Weird title, but you need to understand something first, watch this YouTube video, all of it, now.
Now, I've seen only two reactions to this "Oh my goodness this is the greatest thing ever!!!1111 lolz"
However, I fall into the other reactionary camp of "Has someone slipped me LSD?!". It feels like my brain is leaking out of my ears and I'm really not having a good experience.
But, who am I to actually judge this... Creative output? I know from experience that animation and video editing are difficult skills, the last time I did any serious animation I actually wrote computer programs to do most of the animation work! Whatever reaction you have, someone used their creativity and hours of work to present the internet with that little animation.
I have literally written thousands of lines of computer code, almost no one ever sees what I create, my reward is knowing that if I've done my job right no one will ever see what I've done. I take a great amount of pride in this, in fact. It is my job, indeed my joy to write code that is never seen.
See I'm a programmer, I don't work as a programmer, I am one, I just happen to be lucky enough to be paid to do it. Outside work I maintain websites, build little games, write little utilities to make my life easier. I was programming before I had my job, I program outside of my job and no doubt I'll program once I eventually change jobs or retire.
It should be obvious that I have a big passion here, I love finding a way to make code run blisteringly fast. In my current work projects I am rewriting a ten year old system and updating its core, in place. It's slow and used to take several minutes to load, I've got several minutes down to ten seconds at its slowest. I thought that was so cool!
You might not find it cool, but I do and this is my corner of the Internet so, it's cool here in this part.
My point is though we all have things that bring us joy, it might be tea, baking, knitting, cats, swimming, cricket, curling, code or adventure time. It doesn't matter, we were each created to be a unique expression of God's creative output in this world.
Some things we are to bring into the world, some things we are just to appreciate.
Going back to my code for a moment, when I write something fast, elegant and concise I sit back and think "Damn that's cool!" And you know what? So does God!
I went a walk around the village I grew up in last week, it was so still and peaceful that you could hear the maize popping open in the sun. It was as if the world itself was holding its breath, it was amazing. I was delighting in it and I really felt that God was delighting in me delighting in it.
I really believe that God delights in the things we delight in, for instance, if God loves everyone, and we have great relationships with people, does God not too delight in the fact that we do life with each other? Does God not look down upon us and our respective relationships with people, and delight in our time spent together?
If I remark how beautiful or attractive someone is, does God not think "Of course they are! I made them beautiful in my sight! I made your eyes so that you can appreciate their beauty!" if I see beauty in something or someone, God sees in a million times greater than I ever could.
I felt challenged recently in my life, I was reading a book given to me about how God met LA gang members where they’re at and for all their faults God delighted in them and the priests working in the heart of the gang district found something amazing in those involved in shooting others and those in and out of correctional institutions. If God can see something delightful in the most hardened of criminals, if God can take delight in that individual and see something that no-one else can see, some element of goodness, then maybe, just maybe, God can also delight in me.
God says I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, and while I’m not exactly sure what elements of fear were put into me, it’s nice to know I was wonderfully made. I was made to have the friends I do, to enjoy the things I do and to see the world in the way that I do.
I find myself constantly overwhelmed by how delighted God is in me, my friends and my interests. I stop and wonder to myself “What about programming? That’s kinda dull, right?” and I feel as if I’m told “You dummy, I made you to enjoy it, programming is cool, you should try Lisp (XKCD 224)!”, then I watch Adventure Time and get inspired by all the Heroics and adventuring and want to go off on my own adventures and feel nervous and I feel encouraged to “Go and have your own adventure, go! Enjoy!” I’ll text my best friend and I’ll wonder if I talk too much or, perhaps say too much and I’ll feel a reassurance “Didn’t I bring the right people into your life? Go, talk, do life, enjoy!” and I find that I can’t think of something that is good in my life that God doesn’t delight in too.
God delights in all the things I take delight in, even if those things are stupid internet videos about Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows.
God delights in me.
God delights in you!
No comments:
Post a Comment