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- Written by: Don Goulding
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:25)
The plan was to wave hello to the planetary giant called Jupiter, exploit its gravity, and be flung beyond. Launched from the space shuttle Discovery in 1990, the Ulysses spacecraft approached the massive layered marble as it rolled across the black reaches of space. But could Ulysses break free of a pull 1,000 times that of Earth? As he rounded out his run through Jupiter’s orbit, he felt the allure of pink, rust-red, and beige dust swirls teasing of glorious mysteries below. The heroic Ulysses turned his eyes from the temptation, and blasted his rockets in a trajectory for the Sun.
What does Ulysses teach us about spiritual life?
God created earthly gifts for us to enjoy, but each has its gravitational pull. Dear family relationships, the tongue delights of an hors d'oeuvre, the thrill of a soccer goal—they draw on us.
“More,” they say. “Do you want more, to get closer?”
No matter how wholesome gifts begin, without moderation they change into false idols. They would keep us in their orbit forever, where we’d miss the far greater wonder of encountering their Creator.
A beautiful sunset, a vintage wine, an attractive person, or anything for which we can find an appetite—the Ulysses maneuver applies to them all. The blast used to jump orbit is a purposeful redirected focus. When the attraction tugs, we must remind ourselves that if Jesus is able to make something so exquisite, then he himself is infinitely more breathtaking.
The trick is to shear away and worship the creative qualities of our Lord, and do it until we feel the gravity of the created pleasure release its pull. I must turn my trajectory to him, for he is the only fulfillment of whatever Jupiter holds me.
Prayer: Father, may created gifts turn my eyes to your Son.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2)
I arrived in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to teach a Christian leadership seminar, and was assigned two bodyguards who slept outside my room with an AK-47 rifle. I’m not sure how that fits into turning the other cheek, but I submitted to the brothers who lived in this environment, so hostile to Christians.
Ten years prior, Islamic extremists burned their Christian village to the ground. The man I stayed with had received three letters in the last month that warned him to renounce Christ or be killed.
A slap of violence sets one fully awake, and so the Pakistani believers were more aware in their worship than I. The price to follow Christ was too dear for a false claim. In prayer, they clutched their neighbor’s hands above their heads and pled to the throne of mercy. More than half of the women could recite at least one Bible chapterfrom memory. I took a break while they continued to study about prayer. When I returned, they had their faces pushed onto the floor crying in repentance for not having prayed enough.
Oh, that I might keep my faith in Jesus fresh. Except for the guns pointed at them, I long to be more like my Pakistani brothers and sisters. I try to wake up to the intensity of Christ’s love, but creature comforts anesthetize my heart from its urgent need.
Then, I remember those brown faces squinting upward. I recall our childlike jumping to God as we danced in unfettered reverence. Those memories are my smelling salts.
The secret worshipers were sharply aware of what they were doing in seeking Jesus, and they shook me awake also.
Prayer: Oh Lord, inspire my faith through persecuted believers.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
You yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)
We descended weightless and wide-eyed into a rush hour mix of yellow tangs, rainbow parrotfish, and comical goatfish with their Colonel Sanders beards. Son-in-law Josh and I SCUBA dived through the fishy playground made from acres of white coral. Branches and arches bloomed from the sandy floor in a turquoise sea.
Enter with me into the microscopic throb of God’s coral reef. Each razor-sharp finger of coral is made up of thousands of empty calcite cells left by polyps, now deceased. Only the colony’s outer layer houses the current generation of polyps, living in their minuscule cup shaped skeletons. These creatures have built on the foundation of their ancestors for hundreds of years, until grand coral cities have formed.
By night, a jelly soft polyp reaches his feathery tentacle out for feeding, and by day, he hides inside his cell. He is unaware of his contribution to a rising sanctuary for all manner of aquatic life.
We Christians also eke out a living, flounder against our weakness, and see little accomplished. We are jelly soft polyps. But now, dear heart, take in this wonder. God adds our meager contribution to that of thousands before us, which will be built upon by those coming after. Together, we rise into a spiritual house, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
A deep and awesome miracle is at work here, and you and I are part of it. We don’t see it rise, or how our struggles in life contribute, nevertheless, the temple grows. It’s the true structure, a sanctuary of artistic mastery far more real than this fleshly polyp life would admit. We are more than meets the eye because our contributions tower in a realm yet to be seen. And so we are the holy priesthood of a living sanctuary.
Prayer: Father, I am awed by you, the eternal architect.