Speaking volumes without a word... and speaking volumes through The Word.

While I can't even begin to try to succinctly condense the last month in my new home state into a quiet thought (or quiet word...part in being with the fact that my soul has not felt quiet in the Lord as it should,) I can say that there are two things about my relationship with Him which He keeps fervently pressing upon me to say "Kristin. I am God. I'm in control...let go of your fears, and hold onto me. I've promised to you I'd never let go...just trust me."


The reason I'm posting this is because I spent an amazing time on a huge cattle ranch this weekend, being part of the team to brand all the calves of the year. It was an incredible process, and since my cousin and I don't even pretend to know what we are doing on a ranch, at dawn we climbed a good 150 ft. or so up on a rocky hill and watched as the cowboys herded hundreds of cattle into pens. The noise of 450 or so cattle bellowing as it echoed off the rock walls of the hills on each side, hearing the "hi-yas" of the herders was such an awesome fluid motion to see and hear. After sorting out the calves from the cows, jobs were split up into two ropers which lassoed the calves while on horseback, which dragged them over to 2 sets of flankers -- one person grabs the rope and the other the tail to knock the calf off balance, and then proceed to pin the calves down -- one on the hind legs, the other on the neck and left foreleg, so others can make sure the animal is ear-marked, vaccinated (3 shots under the arm and neck), castrated, and branded. (My cousin and I got to flank and vaccinate, and she was able to do a couple castrations.) What an awesome experience. Seriously.

But this whole trip (33 hours in total) was used by God to once again reaffirm his awesomeness, control, love, and supremacy in my life. In two ways.


The first is His Word...and how I simply don't get into it nearly as much as I should. Every time I do open His pages, I read it and say to myself "WHY don't I read this more!? This pertains to every aspect of my sinful being, where I need to go for guidance, strength, peace, understanding. Why do I take this holiest of books for granted, or carry it around in my purse without opening it? Proximity won't help me. Reading it will."

The second is seeing God's awesomeness through His creation. Twice in the last three weeks I've been driving through the state of Oklahoma, where the land is big and the sky is bigger. Where if you don't see God's magnificence in the landscape...quickly shifting from farmland to rolling hills to rocky cliffed hills, you'll see it in the clouds which reach to the heights of the heavens and the lightning within their puffy walls. And then, there is you. And you are...tiny. You realized that you are one person in the middle of His HUGE creation which He made for us to enjoy and glorify Him in the beauty He created. It puts your life, your problems, your dreams, into marvelous perspective -- that God sent His Son to die for YOU, for those tiny problems and tiny difficulties that will last for but a breath. That we are insignificant and YET the most dear to Him of all His creation... broken, torn, and LOVED.

But as much as you can get caught up in nature alone, His Word was written for a reason. And people can quickly see nature as BEING God, not being his creation. I had a conversation this weekend about prayer, following God, and how we should go about these. One person mentioned the prayer style of a person they knew, saying that they simply "Stared at the stars for hours and marveled at God." In similar fashion, I knew of a person who said the way they prayed to God was "Well, I close my eyes, and imagine I'm on earth. God is above me in heaven, and I float upwards and upwards through the sky until I'm closer to Him. That's the only way I pray." Really? Has prayer become simply a meditation technique to bring you back to zen or to equilibrate your inner chi? Prayer is time spent with God, not time spent meditating or "being at one with nature." God created both his Word and nature. And both serve a purpose in bringing us in closer union with Him and His plans.


So, despite my weakness in being in His word, God used His creation as a prodding to once again redirect my desire to seek His face and His thoughts through His Word and true prayer.


What an awesome God we have the freedom and ability to know, love, and serve.