The Awesome Goodness of God

As I look at the weather map at weather.com it's a little intimidating. We are currently experiencing a tip of a stream of thunderstorms that stretches from northern IN to somewhere in CA...or so something close to there. As a father of three kids, I know it's going to be an interesting night. My wife and I decided not to fight it...and we just brought all three into our room. She's on the bed reading, I'm blogging...and the children are refusing to sleep. This is just too exciting!

There are lot of emotions that arise during a thunderstorm. But tonight it's a little different. It's not fear...or worry...or excitement with me. Tonight I'm awestruck. And the thunder and the lightning have only a little to do with it. I'm awestruck by an awesome God. And I'm not using the word in the Bill and Ted's kind of way...I mean it as it should be used. I'm in awe of God.

As we were nestling down tonight, Courtney and I exchanged glances. I love being married for 11+ years. We can say more in glance than a lot of couples can say in hours of conversation. The glance tonight said "Holy cow...we have three kids!! How did this happen? How good is God is give us this?!?!?! We are soooo blessed."

You see, the reality is we....well me...that is I don't deserve this (Court's an angel...yeah she's a sinner but just barely). Somehow along the way God has given me a whole bunch of things I just don't deserve. My family...my ministry...the wonderful people in my church...my friends...and most of all the relationship I have with His Son. Just reading that line puts shivers down my spine! I can have a relationship with GOD (proof text is 1 John 1:1-4, by the way).

Today I mowed my lawn and that gave me a good hour to pray and reflect. (what do you do when you mow the lawn?) Even before the thunderstorm I was thanking Him for not wiping my off the planet today (this, you see, would be what I deserved). As I was pushing the mower, God was with me...listening to my heart. He cared about what I cared about. He inclined His ear to me...He listened...and He will answer the concerns of my heart! Why? Because I walked in a way worthy of Him? Because I earned His compassion? Get real! It's only because of His goodness...His storehouse of grace that didn't run out for me today...and it won't tomorrow either. Grace that covers every one of my sins and failures...amazing grace...awesome grace...awesome God.

They finally dozed off and now I can just look at their serene faces. Tomorrow I will worry about feeding them, getting them dental insurance, teaching them to love the Lord their God will all their hearts, souls, and minds (Duet. 6). Tonight I'll just sit and reflect on how good I have it and how good my God is...and I'll listen to the thunder...and watch out for stray lightning bolts!