It’s 1:37AM. I’ve just come inside from my feeble attempt at counting the stars. I gave up after I got to 14. There’s just too many. Everybody knows that you can’t really count the stars that are in the sky, but I think everybody should try; and fail; and then think that every one of those stars has planets going around it. Those planets may have moons orbiting them, and if you could stand on the surface of any one of those planets, a star would rise and set just like the sun does for us.

I’m lying on the grass, occupying a tiny bit of earth on this planet. This one planet, out of an incredible, innumerable bunch of planets. And as you may remember from Louis Giglio, those stars are millions of light-years away. It’s really quite ridiculous to even attempt to explain this terms that humans can understand. It’s too big. And God has created all of this. God is bigger. God is big, really big.

But saying God is big isn’t really saying anything. God is not some massive blob covering gazillions of light-years of space. That is not God. That says nothing significant about God. But, we can turn it around. ‘God is big’ doesn’t help us any. But, saying ‘GOD is big’, that is a step in the right direction. The bigness of God is meaningless to us, so we must focus on God himself.

This God, this Creator, this Lord of the Cosmos, is this the same God who knows my name? How can that be? It doesn’t make sense. Can this universe-creating God be the same God that I pray to. I’m scared all of a sudden. I’m intimidated by the vast emptiness of the universe, and cannot understand the possibility of God revealing himself to me. It doesn’t make sense; it seems impossible.

But, then all of a sudden, the problem is solved, it all comes together, everything is explained. God loves me. That’s it, that’s all there is to it. God loves me. In his love he has created the universe and everything in it. In his love he speaks to me, a little insignificant human being. It’s so simple. God loves me.

There’s a wonderful verse in the Psalms that has really blessed me recently. Actually it’s only half a verse and it’s buried in the midst of stuff about disemboweling enemies, but it’s tremendous. Just a simple one line prayer that draws all attention and glory back to God.

“Say to my soul, “I am your salvation”” (Psalm 35:3b).

It doesn’t matter what is going on in your life or what thoughts are running through your head. If the Lord says to you, “I am your salvation”, all of a sudden nothing else matters. You can only respond: “Yes Lord, thank you!” Just stop and think about this for a second. It’s obvious and all of us know it, but just consider this.

The Lord is my salvation.

I don’t know about you guys, but a smile has snuck onto my face, and tears have snuck into my eyes. How amazing it is to be loved by God. To know and to deeply experience the love of God. To know that his love brings salvation to us. To know that he speaks to us.

This quote is from Augustine, in his Confessions.
“O Truth, O Light of my heart, let not my own darkness speak to me! I had fallen into that darkness and was darkened thereby. But in it, even in its depths, I came to love thee. I went astray and still I remembered thee. I heard thy voice behind me, bidding me return, though I could scarcely hear it for the tumults of my boisterous passions. And now, behold, I am returning, burning and thirsting after thy fountain. Let no one hinder me; here will I drink and so have life. Let me not be my own life; for of myself I have lived badly. I was death to myself; in thee I have revived. Speak to me; converse with me. I have believed thy books, and their words are very deep.”

We have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Romans 8:23

People sometimes say that we have a God-shaped hole inside of us, and that as long as we are separated from God, we will never be satisfied. However, I don't think I can agree with that. I'm sure that all of us know how easy it is to become absorbed with our own needs and desires, ignoring God for a time, and even being quite happy during that time. And billions of people around the world manage to survive without knowing God at all. There are people who are consistently happy, and people who are in deep depression. This is true of both Christians and non-Christians. 

Let me try an analogy to explain my thinking. Now this idea came to me during a massive roadtrip, and I may have been a bit sleep-deprived, and my knowledge of the human brain is a bit rusty, but I think the idea still works.

Say you have a good cup of coffee. It smells good, it tastes good, and you enjoy it in the company of friends. Your brain takes these events and sends signals through the reward pathways in your brain. Your brain remembers these events and forms new connections to reinforce these signals. From now one, you'll probably be more likely to get coffee and more likely to enjoy coffee. Your next cup of coffee may be even better because you have the good memories from the previous time. This function of the brain usually works fine to bring good things to the body, but there are instances where these reward pathways are abused.

One of the main theories of drug addiction is that certain drugs stimulate the brain's reward pathways to such an extent that everything else is ignored in the pursuit of more drugs. The brain desires the pleasure that the drug brings so much that concerns about food, shelter, money and friends are all forgotten. A person will steal, live in the streets, and basically ruin their life in order to get more drugs. In a sense, the brain is wired for the possibility of drug addiction. 

