The Highs and Lows
Recently I have been reading Matthew Bingham’s book A Heart Aflame for God (I highly recommend!). In this book on spiritual formation, Matt has a chapter titled “The Natural World” in which he discusses the Puritans’ belief that the natural world reflects God’s glory, teaches God’s truth, and aids in spiritual formation. They observed the world around them and considered carefully how it pointed them to the Lord. I have heard of this before, read examples of it, but I know that this is not something I’m very good at. The other morning, I decided to practice it while I was out on my morning run. As I was running, and the sun started to come up, I looked to the left and saw the tree line. In the early morning light, all that was really visible were the outlines of the trees. The ups the downs. The highs the lows. Dark shapes. And it brought to mind the paths of our lives. I thought about how 1) our lives are filled with highs and lows, 2) from this earthly...