Eternal

On the day I was born, there was a choice in front of me. I didn't realize it as a newborn, or even as a child or young adult, but all the while a choice lay before me. I was born into what was "normal" for me. You were born into what was "normal" for you. My normal was different than your normal. If you would have grown up next door to me, your normal still would have been at least slightly different than mine. Different traditions, different rules, different joys, different struggles and pain...these all mark what seems normal to a new person.

The Bible says I was born once into eternity. What God brought into reality on the day Tom Stolz was conceived will never be destroyed. Every person is eternal, whether in a relationship with God through Jesus or on their own terms, the Bible says everyone is eternal and everyone is in some sort of relationship with God.

We are at the beginning. In the face of eternity, 70 or 80 years is just getting started. From the very beginning, we have a choice: hang onto what is normal for us, or dive into eternity. This morning, God is giving me the picture of an ocean. In the ocean is everything He has for me, it is eternally large and waiting to be explored. At the beach is everything that seems normal in my world. No one can stay at the beach forever. 70 or 80 years max, then everyone heads out to sea...like it or not.

I am destined to head out to sea, to follow a path. I am eternal, and an eternal journey awaits...but I have a choice to make: do I try to hang onto normal, or do I go deep in my experience of where God is taking me?

There is a depth available to me, right now, if I want it. I can stay on the beach for now, or I can get started exploring what eternity has for me. There has always been a depth available to me, a choice in front of me, I just didn't know it.

For 37 years I had played along the shore, trying to feel the water, but still be safe...still be normal. Every once in awhile I would stare out over the sea...I know there is something out there for me, but all the things happening on the beach would draw my gaze back. I wanted to not miss what everyone else was enjoying, but I wanted to stay close to the edge of the sea...I knew I had to keep my feet wet. That was normal for me: feet wet, eyes on the beach. Even as time pressed on, and I started to drift into the sea, into the inevitable march of eternity, I kept my eyes fixed on the shore, head above water...live balanced. Not too much of the sea, not too much normal...just enough to breath...I knew I was heading into the sea and that treading water for eternity was not possible, bit I was not sure if I could breathe under the surface. Could that air satisfy me the way "normal" air does? I didn't see many swimming under the surface.

Then one day, God showed me how to dive. In His mercy he said "Dive with your words. Go deeper in me just by asking. You have not because you ask not." I tried it, and I felt the freedom and the power of swimming fully immersed. Treading water is nothing like swimming below the surface. When my head went under the water, I caught a glimpse of what was under the surface. Freedom, fascination, purpose...it was teaming with life. I couldn't see it before. The reflection of normal on the surface of the water diminished the view of what was underneath. When I actually went there, I found there was way more there than on the surface. It was deep, though. I could see it, but touching it would take a little effort, more of a reach. The air under the surface was different. Once it filled my lungs, I realized it was more satisfying...with each new level of depth it was richer with oxygen. The air was what I became hungry for.

God said "reach you words, ask me for more. You have not because you ask not. Forever there is more. Forever there is deeper. An eternal God will take an eternity to explore."

So the reach is becoming part of my stroke. I reach with my words, and in time, God draws me deeper. He let's the hunger for that better air build, and then swish, I am deeper and I get a taste. Each new fathom can become the new normal, but the glimpse of life deeper, further, catches my gaze...I hear Him say "the air is sweeter still.". God, give me hunger for that sweeter air!

Hunger is not pleasant. Being hungry is the awareness of absence...it is the awareness of poverty of spirit, but the hunger is designed to direct me to what satisfies. My soul pants to draw me to what satisfies. God loves the hunger, because He knows I will be satisfied.

Deeper...deeper...his billows and waves rush over me. More God...I want more. There is a desire in my heart for depth, but each new fathom requires a new reach. Each new fathom satisfies my soul in a more profound way. I ask Him to make my lungs hungry for sweeter air so that my reach will be sustained. An eternal God will take an eternity to explore. I don't have to wait to die to go deep in who He is and what awaits me...I can go deep now, I can learn to swim now. How deep can a man or woman go on this side of eternity? I intend to find out!

Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. 6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. 7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. 8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

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