Incarnation in daily living

Did you see this the other day?

Seven-year-old Jack Hoffman, who has been battling brain cancer like the little champ he is, exploded down the right side of the field during Nebraska's Spring Football Game to score on a 69-yard run.

Oh, it wasn't some new effort to get 7-year-olds to commit to a college. Instead, it was an effort by Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead to champion Team Jack.

It is what used to be know as a good deed, and it left many in the stands puzzled and some misty-eyed.

It was of God.

Thus, I'm afraid I come bearing bad news this morning. It has come to my attention that I've turned God into a series of dos and don'ts, most of which I either can't do or can't stop -- especially on my own.

I've crept through the forests of reality afraid the big, bad wolf is gonna jump out and get me, and in doing so, I've missed much of the greenery God has provided around me. I've not only not seen the forest for the trees, I've run smack dab into the trees while looking for the creator of them.

God whispers. I want, need shouts. God creates and the beauty is indescribably, but I want, need things. I wander far from the throne room in search of all the things I don't really need but want. And my experiences with God come down to did I do this or did I not stop this? Was I moral, not did I love?

I really, really feel what God wants from me is, well, me, not some to-do list that on the back of that same slip of paper has a to-don't list printed.

Tyler Blanski, in a book called When Donkeys Talk, writes, "I want Christians to truly know the love of Christ and to allow that love to completely transform their outlook on reality. I want the gospel to be incarnated in their daily lives."

Imagine a God awesome in power. A God who splits seas and allows his people to walk on dry land. A God who stops the sun in the sky on a whim. A God who dies, then picks his life back up.

Creator of signs that point to a Christ. Creator of miracles that change lives in ways that are inexplicable on our best days.

In the Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Apostle Paul this way: "Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with the resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you can't afford in times like these."

It seems to me that one of the things we have the most tendency to do is separate the holy from the profane, the supernatural from the natural, our Sundays from our Tuesdays. But I do not see that in the scriptures.

I found it interesting that at the end of the mini-series, "The Bible," a book, a novel that conveys the spirit of the Bible, that summarized this mini-series was offered for sale. The Bible itself has been offered for centuries, we just don't pick it up and sample it nearly enough.

Among its most wonderful ideas is this: "As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out of my mouth."

God of the then, the now, and the everlasting life. God of the natural as well as the supernatural. God of the 7-year-old and the 77-year-old.

That's who I miss when I miss; not in some list of dos and don'ts. A God of love who still moves us is the God who exists.