Why is big bend Important for my Spirituality?

When our attention is scattered over ten thousand things trivialities, when our frenzied pace keeps us spread too thin, What does it mean to truly live?

What I love about the Big Bend National Park is that it is a place where time slows down for me. My wife Rachael and I spent sometime in Big Bend right after Christmas, coming over to the new year. I wanted to slow down and notice things more. Slowing down helps me to pay attention to God's presence!

Going to Big Bend to slow down to pay attention to God's presence is a form of a spiritual pilgrimage. The Eastern Christian theologians talk about 3 stages of the spiritual pilgrimage 1) Purgation 2) Illumination 3) Theosis - Union with Christ.

Purgation is the first stage of purging ourselves of things which separate us from the love of God. Ps 46:10 says, "be still and know I am God." When I am in Houston, I am so focused on things I need to do that it is hard for me to be still, it is hard for me to slow down, it is hard for me to stop and notice. It is like driving a 90 miles per hour through some of the stunning landscapes of southern Utah - I miss all the beauty because I cannot slow down to notice.

Far away from Houston, walking in the trails in Big Bend, hearing the crunch of gravel beneath my feet, feeling the breeze on my face, gazing at the towering red rocks around me, I am purged of my frenzied lifestyle and also my frazzled attention. As this purgation continues, my sense of time slows down, my attention is acutely sensitized, and then I notice more!

What happens when I notice more?

That is when I am illumined with new insights from God reflected in creation. G.K.Chesterton said that the Christian is a kind of a cosmic patriot. When I am in a place like Big Bend, that is when I am reminded that all of the beauty in creation has it origin in God. Big Bend is a place where multiple massive geological forces has created landscapes of unique beauty from limestone mesas to volcanic rocks - all these were created by continental collisions, volcanoes and prehistoric inland seas. The more I understand the geology that created the beauty of Big Bend, the more I appreciate the brilliance of God's creation allowing for a place of such wild beauty to be shaped and sculpted over multiple millennia. And so, adorning the Chestertonian identity of the cosmic patriot, I use the beauty of creation as a fuel to worshiping God, like David does in Psalm 8. In Psalm 8 David said he sees the stars and knows God's majesty, I see the red rocks of Big Bend and know God's majesty. This insight is an illumination that happens after the purging, leading to theosis - union with Christ.

As a follower of Christ, when I go to Big Bend, I don't seek to merely consume an experience. I go there to attune my perception of God's presence. The philosopher-theologian Martin Buber said that all real living is meeting. Big Bend is a place where I learn to really live, because it is a place where I meet Christ from the Gospels uniquely in the context of His beautiful creation. This meeting is the starting point of theosis - the union with Christ.

Augustine says in his confessions, "vast are you O Lord, we are restless until we find our rest in thee." Big Bend this vast meeting space in which I am no longer restless. I am home. I am rested because I am purged of the frenzy of the city. My perception is attuned to enjoying God's cosmos, permeating the glory of His presence. Only then do I truly live!