Sacrificing the dearest things

Its not as bad as the title sounds, I promise.

I was at Big Bend this weekend, its a mountainous region/national park in Texas. 5-10 mi from Mexican Border. Hiking up this mountain to the peak showed me many things. I first saw the beauty for God's creation. Seeing how he made the plants, how the trees form themselves in various ways, etc. The more I saw it, the more in awe I was finding myself in. A state of worship so to say.

Then somewhere on the peak, a revelation hit...We are in a post-flood world.

It's 100% true. The whole earth was once covered in a flood that destroyed everything. Death was laid on the entire earth with water. Destruction happened to the "good" creation God did.

Now here is where Im getting slammed in the face in more awe...we see the Earth and say, "God your so amazing for creating this." Yet its a post-flood world. What I'm getting at is a thing called "Life from Death". It's a cycle the Earth follows. Plants have to die to produce life, and by that its through fruit and seeds. The older generation must die to allow the next generation to thrive. It's a cycle/law(if you must call it a law) the Earth follows.

The creation we see is how God made something beauty from death. Wonderful isn't it? My God is so big and strong, that He made beauty from destruction. WHOA.

My God is not something to undermine. I have found myself being convicted more and more when I dont praise God. Oddly enough, its not because of worship...its that my view of worship was so narrow. Its not just songs. Its not just guitar or hymns, or a leader who has awesome hair or great stage presence. Its giving glory to God for who He is. And I dunno about your Bible, but mine starts off with my God being a Creator in Genesis 1.

But its even deeper than that.

I just have begun to realize the deeper meaning of "dying to myself, and taking up my cross". If I have to die, I have to sacrifice myself. My life is laid on the line to be killed, destroyed, befriended to death walking hand in hand down a field of flowers (you getting the picture?). It no longer is going to be the same. That is the nature of death. If someone dies, they no longer remain the same. Am I right? Is my grandfather going to stay my grandfather, well working and fine tuned? No. He turns to dirt. Change.

So change occurs through death. When we die to ourselves, we open ourselves to be changed by the same God who created beauty through the flood. We turn to dirt when we die. And through the Living water of Christ, we turn to clay. From there we are moldable and formable. God takes on the role of Creator yet again. We need the water to stay moldable, the Word of God. Without it, we become hard. So water needs to remain in the dirt to remain clay. No dirt, no water, no clay. No death, no Christ, no change.