This summer I felt like I was spiritually vacationing. Not in the sense that I skipped town and left all my responsibilities, but rather resting in God's love, finding out what best pleases the Lord, living with like-minded Christians, experiencing a pleasure that you can only have once in a great while. Truly a mountain top experience.
What goes up must come down. I feel like once I arrived at school gravity was in effect. I want the mountain. I want to see the valley below and feel the deep cool wind upon my cheeks, to see the echo of God's word in my actions, and to live with the people who have helped shape my spiritual walk and prayed for my victories. I want the meat of the word that I felt so deprived of before.
As I cried to God for the mountain, I forgot he calls us to live in the valley.
Oswald Chambers book The Love of God, showed me some powerful insights. In the chapter 'Can we come down?' Oswald Chambers points out that spiritual selfishness causes us to want to stay on the mountain. He says that we are made to live in the valley where sin abounds. The valley is where we live for Gods glory, and the mountain is where we see the glory of God. Jesus and Moses come to mind.
To be the most useful to God we must be where the people are. Once in the valley the relationship with God must be evident. Almost like a perfume we put on everyday. It doesn't dismiss us from getting dirty, but rather while we are called to do the lowly things in life that are most humiliating we still give off a beautiful sent that is almost captivating.
It's not going to be easy. I honestly feel like I am in over my head. I feel I'm among a population that wants to be laodicean. They know how to please both crowds and they are very good at what they do. I am having a hard time believing that they will want the truth which I long to live by. I was moved by one sentence Oswald Chambers wrote when he said we are more worried about offending other people than we are worried about offending Jesus.
At first glance the message seems so unattractive. Obedience. Will-power. Discipline. Long-suffering. This is what we are called to exercise in a world that says it's OK to break the rules, it's OK to give in to your passions, it's OK to be “bad” every now and then. I believe the outcome is the real test. Lack of discipline, obedience, will-power, and long-suffering equals what? A society that is obese, with a low attention span, unmotivated, and selfish. The outcome of the followers of Christ are quite the opposite.
As I was reading the chapter in patriarchs and prophets about Balaam I understood more. Balaam, an outsider, looked over the Israelite camp and saw, “the vast extent and perfect arrangement of their camp, everything bearing the marks of thorough discipline and order.” He noted the strict obedience to God that the Israelites were used to following. “He beheld with astonishment the evidence of their prosperity.” Our ways need to be different than the worlds ways. We should be set apart in that sense.
Honestly, I want to find the balance of living in the valley and living like the Israelites- set apart. It is so comforting to know someone did just that, and that we can call on him anytime.
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