God is BAE
My girls just recently started using this term, BAE, (pronounced bay) meaning Before Anything Else. They use it liberally like, "Chocolate is BAE", "Anna is my BAE", and, "Thanks Mom for the ride, you are BAE". The term got me thinking about priorities and such. You know, what in my life is truly BAE. We are a big busy family make no mistake about it. From carpool and sports, to business travel, groceries and laundry, sometimes I feel like my list of things to do and people to tend to is horizontal, overwhelming and never ending and I long to hit the pause button.My husband and I were in Park City, Utah on business/pleasure, (business for him, pleasure for me) trying to hit the pause button a bit I suppose. We took a hike through the Sundance ski resort up to a beautiful waterfall. I don't know how anyone could behold this sight and not see God, not be convinced of intelligent design. On our hike back down I was a bit reflective and declared to my husband, "Honey, God is BAE! but sometimes it doesn't feel or look like it. It(life) just feels like the curse." When Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the garden of Eden, Adam was cursed with "hard work" and Eve with "Pain in bringing forth children". (uh hum…. maybe even raising children?) Before that they were living on Easy street. The earth literally watered itself and God provided EVERYTHING. We can't even fathom how easy life must have been.Some days I long for the garden of Eden in my life.Things that water themselves, relationships go smoothly, children obey, and hardships are non existent. There would be time to be carefree and walk and talk with God all day. Surely then it would look and feel as though God was Before Anything else in my life.Standing on the mountain tops of Lake Tahoe, CA last month and Park City, Utah this month, it is easy to close my eyes, raise my arms and declare with a deep breath "God is BAE!". But I can't live on vacation. I can't live on the mountain top, spiritually or physically speaking. We must come down to reality and the busyness of life. Let's be honest, there are days I am so busy I barely get dinner on the table and say, "Hi" to my husband. Keeping my head above water seems to be top priority and I don't feel close to anyone or anything, so we give each other grace and try to do better tomorrow. God knew this would happen once we were outside the garden, when life would get hard. He is not surprised by our dry seasons or busyness or struggles.He made a plan.He made a way.He sent Jesus to rescue us from ourselves and restore our relationship with God.He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and be with us always so we could keep HimBefore Anything Else in our hearts.I do not say this flippantly as if to say, "God is in my heart so it's ok to be busy!"I love corporate worship, I love to walk in fellowship with Christian community and be at church whenever the doors are open. I am thankful for the Holy Spirit and the fact that Jesus doeslive in me, and is indeed everywhere. It is in these busy times, when my list of things to do is too long and the Devil comes to whisper in my ear that I have strayed or that God is far from me or that I am far from Him that I remember my mountain top experiences with God, How He picked me up out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and breathed new life into these dry and weary bones. I remember the large place where He resides in my heart and that it is not about what I can do for Him but the miraculous things He has done for me. And that nothing can separate me from the love of God. It is in that place that I drive a preverbal stake in the ground right here in my own little "garden of Eden" and declare in fact that God is B.A.E.
Romans 8:38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—
not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—
indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.