Appetizers Aplenty.

Seven days till I head back to Oregon. One month till I turn 20. The clock keeps ticking and as I've painfully learned over and over again, time stops for no one. With the second, minute, and hour hand ambitiously moving onward, I can't help but feel asphyxiated. Wait! Just for a moment! Please, I'm not ready yet. Just let me rest. But alas, Ephesians 5:15-16 rings true again, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." Indeed, the days are freakishly evil.  Trying to grasp for air to avoid suffocation, I desperately turn to the comforts of the Word and a Romans 9 marathon of Piper. Marathons of John Piper are the best, but also the most dangerous of marathons. Every sermon opens the opportunity for either a furthering of my soul's sanctification or a hardening of my heart. Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

In my own quiet reflections on Romans 9 I meditated on a specific point that Piper addressed in his sermon, namely that God did not create the world as a temptation to idolatry, but as appetizers and pointers to the feast of God's glory. How sweet and savory this reminder has been to me today! I distinctly remember this truth revealing itself three years ago when I first stepped foot into Oregon. Tall skinny trees, soaring into the skies infinitely, completely enveloping me. Forests of trees, all literally pointing to the Heavens. "Look upwards!" they screamed. "Fix your eyes on the Heavens above, feast on the glory of God, inhale your Creator's majesty!"

May my life always be like the trees - forever pointing to Christ and His glory.