a humble God

On Monday I ended up in Carlsbad around sunset, trying to connect to God. It struck me that morning that I hadn't spent anytime thinking about what Christmas. Usually I am reading a ton of Christmas devotionals. I wasn't caught up in the consumerism but I wasn't paying attention to the symbolism either.

Sometimes I just need to be outside and away from all the things that make life hectic. So I found myself at Carlsbad. Weird I know. I got distracted, couldn't find the right spot, had to pee a million times, and was running out of time to "enjoy" the sunset. Finally I noticed a group of rocks that you could walk out on and basically be on the ocean watching the sunset - ready to pray, meditate, and be "super spiritual."

So here I am, walking across this gorgeous beach, rushing to get to this location. This place I set in my mind that I had to be in order to connect to God. As I'm power walking across the beach I noticed a shell.  It was perfect and I didn't even take the time to be in awe of what God made.

Must keep walking. 

And suddenly it dawned on me. What is my problem? I am rushing to this supposed location to connect to God and missing out on the little gifts right in front of me. So I turned around and picked up the shell as a reminder to not be so caught up in the destination that I miss God along the way.

Life is made up of billions of little moments. I wonder if we miss the best ones because we are obessed with our cell phones and addicted to the busyness. It is normal to be in multiple places at once, always going, constantly "connected", yet never just simply being with God.

Even my time with God is filled with a distracted mind and the feeling that I have to be productive. It's a challenge to let myself get away and break free of the mindset of our culture.

We connect to God where we are at. I forget that. Always thinking I need to be somewhere else rather than where I am.

Christmas means many different things to me. But one of them is God shows up in the most unlikely ways. He came into our world as a baby, lived a life as a human, all to rescue us. Every day lived on this earth was him living out his love for you. Jesus did the unexpected. I pray we don't miss it because we aren't paying attention to life and what really matters.