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fbcslo | spiritual formation practices for loving G

Atending o Naure

Desire

To purposeully recognize and rejoice in the glory o God displayed in His creation

Denition

Attending to nature is a practice o looking, as with new eyes, at the wonderul things God has made all around us, and enjoying the

glory He has revealed in physical things. It is also an attempt to remember that physical creation is intimately upheld by God.

Scripture

Psalm 19:1-2The heavens declare the glory o God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to

night reveals knowledge.

Romans 1:1920For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, name

his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation o the world, in the things that have been made.

Hebrews 1:3 He upholds the universe by the word o his power

Acts 17:27-28 Yet he is actually not ar rom each one o us, or In him we live and move and have our being.

Revelation 4:11 Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, or you created all things, and by your will they

existed and were created.

Devotional

One o the primary sources o inspiration and delight in God, throughout the ages, has been the physical world. As we watch the play

o violent surging colors in a sunset, the rhythm o crashing waves, the intricacy o the smallest organisms and the magnicence o thar-ung planets and stars, we are moved by the greatness we see.

And yet we are also capable o orgetting all about these wonders, ducking our heads and going about our daily tasks. Particularly

todayor we live with a deep-rooted sense that physical objects are just there, taken or granted. The worldview that pervades our

culture reduces Gods involvement out o the material world, and this afects everyone, even those who believe that God created all

things. It is now a taskor us to see the physical world as deeply dependant on Gods continual work. We do notsense that He uphold

the universe by the word o His power.

But this has also reduced out our sense o marvel, and we have lost the joy that children have in the mysterious being o everything. T

anything is, should astound us! And cause us to praise God.

The late Clyde Kilby, an English proessor at Wheaton, wrote this series o resolutions as a way o keeping himsel alive to God in natu

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet tra

eling in space with wonderully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead o the accustomed idea o a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall sup

pose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said o Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle and an end. I think

this will save me rom the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell beore his death, when he said: There is darkness without, and when

die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality or a moment, and then nothing.

3. I shall not all into the alsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-our hours, but rather

a unique event, lled, i I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be ool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evi

parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my lie into a thin straight line which preers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, wh

o course I shall oten have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy o others. I shall stop boring into mysel to discover what psychological or social cat

egories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply orget about mysel and do my work.

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6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a fower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerne

at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyully allow them the mystery o what Lewis calls their divine, mag

cal, terriying and ecstatic existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the reshness o vision I had in childhood and try, at least or a little while, to be, in the words o Lewis

Carroll, the child o the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes o wonder.

8. I shall ollow Darwins advice and turn requently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preerably, as Lewis

suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush o this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, ulll th

moment as the moment. I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even i I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my lie on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlordbut that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke

made by the architect who calls himsel Alpha and Omega.

Questions or Refection

1. What in the material world most requently leads you to praise God? What is that move you about this?

2. Read over Clyde Kilbys resolutions. Choose one or two which stand out to you. What would you do diferently in your daily lie to p

this resolution into efect?

Practicing

Here are a ew exercises or attending to nature:

Set aside a ew hours on some upcoming day when you can go and be in the outdoors. Go to a place which delights you. Take a

bottle o water, some snacks, anything else you might need in order not to have to leave early. While you are there, aim at soak-

ing in as much sensory experience as you can. Listen to the sounds, consider the scents. Feel the texture o the earth, the leaves

(be careul, o course, not to touch poison oak!). As you are there, move slowly and deliberately; let your eyes linger on things a

longer than you ordinarily would. Sum up your time with gratitude to God or allowing you the experiences youve had.

Rent the Planet Earth video series and watch it with riends. Discuss together what things you saw moved you the most. End wit

praise to God or His wisdom in creation.

Go sit by a creek and watch. Stay on the lookout or anything that might happen. Explore the lives o the insects around you. Co

sider the efect o the moving water on the terrain. Try to stay still enough or a period o time to allow creatures to come out th

would ordinarily hide rom humans.

Take a day to move slowly. Walk to work, i you are able, setting out early enough that you can go slowly. Every time you are out

doors, slow down and look. Observe everything you can, and examine anything that interests you. For one day, dont worry abo

appearing silly or looking at owers or insects or the sky.

Plan and make, with riends, a delicious meal. Eat slowly, savoring the smells and tastes. Consider the git o taste, that our daily

sustenance can also bring us such great pleasure. Pray aterthe meal, thanking God or all the enjoyment youve had in the prep

ration and enjoyment o the meal.

Sit with some physical object at hand and consider that it is, this moment, upheld by the will o God. Linger with it long enough

or you to sense the marvel o its existence.