I've been trying to make it a point to listen to sermons in the car during my commute to and from school. The idea came out of necessity and example. I feel like throughout the day I'm exposed to too much negative media that can influence my thought life in the wrong way. Also, I have many friends who use their commute to listen to sermons, read the Bible or memorize scripture. (The last two happen if you don't have to drive).

Anyways, so I'm listening to Louie Giglio the other day regarding his sermon on God's holiness and majesty. Isaiah was a prophet who once saw the Lord. And I mean, SAW the Lord. This wasn't just a burning bush that God spoke through, Isaiah describes the Lord as filling the temple and having these 6 winged creatures whose sole purpose and existence was to declare the holiness and greatness of God. At that point, Isaiah knew that he was in trouble. There was no excusing his sin, no finger-pointing or blame-shifting. Isaiah was in deep doo-doo because here he was in the presence of the Almighty and he was guilty.

Louie continues on and tells this 20 minute story about how he loves geography and how he knows so much about this mountain in Washington state: Mount Rainier. In college he studied Mount Rainier so much that he knew all these facts about it. He would pore over maps of Mount Rainier every night, he could impress his geography professor (weird college class to take). After graduation, he and his best friend went on this road trip to Mount Rainier and he thought he was going to be all smooth and slick, impressing his friend with everything that he knew about Mount Rainier. But when he got there, he was so in awe of how huge the mountain was that he couldn't stop crying. The way he tells the story is so comical, it cracks me up everytime.

But the bottom line of it was that God taught Louie in that moment that there's a big fat difference between knowing alot about something, and actually KNOWING it.  Of course, he restates that all he's talking about up to that point is a big mountain of dirt. But the story parallels our relationship with God. I used to pride myself on how much I knew about God. But really, it was just to cover up how well I didn't know God. The first time I heard Louie give that message I broke down in tears afterwards. Because for years I had thought I knew God so well. For example, I could talk about God's holiness until the cows came home. But really, if I truly understood God's holiness... I'd be flat on my face just like Isaiah saying "woe is me. i am ruined. for i am a man of unclean lips"