Maundy Thursday

Amazing morning doing some Maundy Thursday stations at church. One was about the veil... Realizing how unaware of my own shortcomings and unholiness it is to become and that I have become.

They could only approach God behind the veil in the Holy of Holies once a year, with one chosen priest, with sacrifice and much cleansing, in special clothing, etc. And even then they could die at facing God. With all the sacrifices they had to do I feel like they had a better reality of their sin in some ways than I do on modern times. Atleast a better understanding of the cost...

Praying Lord, that I wouldn't become numb and blind to the gravity of the sin and shortcomings in my life just because they seem less noticable than what goes on around me. Praying I would care more about a clean heart than a clean image... And that I wouldn't settle for "...by comparison to these other people..." But that I would be aware that even my best falls far short of your holiness and nothing I do can change that outside of Easter and Christ tearing that veil for me so I can be close to you when I never could have otherwise.

What If...

 This thought just popped into my head today so I am still fleshing it out, but I wanted to put some words and structure to my thoughts atleast for me. 

You know how it says essentially God's wisdom subverts the intelligence and wisdom of those who think they are intelligent and wise... 

"For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

                 the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
x

-1 Corinthians 1:19 (quoting Isaiah 29:14) 

It seems like a lot of people credit the scientific studies area as one of the most intelligent- and deservingly so in many arenas, there have been so many amazing medical discoveries, math, space, transportation, etc.  One of the bigger topics in the last couple hundred years is the “survival of the fittest” evolutionary viewpoint. The animals and humans still around are therefore considered the “best” and the “most well-adapted” and therefore, good.  But what if it is opposite, because the further we move from initial creation, the more and more the earth is moving away from God’s design.  The impact of humans through pollution and things that we considered good but are killing off tons of creatures that just weren’t adept enough to overcome habitat decimation… our wastefulness… spread of disease, etc. What if the creatures, plants, and humans that are surviving are not in fact the best ones created, but the best ones to deal with the growing chasm and distance between original design and intended design.  They can just handle and live closer to death better than the others. 

We have lost so much beautiful diversity in the thousands of years of human “advancement”, both in animals and plants, and so much more I am sure.  What if what we say is intelligent and wise as the creatures and things that survive, is actually upside down? As the beautiful diversity that is killed off and cannot survive our destruction, what if that was the best?

I don’t even know if that makes sense since I don’t have any conclusions yet, but between hearing of all the trees that have been eliminated and we will never see… the animals and the songs of birds we will never hear… reading about the original way the Chesapeake Bay was found and the amazing eco-diversity that was there now… seeing all these invasive non-native plants taking over… it just seem like we are moving further and further away from good and the things falling off are the ones that can’t survive this brokenness are the things closest to “good”.