the Jesus Freak church

walked for a bit, looking at the stars. scientifically, they are just elements in the universe, serving no real purpose, and they eventually burn out and disappear, just like us. but i read one time how science doesn't understand beauty and can't begin to think poetically. and poetically, stars are beautiful. they show the vastness of the universe, point to how small we are in this world and point to how great their creator must have been. they point to God's glory, just as the sunsets do, just as the forests and the lights at night and everything around us scream God's glory.

i got to thinking that God deserves nothing less than me. how God, having everything and being omnipotent, would create this huge universe - and fix stars and planets in the skies, and plot all of us here on a tiny dot in the grand scheme of things, and how He's too good for us. how we don't deserve Him - we don't deserve His mercy or even His attention, but He gives it to us anyway. He looks past our simple mortality, past our shortcomings and our sinful ways, even looks past that we've killed Him and perhaps would kill Him again. looks past all of this in order to look like a fool - for what? for love. He values us more than we could ever imagine, so much that He laid down this ultimate sacrifice, of letting Himself by mocked and ridiculed and killed at our hands.

i don't know. i just got really pumped up, and God was there. God was there reminding not to run too fast, because then i might miss the stars. i might miss the big picture if i didn't open my eyes. so i got back and called billy and we talked for a while and psyched each other up and now we're thinking about different types of ministry outreach we might be able to do to get something going. apparently, there is Christian revolution happening in China, Africa, as well as the Middle East. I think it stinks that America is not on that list. kind of want to do something about it. as i ran, i thought about the different things i would say if i got a chance to lead a DFC Bible study (trying to make an analogy from some lines from the movie Alien vs. Predator) and what we could do at 30 Hour Famine. additionally, billy and i have concluded that joining a YMCA basketball league would be a great idea, because we would have great fun and fellowship, and all of the different people we would be able to attract. people that used to go to youth group and have fallen away and people that are greatly opposed to it. but God will have to be there. i think this is a great shot.