how to see your way through things right now

Matt Brown is a regular kind of guy who has dedicated his life to simply, humbly, daily spreading the gospel. His latest book Awakening is about opening eyes to the wonder and beauty of the gospel in fresh, unexpected ways.  It’s a humble grace to welcome Matt to the farm’s front porch today…  

by Matt Brown

My wife Michelle and I visited San Francisco a year and a half ago.

It was our third trip there, and we really have fallen in love with the area.

On this recent trip, through a series of unexpected moments, we ended up by the bay at America’s Cup yacht races, where we heard the story of Alex Thomson, who had sailed solo, non-stop around the world multiple times.

To give some perspective:

3,000 people have climbed Mount Everest;

500 people have been to space;

but less than 100 have sailed solo nonstop around the world.

Alex had done this multiple times as part of the Vendée Globe, an 80-day solo race around the world.

Nearly half of the racers don’t finish the race.

Racers can’t get more than 20 minutes of sleep at a time for the duration of the race because they are single-handedly racing such a large boat, which typically takes 16 or more people to sail.

Racers consume more than 5,000 calories of freeze-dried food per day and endure a test of will, strength, and stamina that is unparalleled in the sports world. If the boat capsized out in the frigid waters, escape would be virtually impossible… he would die.

Thomson shares about this experience, when he’s out in the middle of the Ocean all by himself, as the waves pound on every side, he is “overcome with a feeling of smallness. He realizes how insignificant he is in the midst of the surging, awe-inspiring waves.”

Imagine his epiphany out there in the middle of the massive Ocean!

I couldn’t help but think about how I needed a moment like this.

How we all need a moment like this.

Maybe we could skip the freeze-dried meals and crazy sleep schedules, but if we could all be hit with his moment of the realization of his own tiny smallness… if we could be overcome, and left breathless as we are surrounded by the awe-inspiring working of God all around us.

Psalm 42:7 says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” Prophet Habakkuk says “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

John Piper says, “God is always doing 10,000 things in our lives, and we may be aware of 3 of them.”

But what if we could be more aware of what God is doing all around us?

What if we could have an awe-inspiring, glorious moment like Alex Thomson in the middle of the raging Ocean waves?

What if we could see like Dr. Piper says, even 3 more of the 10,000 things God is doing that are in answers to countless prayers we have prayed, and tears we have shed.

Isn’t this what Christmas teaches us more than anything?

That: God’s greatest mercies often come in the most unexpected packages.

The Christmas child born in the forgotten little town far away from the hustle and bustle of the earth’s important empires.

Even the little inn didn’t have a room, so He entered the world among the farm animals. And there was very little fanfare.

Yes, some angels did sing, but only some lowly shepherds and their sheep were around to catch a glimpse of the most historic and earth-shattering day in all of eternity.

Yes, some wise men sought Him and brought the Christmas child gifts based off their ancient foretelling and the path of the stars. There were hints along the way, but you couldn’t see it without looking.

The announcement was there, but you had to catch it. You had to care.

What if instead of worrying about the 10,000 things we have to do this Christmas season, we spent it looking for more of the 10,000 things God is already doing in our lives? 

There are endless treasures (Ephesians 3:8) that have come to us in the Christmas child, but how often are we too busy to notice?

God wants us to have faith in His nearness, and that He will reward us when we earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Our eyes are so bleak sometimes. We all struggle with some degree of spiritual blindness.

Paul tell us, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Maybe this is why we will never stop worshiping the Christmas child in heaven – not to robotically follow along, not because singing is the only thing to do, but because the veil will be removed, and we will finally see…finally see God for the all-glorious, unbelievably infinite, soul-overwhelming Being that He is.

My friend Rich Langton explains, “God doesn’t just do good, He’s the definition of good. Everything we think of as good ultimately reflects Him!”

Another leader has shared, “When this season of life is finished and the full story is told, we will not have even one small complaint with the leadership of God.”

In heaven, we will finally be fully seeing the One who has carried us far more often that we ever realized, and kept us far more frequently than we could ever imagine.

Worship is a result of seeing.  The more we truly see God through the foggy, darkened mirror of our sinful souls, the more our souls cannot help but bend to worship and thank.

Paul explains further in his second letter to the Corinthian church. As a spiritual father, he wants them to see the glorious light of all God is and does:

“The god of this age has blinded… minds… so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. …

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians  4:3-6)

This is what it means to see – to become aware of God and His goodness and astonishing working all around us so that the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Seeing changes everything. We need God to open our eyes.

This is what the advent season is all about.

Looking with anticipation toward the Christmas child, and asking our Father in heaven to clear our foggy eyes so we can see some more…

stopping, seeking, caring…

so that we won’t miss the Christmas child in all His humble glory and splendor.

“I pray your hearts will be flooded with light —

so you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called.” (Ephesians 1:18)

 

 

Matt Brown’s new book Awakening: How God’s Next Great Move Inspires & Influences Our Lives Today

is a thoughtful trustworthy guide to help you see what God is doing all around you.

It’s an invitation to a way of seeing the wonder and beauty of the gospel in unexpected ways that revive the soul. Awakening is a book that at every turn awakens believers to God’s amazing work, and how they can be inspired to see the the hand of God in their own community and church. This could be an advent of Awakening…