This is How I Pause: I connect with God in Nature
This is How I Pause:
I connect with God in Nature
The Bible is an outdoor experience. From Genesis to Revelations, it is crammed with God moments, taking us from the Garden of Eden to the great tree at Mamre, from the burning bush to the Red Sea, from years of wildernis wanderings to a promised land overflowing with milk and honey. Similarly, the writings of the prophets leaned heavily on pastoral images for the Israelites of old were an agrarian people, thus their writings are rich in images of shepherds and sheep, planting and harvesting, fig trees, summer fruit and wine presses. Once in the New Testament, Jesus, born in a stable, faithfully walked the dust roads of Palestine, fished with his disciples, preached on the hills along the Galilean lakeshore, prayed on the Mount of Olives, was crucified on a hill outside Jerusalem and his body put to rest in a garden tomb.
Each and every one of these moments played itself out against the backdrop of the greatest 3D canvas every imagined! No movie screen, princely court or sumptuously decorated theater can ever compete with the vast universe, the myriad of stars and endless galaxies, the great mountains, grand canyons and endless plains God created as backdrop to the greatest story ever told in the history of man – the coming of Jesus Christ!
While I by no means want to romanticize life in Biblical times, I am very aware that life for most people in 2022 is no longer an “outdoor experience”, but a complicated maze to figure out, a nonstop buzz of activity and noise, a day-and-night marathon of connectivity and performance. All this can be attributed to the Third Industrial Revolution that began in the late 1900s, characterized by the spread of automation and digitization, all which brought us to the brink of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with more promises of disruptive technologies and trends.
Added to this is the fact that since roughly 2007, for the first time, more people in the world live in urban than in rural areas. Most of these are highly-dense cities that has transformed the way we live, work, travel and build networks. By 2050 it is projected that more than two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas where living standards tend to be higher — the reason why people tend to migrate there as they become richer.
In many ways, I have experienced all of the above. From a rural upbringing in South Africa to living in London, Jerusalem, Chennai and Dehli at times, to years of village life in the remote Northern province of Zambia, I now reside in the beautiful town of George, in the Garden Route district of South Africa. In all of these settings I have experienced God, felt His prompting, heard His voice and saw Him change and transform lives.
Yet, when I need to pause and breathe, it is to the desert that I retreat or the seaside where I migrate. It is here, on a bike, beside a lake, on foot or with a book where I see, smell, hear and feel God afresh. The activity is not as important as the interruption to my daily routine, the change of scenery and connectivity with other parts of God’s creation, for it is here, away from everyone and everything that I can really pause and breathe. Whether it is the vibrant colours of autumn, the dewy petrichor of the post-rain afternoons, the light breeze from the salty sea, or the call of the Egyptian geese at sunset that arrests my senses, the outdoors has a way to revive and renew all that is dead and dull within me.
This habit has been instilled in my children from a young age and our whole family enjoy various forms of outdoor activities, both on land and sea. We understand that it is here, away from all that is artificial and contrived, that the ancient rhythms of life as God intended, can be re-discovered. Created to worship and work, we now worship work.
It is only as we pause and ponder, that we will be brave enough to evaluate our activities, viewing them from God’s perspective and calling them what they really are. Seven years ago, almost to the day, that is what I did. As a result, my husband and I resigned our jobs in the city, packed up our busy and important lives to re-imagine our purpose with God and our children in a new season. Determined to embrace a slower pace we wanted to show the kids what counts most in God’s kindom, for a life that truly honors Him, is rich in the things of God – worship, wonder, wellness, and whole-hearted fellowship – even in the workplace as we participate in what God is doing in the world.
May you be inspired this week to practice the pause and trace the fingerprints of God through the great outdoors. Thus, inspired and refreshed, you will experience a greater desire to worship God, a fuller understanding of what it means to be still in His presence and a fresh yearning to surrender to His Lordship.
