13.2

Last week when visiting NCU with my brother I got to go to their chapel service.  Mark Batterson, the speaker for that morning, shared something that caught me off guard.  In Isaiah God says that as high as the heavens are from the earth so are His ways from our ways, His thoughts from our thoughts.  Mark Batterson shared that our universe is currently thought to be 13.2 billion light years long.

This is stunning, sobering, humbling and faith building to me.  I’ve been praying to better understand the fear of the Lord and this helps me to understand in a stop me mid-thought way.  His thoughts are 13.2 billion light years bigger than mine.  He’s got a greater scope than I can possibly imagine.

My grandest thought doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of God’s thoughts.  If it’s not His thought that He’s given to me, it falls 13.2 billion light years short.  In my times of defeat and frustration I am humbled and my faith strengthened as I look at God’s wisdom compared to mine.  For the last week whenever I’ve come up against something seemingly frightening or too big I’ve remembered God, who called me and continues to put my days together, thinks 13.2 billion light years bigger than I do and my trust and hope is in Him.

God, forgive me for the times I’ve reduced you to human levels, the times I’ve thought of you as just a really smart human.  Forgive me for the times I underestimate you.  God help me to do this less and less and have faith in you more and more.

So just remember 13.2.

NCU

Sunday night I watched as my little brother took his first steps.  Yes, my mother and I watched as that 6’3” 18 year old boy, armed with only an overnight bag and winter coat broke into the world of walking on a college campus!!!  It was awesome!  The next day my brother, Craig, let me tag along with him on his campus tour of North Central University in Minneapolis, MN!

 

What a great school!  NCU has a beautiful, unique campus in the heart of the city and wonderful people!  I loved the atmosphere and community I felt in the hallways and skyways and classrooms and offices.  I got to go to their Monday chapel.  It was exhilarating to worship with so many college students and faculty and pastors visiting the campus.  The guest speaker was a pastor from DC who’s ministry and communication is gripping.  I felt such connection there.  I loved my school (Rock on Palm Beach Atlantic!), but NCU has a special familial quality, a familiarity that I greatly appreciate.  Yep, the warm fuzzies about a place I’d never really been before.  Yes, it was great.