Clark Byers was a 20th-century American painter. I’m guessing you’ve seen some of his work. He painted barns; not pictures of barns but actual barns.
For over three decades, Mr. Byers painted around 900 barns across 19 states. He would paint the barns free of charge if the owner would allow him to paint these three words on the barn: See Rock City. (Rock City is a tourist attraction on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Clark Byers’ passion was to put the spotlight on one thing, Rock City. I’ve never heard of him painting ‘Clark is a great guy’ on a barn or ‘Honk if you like Clark.’ His paintbrush always pointed in the direction of Rock City.
As Christians, you and I are called to a similar, singular mission. We are to spend a lifetime pointing others in one direction—to an infinitely greater attraction. Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Thy name give glory because of Thy lovingkindness, because of Thy truth (Psalm 115:1).
I think we all struggle with becoming self-consumed – our successes, our defeats, our to-do lists. When that happens, we become the focus, and God is not so important to us. We don’t say that out loud, but that’s how we feel.
It helps for someone to stop us and re-introduce us to the glory and grandeur of our God. We need that reset. 20th-century pastor A.W. Tozer does an outstanding job of doing that in his book The Knowledge of the Holy.
No matter where you find yourself spiritually today, I encourage you to take a few minutes to reflect on the unparalleled greatness of our God.
God is holy. “Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is.”
God is eternal. “The mind looks backward in time until the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future until thought and imagination collapses from exhaustion, and God is at both points, unaffected by either.”
God is infinite. “When we say that God is infinite, we mean that He knows no bounds. Whatever God is and all that God is, He is without limit.”
God is omnipotent. “Since God is also infinite, whatever He has must be without limit, therefore God has limitless power. He is omnipotent.”
God is omnipresent. “God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone.”
God is transcendent. “When we speak of God as transcendent, we mean of course that He is exalted far above the created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it.”
And that’s just the short list of God’s attributes. Still, consider that we live each day as subjects of this holy, eternal, omnipresent, infinite, omnipotent, transcendent God. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty (1 Chronicles 29:11). Oh, and we rebelled against this God, and instead of casting us away forever, He sent His one and only Son to die as a sacrifice for our rebellion, our sin. As Christians, you and I live each day under the banner of this God’s love, not His wrath.
Surely that’s more than enough ‘food for thought’ to stir our hearts to take the spotlight off ourselves and place it where it clearly belongs.
I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you
and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:1-3).
