Ice Cream Worth Having

This week I'm away from home, staying in a hotel, presenting at a professional development conference for middle school math teachers. In all honesty, I've been pleased with the presentations that I've given and the feedback I've received. Soon I may even be able to say that I have overcome my fear of public speaking. :)

I don't want to talk about the conference now, though.

I came back to the hotel tonight and decided to walk through a couple parking lots to go to Sonic to get a sundae. As I was sitting there I realized that the ice cream truly worth having, the stuff you really enjoy, you have to walk there to get. I remember when I was in high school--those horrible days before I had my driver's license--when Gloria and I would walk to Dairy Queen and get ice cream in the middle of the day. I enjoyed that ice cream. It felt like such a treat to go without my parents, and often without there knowledge, to enjoy the simple cold treat. Tonight was a similar experience for me. I found myself again.

I didn't go with anyone, but I took Don Miller's book Searching for God Knows What. In many ways I feel like he came with me. As I read the book, even though they are chapters I've read before, I felt like I was finding my center. He speaks about renouncing the god that most American Christians align themselves with--a small god of rules who is checking his list to see who is naughty and nice. He continues by explaining how the God of the Bible is so much bigger than that God and how we don't fear him. If we do, why do we not listen when he says to be patient, to be kind, and to not judge lest we ourselves are judged? We claim to know that all sin, no matter how we as humans rate it, is abhorred by God, and yet we pick and choose the rules that we want to obey. I am guilt of this. Particularly if I go to a fast food restaurant and the people working are slow and make mistakes. I am easily angered, and even if I don't say something, I still give off body language that very clearly says something. Why do we (and by we I mean I) punish these fast food employees who are working hard. For many of them this is the first job that they have; they are not professionals. There is a reason they are working fast food. And even if they've been there for years, why can I not make allowances for them to make mistakes? Most of them (unless they are my students) aren't out to get me.

I just want to meditate on this idea of fearing God. Miller feels like there should truly be a healthy fear of God in us, not just the simple respect of God that we all claim to have out of reverance for who He is. Maybe Jana can enlighten me with the Hebrew meanings of fearing God and what the original writers were trying to convey.