“The deepest places on earth are his,
and the highest mountains belong to him.
The sea is his because he made it,
and he created the land with his own hands.” – Psalm 95:4-5
Recently one of our CU leaders sent out a questionnaire. The idea was to find out our “Spiritual Pathway”. To be honest, I was a little sceptical. I often am with this kind of thing. The results are often interesting but I don’t tend to focus on them that much. And I know that they’ll probably change the next time I do the questionnaire. And I can rarely answer questions like that without trying to fit in a number that’s not on the integer scale the questionnaire is using.
On a seemingly unrelated note, me and some friends went out cycling on Monday. This was only a few days after falling off my bike, so I was a little hesitant at first. But I knew that I really needed to get back on my bike; I enjoy cycling and I like to think I’m not that much of a wimp. We cycled further than I expected – it came out at about 37 miles. Maybe to some people it’s not that far, but I don’t think I’ve cycled that far in a long time, if ever.
A great thing about my university is its proximity not only to the city, but to the countryside. We are literally on the outskirts of the city, and as soon as we left our college we were on a small, winding country lane. We went through several small villages, stopped for a wander in some nature reserves, had lunch near a beautiful little church. Whilst we were tired by the end of the day, it was nonetheless fantastic.
I remember times spent like that very fondly. I hate to admit the number of times I’ve complained about being tired, not wanting to go for a walk, not wanting to go out in the rain. I’m most definitely a fair-weather outdoors person. But in those times, when I’m surrounded by God’s beautiful creation, I feel like I get a better sense of what He’s done.
Being relatively alone also gives me more confidence to sing God’s praises. I know I should probably do that wherever I am. But the joy I get from being with a small group of friends in beautiful surroundings is immense, and I love to express that joy through singing. Especially when it’s a song my friendship group are very familiar with, and we’re all cycling through the countryside singing 10,000 Reasons at the tops of our voices…
Which brings me back to the beginning. When I did that questionnaire, cynically and a little begrudgingly, it said I connected best to God in worship and in nature. Reflecting back on Monday, those are the things that gave me so much joy. And why I want to do something like that more often.
unichristian 