Life by Satellite

Tonight I watched a documentary on the BBC called 'Egypt's Lost Cities' and it inspired me to write this blog post. I've always been fascinated by ancient Egypt from studying it in primary school and later through watching the amazingly awesome musical 'The Prince of Egypt' (not so historically accurate but epic nonetheless..) 


The documentary was good! It was centred around the use of satellite imagery and infra-red technology (termed, "Satellite Archeology") to search beneath the surface of the earth and uncover its archeological secrets. 

To the naked eye, the deserts of Egypt appear barren, empty spaces that support very little life and show no signs of diversity and beauty. As you can see in the image above, what the satellite images show is that beneath the layers of dust and sand is a completely different landscape, full of intricate detail and hidden signs of life.


As I contemplated what I'd seen in the film, it occured to me that too often we take things at surface value or judge by appearances. It was only yesterday in a church youth meeting that I was sharing about us being jars of clay holding the treasure of God's all-surpassing power within us. (2 Cor. 4:7) To the naked eye, we can appear to be nothing more than people who stuff up a lot and live in bodies that are corruptible and can perish. But if we looked at ourselves through God's infra-red satellite lens, we would see that we are actually the most glorious beings on the planet, filled with potential and life that tells of a different world to the one we live in.

Recently I've been understanding more and more of who I truly am to God. No matter what I think of myself, God always thinks something better of me! If I feel like a failure - God tells me I'm victorious in everything through Jesus. If I feel like I have no potential to achieve anything in life - God tells me I have amazing gifts and a purpose that are unique to me as a person.

Looking at ourselves through God's satellite lens is the most important place to start. But once we fully see beneath the surface of our self-image and find our God-image, we can then zoom out and view the whole world through this new lens. We can look at situations that in the past would have appeared to be hopeless, and all of a sudden we see beneath the surface a sign of promise and hope for a good outcome. We can look at the things we say and do and suddenly this new perspective shows us what lies beneath them, and the effect that they can have on others.


I'm convinced now more than ever that absolutely everything in the universe has a layer of sand over it (the physical) and we need to ask God to show us his infra-red view in order to understand what lies beneath it (the spiritual).That revelation only comes through the Holy Spirit, and we learn pretty quickly that in order to gaze beyond layers of sand requires the eyes of our hearts rather than the naked eye. It's a challenge - but once you ask God to show you what he sees when he looks at you and the world around you, the treasure you will find will blow your mind! Even more so than the jem of amethyst the satellite archeologist uncovered in the sands of Egypt at the climax of tonight's documentary..!

More Than I Could Bear

So many of you will be aware that since the last time I blogged a lot has changed in my life. No longer am I a guitarist in an acoustic duo. My last blog 'Surrender' will give you a certain degree of insight into the decision my band mate and I reached, so I won't go into much more detail about it. Maybe I'll shed more light on it at different times in the future. 

For now, I'd like to share what I've learned as a result of coming through this massive change in my life. To begin with, a lot of my identity and ego was bound up in my band, so I've been through a process of self-re-discovery! And I've also had to deal with the huge loss of something that was very dear to me. 

As much as I know that leaving DaViglio behind was the right decision, coming to terms with that emotionally and spiritually has been a different matter. When I say spiritually, I mean in terms of my faith and what effect losing such a huge part of my life had upon my relationship with God. Sometimes we forget to involve God in our lives, to such an extent that it gets to the point where he has to get our attention.

I've heard it said many times by other Christians that God will never let us go through more than we can bear. So I believed through most of my life (up until a few weeks ago) that I would never reach the end of myself, I would never be at a point in my life where I would feel completely lost and helpless, and unable to take any more pain. 

Well... I reached that place. And it was a place I thought God would never let me walk into. But I was there... so he must have allowed it to happen. How could this be? My faith was practically in ruins - but not completely.

How did I get out of that dark place? Well I prayed, like I've never prayed before. I cried out to my Creator, to my Father who I thought was no longer with me; how could he be when I was so lost? But I called out to him and he was there. You know, what I now know that I didn't know before is that God does sometimes let us go through things that are more than we can bear, because unless we realise that our entire existence and peace of mind rests upon him, we will never be able to thank him for his goodness. 

I was reading some devotional notes the other day and came across this verse from a book in the Bible called Hosea. 

"But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there." (2:14)

Even though I was in a wilderness, and disoriented, scared and confused; it was the only place in which I could encounter God for who he really is - My Everything. The darkness and sense of danger didn't come from God, but he let me experience it in order that I might let him save me. No longer can I go through life saving myself. When I did find him in the wilderness, I found him to be so loving, and kind and gentle that I know if I ever find myself at a similar crisis point, I can rush back to that place of intimacy and know that I'm safe. 

“There is no one like God, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (Deut. 33:27)