Light Pollution on the Clouds

Tonight, as I was driving back to Lincoln from Fremont, I noticed a strange glow in the sky. I first noticed it on the highway right outside of Fremont, it was red-ish, but thin and not bright. I wondered if it was from the lights from Wahoo, and wondered less if it was from the lights from Lincoln. After driving through Wahoo, and Ceresco, I still saw the glow, but it was stronger, and I could see the outlines of some clouds in it. It was also larger. Apparently I was still approaching whatever was causing this glow.

Then, as I was approaching Lincoln (the last 2-3 miles outside of the city), I was about 99% sure that the lights in Lincoln were causing the glow. And the song God of This City started playing. (The song is at the end of this post.) So, as I was singing the chorus (Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city) and approaching Lincoln, I started to see the lights from the city. It was pretty magnificent.

And it was in that moment, or one of them near that one, that I felt something with God that I have missed for quite a while, I think. That feeling where God just shows you something you didn't expect, through a method you didn't expect, in a place you didn't expect. And He showed me that some of the greatest things that happen in a city or town are not the things that are written down in the history textbooks. And I realized that my life is one of those things. God has changed my life; He has altered my path to something greater than where I would have been without Him. I realized that some great things have happened in my life and in the lives of my friends, and those things will not be recorded as 'great' but we all know that some of the times we have had together have truly been great.

And I realized that there are still greater things to come, even in the city of Lincoln, even in the cities of Ceresco, Wahoo, and Fremont. Because it isn't about the size of the city, and it isn't about where the city is located geographically. It isn't about the financial status of the city or whether or not the city provides enough light pollution to put a glow on those stratus clouds in those December nights. Great things happening in cities happen because there are two things involved: 1) God, and 2) His people. When God's people are open to doing God's work, and when they are open to God doing His work in their own lives - their own hearts and minds...that is when great things happen.