unique talents and characteristics to do so.

Just as God specifically created the vast scene that surrounds Punchbowl Falls to display his power, he also created me to be a vessel of that same power and glory. 

Here is where it gets good. 

In the first chapter of Genesis, the phrase "And it was so" appears over and over again along with the phrase "And God saw that it was good." Everything that God spoke into existence became so. Nothing could stop it from becoming so, because God is eternal and existed before anything else was created. Once God's command was spoken, goodness, light and life were unstoppable. 

That same unstoppable and authoritative power that spoke the elements of the universe into existence is the same unstoppable power that would later raise Jesus from death to life. 

And this is the same power that now lives in me; the same power that lives in all those who believe. 

I am still learning what it means to have God's power within me—as I think we all are. Because this is a big, BIG kind of power. The kind that none can fully understand or describe with words. I'm also clearly still learning how to be a part of creation that points others to the goodness of God.

What I do understand is that I was designed in a very specific way with very specific gifts; my act of worship to God is pursuing life alongside him, and believing that he has a life of strength, beauty and freedom for me amidst a world that can be dark and full of sorrow and bondage. 

In doing this, he is restoring my soul to Shalom, and drawing others to goodness, glory and power. Though I am no majestic mountain range, I pray my life will draw others to seek a life with the true God of light and life. 


And I got this all from a hike. 


Thanks for reading, 

Jamie 
jrobison@b4church.org