God, Outdoors, and Service

I wrote God a letter this morning. About how in the last few days, I haven't been taking enough time to really notice Him and enjoy what He's done. Which for me, starts a downhill spiral - the less I spend quality time with Him, the less I want to. That's a bad direction to be going, until either God gets my attention, or I notice how much I'm missing Him, just by how much less exciting my life becomes (I'm sure God's involved in me noticing that too). And it started me thinking: how exactly does that happen? I've noticed for a long time that it does. But how? Here's what I thought of:

I started thinking about the outdoors. Why is it that I seem to need to be outside, regularly? More specifically, why do I need to spend time with God outdoors? Not because God can only be found outdoors. Not because I can only concentrate on Him outdoors. Neither of those are true - so why? The reason that makes most sense to me is, because outdoors is where I can see the little (and big) things God does for us, not because He had to or is supposed to, but because He loves us. The absolutely absurd - and totally unnecessary - bands of plum and salmon and glowing coals at sunrise. The delicate, pale pink and white striping on the 1/4 inch flower that I nearly squashed by the side of the gravel path at Holmes Lake. The undulating waves of long grass blown by the chilly Nebraskan October winds. The things that remind me, not just my head, but my heart too, that God loves me.

Then service came up. Why is that so important? Not from a standpoint of belief, but from experience - if I'm not active, serving, my own relationship with God suffers. Why's that? I was already thinking about God and the outdoors in the relationship analogy - Pr. Collette's description of it as "God giving me chocolate" comes to mind. Where would that perspective put service? As doing things together - shared activities? If the outdoors fit into the love language "gifts", could this be "quality time?" Maybe - but isn't worship "quality time?" Perhaps it is - but I can hardly see it as doing something together. If the Bible is a love letter, helping an elderly couple move to a new apartment is kayaking in the Boundary Waters together. Or maybe building a treehouse with your dad.

Worship, as quality time, might be a deep conversation. But actually, to think about it, I see that more as prayer - real, two sided prayer. Worship - (not church - which includes worship, and prayer, and...) I see as "words of affirmation". Recognizing and then expressing the good qualities we find in God. And with Him, when we say good, we'd better think amazing or incredible.

I'd bet we could carry it further - link acts of service to God answering prayer, perhaps, or stepping in to answer prayers we didn't pray. Try to figure something out to put for "physical touch," just to round it out. But I'm not going to - for today, I'm enjoying God's gifts to me - I saw the sunrise again this morning, and it's another blue dome and crispy shadows day outside my window. I'm enjoying memories of "kayaking" with Him and looking forward to doing more together soon. Keeping my eyes open for opportunities to worship and affirm. And simply being glad God got my attention again.