The Goal

A smoky sunset at the high school soccer field.

One of the best retreats I ever experienced wasn’t the planned events of the retreat itself. It was walking deep into the woods of the White Mountains on a mild and breezy fall afternoon, the leaves just beginning to change to hues of yellow, orange and red, and a bubbling stream following each bend of the path. It was here, hours before the actual retreat, that “church” happened. It was here where I had been weary and dry as a bone and found renewed purpose and vision. It was here where I pulled out my bible app and turned to a familiar passage, and read fearlessly aloud because there was no one in sight, and where I felt what seemed to be every word jumping off the page and into the depths of my soul: 

“One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord—in His presence—all the days of my life,

To gaze upon the beauty, the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur, of the Lord…”

—Psalm 27:4

 

And I just knew. That’s it! That’s the goal.

In writing, in speaking or singing, and especially in photography, I knew that I knew that afternoon in the woods that the goal of my life was not retreat but advance—to gaze upon and then point to the beauty of the Lord that’s all around us “all the days of my life.”

And then get out of the way.

Yes, there is surely darkness and ugliness.

The goal is not denial.

But the goal is built on a promise that trumps all ugliness:

“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered, defeated or understood it.”(John 1:5)

Never has, never will.

Keep sharing that.

Keep gazing upon that truth.

Because the Psalmist realizes that this is no pie-in-the-sky, dreamy goal. Because he knows that gazing on the beauty of the Lord all the days of his life will always give him the right perspective when the world is turned upside down.

Me, too:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the refuge and fortress of my life—

Whom shall I dread?...

…For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter;

In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;

He will lift me up on a rock.”

 

And so, whenever I look through a camera lens, whenever I remember through a photo, or through words or song how big and beautiful my God truly is, “the things of earth grow strangely dim in the Light of His glory and grace.”

Always.

That’s the goal, anyway.

 

“Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipresent Creator.”—J.I. Packer

Sunrise along the Maine coast.