In 2014, our youngest graduated high school. No longer needing to live in town, we found a place on a mountainside for sale. We drove up on a clear night. Stars – stars in abundance! We named our place Starfall.
On our back deck, where the sky is shielded from city lights, the stars POP. Years later, as one older friend looked up, he fell.
Another time, in downtown Helena, an older man fell. Seeing he was OK, I commented: “Gravity happens fast.” He replied: “I wish they’d dial it back a degree or two.”
Greater challenges with age can increase the speed of life.
Friend, let’s listen to the Bible describe life’s velocity.
Job laments: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle.” Fast forward to 1733. John Kay invented the flying shuttle which “flew” at speeds of up to 30mph.
Job continues: “My days are swifter than a runner.” Speedy sprinter Usain Bolt briefly reached 27½ mph.
How swift is life? Job: My days “go by like skiffs of reed”- literally, “ships of Eveh” – perhaps referring to fast boats; or “ships of desire.” Customers longed for cargo to arrive. Sailors, crowding sails, longed for port.
How swift? Job: “Like an eagle swooping on the prey.” (Job 7:6; 9:25,26) Bald Eagles’ top speed is 99 mph; Golden Eagles double that. Earth’s fastest animal, the Peregrine Falcon, reaches 242 mph!
Back to “shuttles.” Job and John Kay could not imagine the modern-day NASA Space Shuttle orbiting Earth at 17,500 mph.
However, the Space Shuttle program was discontinued.
Friend, how do we keep from burning out?
First, a word of caution: “Under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)
Now, a word of encouragement: “Everyone to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” (Eccl. 5:19,20)
We must ask: “Since our world is at war with God, how do our alien hearts connect with the joy of God? Are there some speedy warriors who will fight to connect us with God?”
David fondly remembers Jonathan and Saul as being “swifter than eagles” in warfare. (2 Sam. 1:23)
Habakkuk expands that metaphor, but he describes fleet enemies! “The Chaldeans march through the breadth of the earth, seizing dwellings not their own. Their horses swifter than leopards, more fierce than evening wolves; their horsemen proudly press on. They fly like an eagle swift to devour.’ (Habakkuk 1:6, 8)
But, what shall we say about spiritual battles/spiritual enemies?
Hear lowly Amos, immersed in ordinary shepherding, lifting his soul, contemplating stars. Called by the LORD to be a prophet, Amos wrote: “He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name; who makes destruction flash forth against the strong.” (Amos 5:8,9)
Friend, reread Amos’ portrayal until astonishment awakens in your soul! Come to Starfall to be enchanted by Pleiades and Orion.
And don’t miss that the LORD suddenly “makes destruction ‘flash forth’ against the strong.”
Jeremiah knew none can be as SWIFT as the LORD. When the LORD comes to destroy: “Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles—woe to us, for we are ruined!” (Jer. 4:13)
Why are we all ruined?
“We have all sinned.” (Rom. 3:23) “The violence of the wicked will sweep” (‘drag’) “them away, because they refuse to do what is just.” (Prov 21:7)
Hear Amos again: “‘On that day,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.’”
Amos continues: “I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.” (Amos 8:9-12)
Amidst all the frenzy, Amos foresaw a cosmic disturbance on God’s judgment day.
At Jesus’ crucifixion, this cosmic darkness arrived. Mark: “When” noon “had come, there was darkness over the whole land until” 3:00. (Mark 15:33)
Earlier, Mark notes Jesus uncharacteristically walked (hurried Godspeed?) “ahead” of his disciples – telling them he was advancing to give himself to those who would “mock, spit on, flog and kill him.” (Mark 10:32-34) Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)
Friend, connect the dots. If you have been living a swift life neglecting God, if your soul is starving from missing the word of the LORD, meditate upon what Jesus, the Father and the Spirit accomplished in three crucial hours of that noon crucifixion darkness.
When we believe Jesus satisfied God’s justice with God’s love, we are awakening to a new wonder. Unenchanted “nature becomes” enchanted “supernature when it is charged with God’s grace.” (“Living in Wonder” Rod Dreher, edited) “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” We are freed to speed up our cooperation with the Holy Spirit – repenting/trusting with the speed of life. (Eph. 5:8)
