Posted February 5, 2009
This letter is respite from the constant bad news about our global financial recession. Go with me and consider something better.
This week I read the book The Man Who Walked Through Time . Written more than 40 years ago by Colin Fletcher, it is a chronicle of his two-month walk through the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Having hiked through the canyon myself last summer, I was interested in reading his story.
Any of you who have been to the Grand Canyon or spent any time in any part of its depths would instantly relate to his descriptions of the rocks, the river and the awe-inspired feelings of entering this geologic marvel.
You truly walk through time in the Grand Canyon. From the most recent strata at the rim of canyon to the oldest at the bottom, you can see the ages of earth's history before you. There is no better classroom setting to see the layers of earth's history. Every time I enter this expanse I think of God and His creation and the question asked by King DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical., "What is man that You are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4). It gives us all a truer perspective of God's power and control.
Fletcher ends his book with some thoughts about the role of man in relation to time and the earth. "I was thinking...of the rich potential of man. Thinking hopefully of the time that might quite soon come when he learns not merely new knowledge but new humility, and so new wisdom."
Fletcher had a little different idea of how this "new man" might come to be. But he was on to something. We all think hopefully of the age to come when man will face His creator with a humble spirit and admit he has not handled life on earth very well and will now need new knowledge—God's knowledge—to build a just world based on righteousness and harmony.
Today's seemingly unsolvable problems, both personal and global, will begin to end when we take that first step toward God, acknowledging Him and His ways as the only viable and lasting solution. You and I are weighed down at times with difficult trials and tests. Dealing with the day-to-day struggle with health, financial and personal problems focuses our mind on ourselves. We can lose the perspective of God being our all and standing ready to help us survive life's challenges.
The apostle Paul wrote, "Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10-11). As we walk through our time, let us seek God with all our heart and mind and soul. Instead of asking, "Why does God let bad things happen?" we can begin to ask, "How can I love God more?"
Survival, on any scale, starts by yielding to God as the first Source and seeking His wisdom and knowledge. It would be foolish of us to consider anything less.
Keep watching.