Our experiences of God act on our soul just like drugs act on our brain. The presence of God in our lives completely overwhelms our entire being. We are filled with such an incredible desire for more God that everything else fades away. This is why we are able to give of ourselves, to ignore our needs and desires, to help others. It's not because we are good people, but because we must. We are compelled to get closer to God. Our souls are wired for the possibility of God addiction. 

It's not really a God-shaped hole, but for Christians it's more like withdrawal symptoms. We are filled with a deep yearning for God, because he has touched our lives, he has loved us. We need another hit, we need more God. We can only go without meeting God for a little while before we start getting the shakes, feeling bad, feeling empty. Pattiann described her desire and need for her Sunday morning prayer times by saying 'This is not normal.' It's not normal, it's an uncontrollable addiction. 

And here's the best part. (That verse was put up there for a reason.) This is just a foretaste of what's to come. A foretaste of the future glory that awaits us. This little bit of God that we experience now is just a tiny hint of the fullness of God. And this foretaste completely overwhelms and transforms us. We get this little taste and we're completely addicted. Just imagine how glorious it will be to be released from sin and suffering, to experience our full rights, and to live in new bodies. 

It's not the most flattering image to compare our experience of God with drug addiction, but I think it really works. We are addicted. There's no recovery programs, and no methadone clinics. We're completely dependent. We need more God.

No one who was great in the world will be forgotten, but everyone was great in his own way, and everyone in proportion to the greatness of that whichhe loved. He who loved himself became great by virtue of himself, and he who loved other men became great by his devotedness, but he who loved God became the greatest of all. Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone became great in proportion to his expectancy. One became great by expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal; but he who expected the impossible became the greatest of all. Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone was great wholly in proportion to the magnitude of that with which he struggled. For he who struggled with the world became great by conquering the world, and he who struggled with himself became great by conquering himself, but he who struggled with God became the greatest of all. Thus did they struggle in the world, man against man, one against thousands, but he who struggled with God was the greatest of all. Thus did they struggle on earth: there was one who conquered everything by his power, and there was one who conquered God by his powerlessness. There was one who relied upon himself and gained everything; there was one who in the security of his own strength sacrificed everything; but the one who believed God was the greatest of all. There was one who was great by virture of his power, and one who was great by virtue of his wisdom, and one who was great by virtue of his hope, and one who was great by virtue of his love, but Abraham was the greatest of all, great by that power whose strength is powerlessness, great by that wisdom whose secret is foolishness, great by that hope whose form is madness, great by the love that is hatred to oneself. -> Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

It is a tragic limitation of human language and human understanding that we must use the same word to mean different things. "That was a great meal." "He's a great guy." "We have a great God." The greatness of a thing is on a different scale than the greatness of a person, and the greatness of God is completely unique. Humans can be called great by other humans, but this label of greatness is only meaningfull to other humans. It is like a group of ants standing around congratulating each other on constructing a great hill of dirt. A person with a shovel could come along, and in just a moment, utterly demolish their wondrous achievement. So it is with human greatness and God.

The only was to transcend human thinking and human greatness is to embrace the Greatness of God. 'He who loved God became the greatest of all.' There is only a little bit of value in our human love, but when God is the object of our love, God responds and causes Greatness.

'He who expected the impossible became the greatest of all.' It is impossible to believe that the big God cares about the small us. (That must be the understatement of the millenium to say that God is big.) But we must have this expectation. We can come boldly, and believe that God will hear and answer.

'He who struggled with God became the greatest of all.' This is a difficult section to understand. I don't think this is a struggle against God, but more of a struggle to deal with what God demands. To take up your cross and give your life away is hard to accept. Even Jesus struggled with God over what was placed before him. The only was to be victorious in this struggle is complete powerlessness, brokenness, and absolute surrender.

The only way for us to be powerful is rely on God's Strength in our powerlessness. The only way for us to be wise is to rely on God's Wisdom in our foolishness. The only hope we have is to renounce our own rational hope for the future and trust completely in God's Faithfulness. The only love we have is to refuse to consider ourselves and glory in God's Love.

'Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.' God is so far above us. Our understanding is so incredibly shallow. But we cannot let this be a hindrance. The Lord is great and must be praised. The universe declares his majesty; the rocks cry out. How can we keep silent? 'My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.'