Day 437 - August 26 - Holy, Holy, Holy

The day before yesterday I was driving to work and I got stuck in traffic. The highway came to a dead stop at a particular point, so much so that for about five minutes I had the truck in Park. I mean, we weren't moving at all. And while I sat there talking to my Mom on the phone, I watched an on-ramp I could see up the road a bit. The on-ramp had those metering lights that make cars stop and wait before they get on the highway, and they're supposed to automatically monitor the traffic and change the interval to account for how many cars are on the freeway. Well, this one was just pumping another car onto the completely stopped freeway about every five seconds.

After about 15 or 20 minutes of watching all these other cars get on the freeway ahead of me while I sat and waited, the traffic finally broke up. I got past the accident site (didn't see anybody hurt, which was good) and headed off to work, promptly forgetting about it.

Yesterday, on the way to work, the traffic stopped again, just as I was approaching that same spot. Now, I hate sitting in traffic if there's anything else I can be doing, so (remembering the broken metering light) I took the exit with the intention of just getting back on the freeway - "See, I beat the system! I got in front of all you losers who weren't smart enough to think ahead! Mwuhahaha!" (that was my "evil laugh", by the way - in my head it sounds like Dracula or an evil scientist, chortling over his victims while he rubs his hands together). Only one problem - they fixed the metering light. So, I sat on the on-ramp in shameful self-humiliation while all those people who were patient enough to stay on the highway in the first place motored on by me. Apparently I'll never learn to not be in control of the timing of my life. As if I were in the first place! 'Waay too many life lessons being thrown at me these days!

So yesterday I'm heading home from work in the car, and I turn on the stereo and hit shuffle on the iPhone, and as I do I pray; "Lord, I'm feeling like I don't even know who You are. I need to hear Your voice - I need to hear You tell me who You are". So I hit "Play" and Chris Tomlin's song "We Fall Down" starts playing. "OK" says I, "I'll listen" -

"We fall down, we lay our crowns
At the feet of Jesus.
The greatness of Your mercy and love
At the feet of Jesus.
We cry 'Holy, Holy, Holy';
We cry 'Holy, Holy, Holy';
We cry 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb'.

God is holy. Set apart. One of a kind and immensely pure. Holy.

But I'm more a hymn kinda guy, and I've always liked the words of the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy" better than the words of this song, because the hymn uses the same language the Bible does when it makes this reference in Revelation - "casting down their golden crowns around a glassy sea". What difference does it make? Lots. Think about it - if God is so holy, what response to that holiness do you want to have? Do you want to take off your precious golden crown, lay it safely on the ground (even if it is at the feet of Jesus), and then worship Him? Or do you want to grab it off your head and discard it because it has no value compared to the act of worship before a living God? That's why I love the word "casting" here - the idea is like a baseball catcher going after a pop fly. The face mask and helmet he's wearing isn't cheap - it's probably worth $150 or so - but compared to catching the fly ball, it's worthless. So he rips it off his head and throws it away.

When I see Jesus standing in all His glory as the Lamb of God, worthy of all praise - I don't want to waste a second thought on anything else. So assuming I have a golden crown at the time, I'll cast it off without a second glance. No laying it on the ground for me. I'm just gonna forget about it and do what's important.

That's God's holiness. That's who He is. Worship Him today.

Connor has spent another difficult night, with low saturation and chest pain. Cherié slept on the sofa again, up every half hour or so. But when we changed the shift this morning, she told me it was a good night. Connor was almost weeping, apologizing to his mom for her having to be up because of him, and her response was "God has been telling me over and over that we're exactly where we're supposed to be. It's OK - we'll do what we have to do". This helped to settle him, and he's now been able to sleep for almost two hours without interruption.

I love my son (and my daughter too - see, I didn't forget you, Joélle!)
I love my wife.
I love my Lord.

Amen and amen.

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