Bloggin' about Boggin'

I have just begun a sermon series on Ephesians. The third verse reads, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." We are all blessed. We are blessed in Christ. In him we all discover that God has chosen us to be His children. Our blessing is God. And, in some way, I believe all our blessings point us back towards God.

It is easy to overlook our blessings. Often, they are plainly in front of us. We just fail to acknowledge them. I guess it is easy to get distracted by life and the routine we have established. We get so bogged down in living that we fail to remember that we are alive. That is a shame, because life is a blessing. Life is a blessing because life is a gift from God.

While overlooking our blessings can be easily done, often times ignoring our blessings is more difficult. Today is my birthday, so I am especially appreciative for my life. I am not just blessed to have a life. I have been blessed with the specific life that God has offered to me. The other night I was reminded of how awesome a life God has given me. I was visiting with some members of the Hampton church as they celebrated their daughter's birthday. After dinner, a couple of the youth decided they wanted to go 4-wheeling. When I heard "4-wheeling" my eyes got real big. "Dang," I thought. "I want to do that!" So, I asked if I could join and was lucky to be included.

I've had a few people remark that Hampton is in the middle of nowhere. I am learning, though, that sometimes you have to go nowhere in order to get somewhere. Ephesians tells us that God has blessed us in Christ in the "heavenly places." I used to think that Heaven had to be some far off place. Like, maybe, another world away. As I said, sometimes you have to go nowhere to get somewhere. As I slowed down the other night I realized that God has blessed me again. He has tucked me away in a community that lives in a little piece of Heaven. As we went 4-wheeling through acres and acres of corn fields and bean fields I began to be taken over by the beauty and simplicity of God's creation. Whistling down long dirt roads I smelt the freshness and perfection of the world that God shaped with his hands. As we road through the woods, ducked under low branches, and road over make-shift bridges I was reunited with the adventurous spirit God breathed into me as a boy. I was reminded that I was alive in a world created by an amazing God. I remembered that with this life God has given me (and all of us) and opportunity to get to know Him simply by living and loving the lives he has given us.

Before turning around and heading back towards the house, we came to a cemetery in the middle of a field. "Seriously?" I asked the girls. "This is where you decided to take me? A little creepy...Don't you think?" We turned around and headed back towards our lives with the awareness that there is a final resting place at the end of every journey. This life is a blessing. It is also temporary. Let's not bog down in minor details or be distracted by routines. Let's choose to live it and love it while we have it.