Life’s Not All Sunrises, Sometimes It’s Noon
There are times in my Christian faith that
seem like the sunrise. I can’t stop looking at it, admiring what God has done. Looking at the beauty of it, snapping pictures (and if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or my Flickr, then you know I love me some sky pictures).
Sunrises are beautiful. Everyone, aside from the waking up early, want to see the sunrise. I’m not going to look up the science of why, but the sunrise makes the sun look beautiful and a deep, reddish-orange and I love it.
There’s nothing all that beautiful about noon. Everything is going well, there’s no clouds in the sky, but, it’s boring. The sun doesn’t seem like it’s moving, it’s plain, and you can’t look at it. And, it’s burning you.
That’s right, during the “noon” times of faith, sometimes you struggle. You don’t want to be outside, you might not want to do it. You want to go in and sit in the air conditioning.
I would say that for a while, I was in my noon time. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to believe. Could I deny what I believed, no, but I would consider it a crisis of faith. I’ve never been a fan of nonfiction books, but out of the blue, I got a hankering to read some. Not just some, but some theology-heavy ones.
It started with reading through The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn with my wife. Now, I’ve been reading through Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper and at the same time, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I couldn’t tell you where the urge to read these books came from, but I started to get signs that I was supposed to read them. We had 2 copies of The Treasure Principle, I was given 8 copies of Don’t Waste Your Life out of the blue, and my wife already had Blue Like Jazz.
These have been great books for me in my stagnant noon phase. They’re encouraging, yet not encouraging me to stay stagnant. They’re helping me to think through some of the issues that I’ve had. And, I’m sure, if you’re reading this, you’ve been able to see some of that thought process because that’s how I think.
It sure seems like God is trying to help me get back to sunrise. I’m starting to see the beauty in my faith again, and it’s big and colorful and I love it. But, I’m also realizing, that it can’t always be sunrise. Life has to move on, and noon is where you really grow.
