Between a rock and a hard place

This semester I am taking a geology course that is an overview of the earth’s history and plate tectonics.  I signed up for this class, because my sister (a geology major) said it would be easy.  Well, baby sister was wrong, and I am bogged down in a quagmire of scientific terms that cause my humanities loving soul to wither.  I find that my newly acquired geological vocabulary has found its way into my joke repertoire.   I will spare you my puns about metamorphic rocks and convergent plate boundaries, but let us just say that some of my quips are being taken for granite… get it?

Anyway.  I do not have much love for the study of geology at the moment, but I had to stop and laugh when I read this week’s lectionary psalm passage.  Part of Psalm 95 reads:

“Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

I have a geology test on Wednesday that covers how today’s continents came to be and what geological events took place to make that happen.  I found this Psalm to be an ironic reminder of how little I have actually studied for this test and how much I need to realize how big and awesome God is.  How incredible is it to think that the God of the universe who formed the mountains and the seas, and hold the heights and depths of the earth in God’s hand created me?  It is so easy for me to get caught up in my little college world, and I lose focus of the big picture of why we are put on this earth in the first place.  First and foremost we are to love and praise God in all circumstances.  Then our second duty is to love our neighbors as ourselves.  There are few things in the world that are comparable to losing yourself in God’s wonder and glory when you are standing on a mountain top, or when are showing love to a total stranger or closest friend.  Sometimes it just takes a lame geology textbook to be reminded of this.