I think this is not entirely unlike God. God is the most supremely beautiful being or entity in known existence. Not only is his wisdom endless, but his beauty runs infinitely deep. And so it will not be possible to fully search, know, and appreciate his beauty and thus in God’s wisdom we will spend an eternity growing in our understanding of just how beautiful he is.

Peace,
Caleb

On the one hand the world says that we can cure ourselves. We can heal our bodies of this disease. On the other hand it fools itself into believing that we have no disease at all. We’re all good people just imperfect.

I can’t accept either of those claims. My own thoughts testify that I’m not a good person. So often I agree that a particular thing is good to do and so I intend to do it. However, just as often, I choose to do the lesser thing rather than the thing I intended to do. If I cannot keep my own rules that I agree are good, how in the world can I expect myself to live up to any standard outside of myself? Moreover, not only do I fail to do the very best things, I often do the very worst things and much more often delight in my thoughts of the most heinous of crimes even though conscience restrains these thoughts from physical manifestation.

And so I’m faced with the reality that I need help, but I cannot help myself. This realization drives me to God, to inquire of him what my problem is and what is the solution. God’s word is clear. The problem is me. It’s us; the world; mankind. Jesus taught that every tree that does not bear good fruit is thrown into the fire. God’s word also says that everyone has sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death. I am the diseased tree that bears bad fruit. And Jesus says that this tree should be thrown in the fire.

And yet by God’s grace I bear good fruit too. It seems the mystery is that God’s Spirit is at work in me. The lie is that I need to try harder to do better. But I’m no more capable of that than a diseased tree is capable of hoping for good fruit in the next year. The problem is the fabric of my being. The problem is my flesh that wars against the goodness of God. It would be foolish of me to think that I can solve my problems in the flesh, when the flesh is my very problem! And so a solution or a savior outside of myself is needed to address the problem. Not just the problem of right standing before God, but the problem of continually standing before God to walk in his ways as an ongoing way of life. Even born again believers struggle with this. We are so easily lured into attempting to keep our salvation by our own fleshly works buying into the worldly wisdom assures us that we can transform ourselves by our willpower.

But God has given me eyes to see. He’s given me a vision of a new way. The way of freedom. This is freedom from the shackles of my own selfish desires. This is freedom to obey God willingly and to see his way as the most beautiful path. This is change and transformation that starts on the inside from the outside and begins to manifest itself in our desires, thoughts, words, and actions. God’s Spirit is at work, and if I am to resolve to do anything this year, it is to pray the Lord will fill me with his Spirit to increase my sight and my thirst for him and that by beholding the glory of Jesus I might continually be made into his likeness. And I pray that by faith in his name, his power would heal my diseased flesh, and luscious fruit would pour forth from my being that are pleasing to the Lord and a blessing to others.

Peace and Happy New Year!
Caleb

From there I left the Grand Canyon around Noon to head back to Seattle through Utah. My goal was to make it to Salt Lake City that day, which ended up being about 9 hours away in the route that I took. It just so happens that I ran into another thunderstorm of which I put together a video:

Driving through the storm

After getting to Salt Lake City it was pretty much smooth driving back to Seattle. I stayed in Seattle for about 36 hours and then flew to Washington DC to visit a good friend that lives close by in Virginia. It was my first time in the DC area. I was able to see the major landmarks plus I got to visit the George Washington estate, Mt Vernon, which was the highlight of my trip there. George Washington never actually lived in the White House and so his private mansion in Virginia was where he lived and spent most of his time when he was not out winning battles. Though the mansion is not super large by today’s standards, his entire estate was quite expansive. In those days people were more self-sustaining and so they had stations where they (i.e. slaves) made their own tools, grew their own food, tended the animals, docked boats on the river, etc. So they needed a lot of land for all the various needs of a General and President and the many people they would host over the years.

After DC, I drove to Philly, then to Pittsburgh, Kalamazoo, MI, and then Chicago where I stayed with my aunt and sister for four days and then I flew to Minneapolis for a conference. Below is a link to all the pictures that I took on my trip both on the West and East coasts. I will post Part 2 in the next day or so to summarize my thoughts on turning 30 and what might be the close of one chapter of my life to begin the next chapter.

Road Trip Pictures

I put together some clips from my first night at the Grand Canyon. I’ll post more video over the next day. Enjoy!

Caleb overlooking the LA skyline at the observatory

At the moment, I’m chilling at the McDonald’s just outside of the Grand Canyon. I’m about to leave, but before I talk about the experience here, I will describe my stay in LA.

On Thursday I hung out with my brother and he took me around the city. We first went and grabbed a bite at El Pollo Loco, where the burrito and churros I had were pretty good. We then took a stroll through Beverly Hills where I took liberty to snap pictures of the houses that I liked. No one seemed to mind.

After Beverly Hills we went through the UCLA campus to see what it’s like to live as a Bruin. The campus is beautiful, but in my opinion not quite as nice as the University of Washington. There were some students floating around, but I don’t think the main Fall session had started yet. We also drove through South Central to see a different kind of neighborhood. South Central of course has a reputation of being a less desirable place to live. From what I hear there is a valid reason for the rep. But I was able to see Crenshaw which is a pretty famous street in South Central. We could have went through Compton or Watts during the day, but we didn’t have time. You wouldn’t want to drive through either of those places at night. And there are some areas where I as a younger black male would never want to drive through. My brother said there’s a really good mexican restaurant in the midst of an area controlled by latino gangs that really don’t get along with blacks. He’d like to eat there, but it’s just not worth the risk. “Would you like a bullet with your burrito homes?” No thanks!

After driving through South Central, we made a brief trip through the USC campus before heading to Venice Beach as things were winding down. Venice Beach was okay, but I thought the real treat was going up to the Observatory at night and viewing the large glowing expanse of LA. It was a truly spectacular view and I would highly recommend taking trip there if you’re in LA.

And that was my one day whirlwind tour of LA. But as interesting as LA was, it cannot compare to the experience of the Grand Canyon. Little did I know what awaited me on Friday evening. I will post about that experience either tonight or tomorrow morning.