Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Another kind of MAD across America

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Wow. I subscribed to a blog by a Christian guy who is walking across America. I'm going to paste the entire post below because I don't want you to miss it. To my Christian friends - This will inspire you. To my non-Christian friends-This is one of the best expositions I've ever read.
Please, take the time to read it. I am in awe of this guy's humility.
Wow.

Find more here.

From Adam Dubinski:

MAD Across America DAY 8: Your God Experience


Eight days on the road, and you want to know what I’ve learned?
I have no idea what I am doing.
There are no miraculous encounters to retell here.
No life-threatening misadventures.
I haven’t seen a single burning bush, and not even one snake slithering around in any trees containing knowledge of good and evil has offered me a delicious apple.

I haven’t even gotten so much as a “Hello,” out any animal, for that matter. (Although that buzzard did follow me for quite a ways while I was walking through the desert last week…)
I am more confused tonight on the campus of Warner Pacific College in Portland, OR, than I was in fifth grade when my oldest sister, Julie, explained sex to me with a pill bottle, an empty Gatorade bottle, and a “power tool/tool shed” metaphor that I’m still not entirely certain I understand.
Tonight I am weary, on the edge of collapse after eight days sleeping on floors and in unfamiliar homes, hotels and highway miles as I struggle with what I see out here in America. Towering mountains and canyons and deserts and caves; views from the top of the world, yet I don’t feel connected.  I am disconnecting from the very experience I am trying to convey.  The very thing I am trying to find, I feel like I am losing.
Because I have already forgotten what it is I am looking for.
Do I give a dollar to every homeless man I see?
Do I stop and pray with every stranger?
Preach the gospels from street corners with a megaphone?
Maybe share a smoke in a dark-lit bar, striking up matches and conversations about how Jesus was more than a carpenter: he was kind of a badass.
Or was I simply supposed to go, hitting the road with nothing but loose change and faith in my pockets?
Eight days on the road, and you want to know what I’ve learned?
My pockets are empty.
Because I am here trying to prove God to you rather than see Him for myself.  I stood on the edge of cliffs, and drove to the tops of mountains overlooking the world.  This week I saw sunsets paint the sky red, and red canyon walls covered me in deep shade of blue. And instead of dropping to my knees in awe and wonder, I spent my time trying to pick the right words only to discover I cannot put God into words.  I cannot describe Him to you, or how I see Him in the world.
I cannot prove God to any of you.
For each one of us sees God differently.  He does specific things for us, caters to our needs and attractions, the desires on our hearts.
And I think He focuses every single second of every single day on YOU specifically.  And the things that you find beautiful are not necessarily the same things I find beautiful. And the places you see God, may not be the places I see Him.
I crawled through cracked canyon walls, screaming hellos that ricocheted around me like gunfire off bulletproof glass, and got no reply.  I sat in perfect silence on the side of the road, finally away from the inescapable traffic and helicopters of LA, thinking, “If I could just see God here, feel Him here, then I will be able to tell the world about Him.”
The moment I try to put God into words is the very moment I try to put God into an imperfect form: human.  God does not live within the confines of our universe.  We cannot contain God in our world.  And that, America, is our problem.  Is my problem.  We are constantly trying to contain God, to put Him in a box where we can study Him, watch His every move, know His next decision before He does, and see every side of Him. We think we can understand His motives, His passion, His desire, and His anger toward us.
His jealousy for us.
I am no longer trying to describe God because there are no words.
Because He cannot be contained to just the mountains and stars.
So I am going to show you.
I will show you love. Compassion. Grace. And Mercy.  I can show you those things. I can tell you about them.  I can tell you about my encounters, my struggles, my desire for fairness.
I have not been assigned to save you, to change you, or fix you.
Only to love you.
And God is ready for you to experience Him in the way He wants to be experienced by you.
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