"Thinking About God"

Many years ago on a deserted stretch of beach in San Juan, PR, I made the life changing decision to LOOK UP for the first time in a long time. At the end of a long night of introspection I came to the realization that I had literally lost my mind. So, just after dawn that Sunday morning, I walked the short distance from that small bar to the beach, removed my shoes and walked. All day. Back and forth. Thinking and praying. For the first time in my life, I just talked to God honestly. By the time I arrived at the Naval Base later that afternoon, my head was clear and my heart was full. The promise I made to God that day put me on a course that I have tried to follow since.

A few years ago when I began to create this blog, one of my primary motives was to exalt God as Father to all who willingly submit their own spirit to his guidance. Like any father, he only wants what is best for his kids but we must learn to pay attention, to listen to him. There are many distractions that can take us in directions that wont end well, particularly during the early teenage years when we are more influenced by peers and often the wrong heroes. But, like any truly caring father, God never gives up, never quits, never abandons us to our own ignorance of obvious reality. Such was true in my case, for which I am more grateful today than at any other time in my life.

For a long time I have loved Paul's Doxology at the end or Romans 11 -

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! AMEN."

 That praise of God should be spoken in my heart daily to remind myself of the greatness of God my Father. I wont ever have the capacity to fully comprehend all that it means, it's just to deep for my small mind. But, I can learn to appreciated what it means for my life because Paul didn't stop there -

"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices , holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.  Romans 12:1 NIV

I really appreciate these words from The Message -

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your every day, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out."  Romans 12:1-2

That just kinda says it all. HALLELUJAH!