With that said, this post is actually about feeling small in life. Chase and I were talking about this on Friday night: sometimes that feeling is nice. I doubt if I'd appreciate it at all times -- I'm small quickly becomes I suck, I'm not good at anything and I doubt anyone would notice if I vanished forever -- but once in a while it's comforting to feel small.
I know that I tend to feel this way any time I'm in vastness. Whether hiking a mountain, driving through the countryside or staring at the sky above, I love looking around and feeling the size of an ant.
Realistically, it's as much about things being so BIG as it is about me being so small. It's like, I look out on the open ocean and am reminded that there's an incomprehensibly large God who has created this world. It's great -- and fairly mind-boggling, when you think about it -- to have his love felt by li'l old me.
All of which leads to this thought --
If people experience God in this same way, does all of our urban sprawl, overpopulation and general lack of open space make it harder to feel His presence? Does our tendency to spend money on technology and other indoor activities lead us away from God?
That's my theory.
4 comments:
Interesting thought. It could also be that all our technology and excessive building and accumulating of stuff is to make us feel bigger, like feeling we've contributed to creating these things, i.e. we're like little Gods. Then, when we're out in the open natural spaces untouched by us, we realize how small we really are as we could never make anything as vast and incredible.
I like the hypothesis; it seems we have a western tradition of conquering and categorizing everything, and now we just deconstruct it. And it's hard to feel small when the whole world fits on the BBC website.
On a different note, Mike, I couldn't help noticing the wording: "once in a while it's comforting to feel small." So would you say this is a significant source of comfort in your life? Just wondering...
Chase told me a little bit about your same conversation with him. Good ponderances, for sure. Reminds me of Loui Giglio's book "I Am Not, But I Know I AM." (the last "I AM" being Jesus...not that he knows that he's not.)
Aaron -- Yeah, it's a source of comfort, but not EVIL comfort. That's the difference.
Jodi -- That title confuses me. I feel like there will be a follow up question about the sound of one hand clapping.
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