Biology

If A Tree Falls Down… Am I Still A Hippie?

Posted on by lainamunoz

This blog is brought to you today by the letter ‘P’ and by conversations with Krysia.

Hillsong College and Church is as inspiring as it is challenging. My faith has been polished and solidified in many ways, one of which is my belief in creation and heaven. This week my goal for writing was to order my thoughts enough to explain some things that are dear to me and invite you to share your thoughts as well.

I find several of our favorite verses to quote from the Bible are often the beginning of beautiful passages that we remove from their context; not always, but sometimes we do; and sometimes we miss the point.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18 (Such a pretty verse, often quoted to make you feel good about life when you’re going through crappy times)

But then we look a little further down…

“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” Romans 8:19-21 (NIV)

To this passage my friend posed the question, ‘what does it mean for creation to wait for G-d’s children to be revealed? Is creation waiting on US, do the trees know more than we do?’ (ish). I responded instantly but I don’t think I knew what I was talking about until half way through what I was saying. I told her that I think it means creation itself knows who the worshippers are and when they will be born. I think some foliage might be waiting for the right photographer to be born so that it can start growing because it knows at some point they will collide and together create an image that will draw multitudes to worship. I think some birds hum specific songs in worship to G-d in front of specific people, songwriters, who will notice and translate it to human terms. I think heaven is a lot closer than we think. We know that we will worship fully there – but maybe creation has already figured out how to worship fully HERE.

“All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” Selah” Psalms 66:4 (ESV)

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalms 19:1 (ESV)

In Teamnight Thursday we saw images of snow being blown over the road by the wind. The question asked to US is, do we dance when no one is watching? The snow dances across the road and I can’t help but believe it is in praise to the One who created it uniquely, and not for a show for man but for G-d alone, not for instagram. Nature in many different forms has found it way to praise G-d.

If a tree falls down in the forest and no one is around to hear it, is it still worship?

Have WE dulled down the cries of creation to a human sound? When a tree falls is it because it is so moved at what G-d is doing in the earth that it has to bow before Him? An avalanche is nothing more to us than the sound of a mountain shifting and snow falling at 200 miles per hour (320KM) but is that really just the way the snow knows how to cry out?

I’ve always veered more towards the side of being a hippie and I know that… but something inside me likes to believe that just maybe heaven isn’t this far off place in the clouds but possibly it looks more like a redeemed earth. Maybe heaven looks like US joining with an ALREADY CONSISTENTLY PRAISING creation to be with G-d and give Him all the praise He deserves.

What does a redeemed earth look like? What is dirt when it is no longer dirty?

It’s soil.

I believe we are here now in this beautiful place to get glimpses into what an environment of praise could look like. Next time you get woken up by a bird singing or get annoyed at how hard it’s raining stop and think about the last time you were moved to sing or overflow with what is inside of you. What if all the dirt on the earth was redeemed – and became soil – and we saw life all over the earth?

This is open to opinions obviously, this isn’t theology just thoughts. I’m a tree hugger of sorts and I feel like that is clearly reflected here.
I just figure if the Bible tells me that creation is waiting on me for something – I might as well be aware of it.

 

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T // Do You Know What That Means?

Posted on by lainamunoz

The more I wake up the more I need Jesus. The closer I am to Him the more I need Him closer still. I’ve chatted with my roommate a few times about this and maybe even mentioned it in my writing that occasionally (and for no valid reason) I feel like a bad Christian, or a bad college student, or like I’m somehow doing life wrong. Know that I’ve identified them as my mental battle and I know that those things aren’t true or how G-d sees me but I’m still aware daily of how much grace I require to be alive.

I’ve grown up for the most part with an independent spirit, which can absolutely kill the church.

I’m not blessing anyone by being alone and standoffish towards my community and friends. It is for this reason that I am learning how to live in constant communication and calling out to G-d to teach me how to live with people and give to people with all of me. Honestly, the less it’s about me or I think about me or rely on me the better my life gets. Sometimes it can seem a little scarier but the reward of having a group of people to do life with is proving to be the greatest journey I’ve been on. I actually ENJOY learning how to communicate, have conflict, resolve things, have differing opinions and still treasure the human to their core. But I can’t do this community thing or love with out grace.

I can’t learn how to bless people without realizing how much I need Jesus to do it; all because He blesses me.

Lately the phrase that has been echoing in my heart and both terrifying me and encouraging me is “Grow Your Capacity” to which my heart responds with a firm “how the cheese do I do that?” At some point this last week while thinking of all the logical ways I could grow my capacity and abilities I realize the only thing I can really do to grow is increase my dependency. I have a LOT of goals – I’m a task driven person, which can also drive me crazy. There is more to fit in a day than allotted hours and I still have to function as a relational human being with real college homework. I wonder sometimes if I have what it takes for the long haul and all conclusions I’ve come to is: no. I’m crazy and overthink and over plan and yet somehow when I wake up, love Jesus and do my best: He blesses the rest of it. I accomplish so much more when I’m not dependent on me.

G-d has been challenging me lately to kill my independence and live in dependence on everything that He is.

#HitUmWitDatScriptureTalk-
“You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-18 MSG)

We all have our separate parts and functions but WE live inside of a body that SHOULD be encouraging one another and crying when WE feel loss. WE should be operating in our own personalities and callings TO BETTER ONE ANOTHER NOT BE BETTER THAN ONE ANOTHER. WE should be growing our capacities as to grow the Church.

So, I hope we begin to live fully and love deeply. I hope we begin to grow in dependence on each other and desperate for Christ. I hope you go with me towards this community of the Body and calling on the Savior in the daily.

Grow your capacity. Grow your dependency.